John Farrell

Sports Speaker John Farrell recently won his first Major League Baseball World Series as the manager for the Boston Red Sox. He won his first ever World Series with the team in 2007 as a pitching coach under then manager Terry Francona. John’s experience has made him a great manager from when he began his career as a player and also worked as a director of player development along with his coaching and managerial gigs.

John was a second round selection by the Cleveland Indians in 1984, after attending Oklahoma State University. He worked his way into the starting rotation by 1987 and enjoyed success before a series of right elbow injuries forced him to take time to heal and miss the 1991 and 1992 season. He would play again for the California Angels and the Detroit Tigers before retiring from pitching after nine years in the MLB. He returned to his college alma mater and joined the baseball staff there as an assistance coach and pitching coordinator also in charge of recruiting for the team. He left Oklahoma State to become the director of player development for his former team the Indians for five years. During his tenure there Baseball America named Cleveland the top farm system in the MLB before joining former Indian teammate Terry Francona with the Red Sox as pitching coach in 2006.

John wanted to test the managerial waters and was named the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2010, beating out the other finalists for the job of Brian Butterfield, Sandy Alomar, Jr. and DeMarlo Hale. After a decent tenure there, John would return to the Red Sox in 2012 as manager and coached the team to a World Series victory in his first year as manager. Sporting News named him the 2013 A.L. Manager of the Year after his incredible season which looks to be just the beginning of a successful run for the Red Sox manager and ever-dangerous Red Sox organization.