Joe Gilhousen, Greater Canton baseball icons, weigh in on replacing Terry Francona

Count Joe Gilhousen among baseball lifers who marveled at Terry Francona doing more with less.

Count Gilhousen among those who wish Francona could have managed the Cleveland Guardians another year.

"They're going to miss him," said Gilhousen, who coached GlenOak to high school state championships in 1995 and '96. "I think he's going to be really hard to replace."

Gilhousen has followed Francona for a long time. He was a young head coach at GlenOak in 1980 when he happened to be at a convention where Francona was named 1980 recipient of USA Baseball's Golden Spikes Award.

Gilhousen saw Francona as one a few people, maybe the only one, who could have turned Cleveland's circumstances into consistent winning.

Gilhousen's favorite manager from across the years?

"Terry Francona is probably at the top of my list," Gilhousen said. "It's going to be suspect to see how the new manager meshes with the players who are there, and the players who have had some success.

"And let's face it, they need to get a little more firepower in that lineup. I don't know how you do that with the way they operate."

Gilhousen was a neighborhood friend of Thurman Munson before they were Canton Lehman High School and Kent State University teammates. Munson went on to stardom with the New York Yankees while Gilhousen forged a long run as a Canton Class A League power hitter.

Gilhousen was head coach at Oakwood before it merged into GlenOak. By the time he left, he had 575 wins and 17 Federal League championships. He grew up glued to Cleveland baseball and follows the team closely now.

"MLB is a whole different thing than dealing with 15-, 16-, 17-year-old high school kids," he said. "Francona got what the players had to give. That's important no matter what level you're coaching.

"I think he was able to strike a balance between analytics and going with your gut, relying on the experience of thousands of games.

"Cleveland's front office is very anaytically driven. I'm sure whoever they bring in will have to be willing to go with the program."

Gilhousen, 75, added, "He probably wants to get himself healthy so he can enjoy his remaining years. I can understand that."

Another local baseball lifer, John Massarelli, spent 25 years in pro baseball and has lots of stories.

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Francona had bad knees and stole 12 bases in 707 big-league games. In 120 games with the Oscealo Astros (Houston affiliate) in 1990, Massarelli stole 54 bases and was caught stealing six times. Teammate Kenny Lofton stole 62 bases but was caught 16 times.

Massarelli logged 17 years as a minor league player and coach. Now he operates Massarelli Baseball, geared toward travel-ball youth players, in Akron and Bolivar.

He said whomever replaces Francona needs to rest up.

"Managing isn't deciding whether to bring in the righty or the lefty," said Massarelli, 57. "It's trying to get 25 young adult athletes going in the same direction. It takes a toll.

"Francona is one of the best to ever do it. He's older than I am. I was 50 when I said, 'I just don't want to do it any more.'

"Granted, he was doing charter flights, and I was doing bus rides to Winnipeg, but it's 12-hour days for sixth months, and it just starts to wear on you.

"I enjoyed the games. I loved it when 7 o'clock happened. I totally relate to what Francona has said about the grind."

Doug Miller, whose Central Catholic and East Canton teams have won 768 games in his 40 years as a high school head coach, follows Cleveland baseball closely and sees hope after Francona.

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"They just do such a great job of drafting and developing players," said Miller, whose favorite Cleveland manager is Francona, followed by Mike Hargrove.

Former Jackson and Malone oufielder Rob Dewolf played his way to Class AAA ball, where he was a teammate of Sandy Alomar. A former all-star catcher for Cleveland who has been a long-time coach with the team, Alomar has declined to be part of the interview process.

Dewolf thinks Alomar would be a good manager, but he questions how much fun the job can be these days.

Dewolf has stayed in touch with a friend who managed him in the pros.

"He told me about things that have changed," Dewolf said. "One time he went off in the locker room one time because he thought the players deserved it. That got him chastised by the farm director, who told him, 'We can't treat these young men like that.'"

The inference: Today's players tend to be coddled.

"I can only imagine what it's like at the big league level now," Dewolf said. "Earl Weaver would never get a job."

Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: The challenge of replacing Terry Francona as Guardians manager