Terry Francona didn’t sleep well after Tuesday night’s loss to the Chicago Cubs in Game 6 of the World Series.
But the loss wasn’t the only reason for his restless sleep.
The culprits: a television remote and a jar of peanut butter.
“I was having a nightmare that somebody was breaking my ribs,” Francona said just before the Indians and Cubs took the field for the winner-take-all Game 7.
“I woke up and my ribs hurt. I kind of got scared. And I felt there, and the remote was like — the TV remote was like stuck in my rib cage. Evidently I had slept on it for a couple hours. I got up to go to the bathroom and, I mean, it hurt.
“It’s not easy being manager. My bedroom looked like a national disaster last night. I’m going to have to change a few habits when we’re done here.”
One of those habits might be eating in bed. Francona revealed had been dipping pretzels into a jar of peanut butter, and he got peanut butter on his glasses.
“I go straight home and I hit the bed and everything’s laid out next to me,” Francona said. “And I fell asleep at some point while eating. I wake up sometimes in the middle of the night and I’ll just reach over and grab something. It’s, unfortunately, it’s true.”
What was Francona watching when he went to bed? “I was actually watching Clinton and Hillary — you finish the sentence, not me,” he said.
As for Cubs manager Joe Maddon, he, too, was was watching election coverage. However, he had no problems sleeping through the night.
“I’m a good sleeper,” Maddon said. “I sleep well. Fell asleep watching more about the election. In the beginning I couldn’t get enough of it, then I wanted to get away from it, now it’s becoming I’ve got to listen again. I don’t watch the sports stuff. I watch the news, and that’s how I pass out.
“I’m good at sleeping. I’m really good at sleeping. I actually took a little bit of a nap before I came here, too. So that’s not my worry in the sense that I don’t sleep. You’ve just got to get your rest this time of the year. I’ve gotten away from my workout program, which is my fault, the last couple days or weeks, but the sleep part of it’s really important. So I’m actually pretty good at that.”
