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Spring, 1991. For the first time in his adult life, Terry Francona wasn’t playing baseball. Since retiring from the St. Louis Cardinals organization a few months earlier, Francona remained in Tucson with his wife and three young children.

The 1980 college baseball Player of the Year — Francona led Arizona to the 1980 College World Series championship — took a real estate class at the UA. He was certified as a high school basketball referee and worked games in gyms from Benson High School to Salpointe Catholic.

I phoned him one day and asked if he had any plans to return to baseball in some capacity. “Let’s just say I was like a fish out of water in those real estate classes,� he said. “All I’ve ever done is play baseball.� Francona said that, if possible, he would like to coach.

Five months later, the Chicago White Sox hired Francona to manage the South Bend White Sox, their Single-A affiliate. A star was born.

Last week, Francona managed the 2,000th victory of his major league career. He is the 13th man to do so, a baseball statistic that is the equivalent of hitting 500 home runs or a pitcher winning 300 games. It’s automatic Hall of Fame territory. He is in the company of Walter Alston, Sparky Anderson, Connie Mack, Leo Durocher and a handful of immortal baseball names.

Now 66, Francona has won two World Series championships, managed the All-Star Game and, in a few brief periods while out of baseball, spent time as a TV analyst for ESPN and Fox. True to his UA roots, Francona sits on the front row at McKale Center, the most visible face of 14,466 fans at UA basketball games.

His first game as an MLB manager, April 1, 1997, was not an April Fool’s joke. He led the Philadelphia Phillies over the Dodgers, 4-3, in Los Angeles. One of the Dodgers players was Chip Hale, now Arizona’s baseball coach. The first base umpire was Tucsonan Larry Poncino. Francona’s connections run deep.

Along his extraordinary baseball journey, Francona managed ex-Wildcat teammate Ed Vosberg, a pitcher from Salpointe Catholic, as well as other UA standouts J.T. Snow, Brian Anderson and Preston Guilmet.

My favorite Francona memory came on a Monday evening, Nov. 28, 1994, at Hi Corbett Field. At the time, Francona was commuting daily from Tucson to Scottsdale to manage the Scottsdale Scorpions in the Arizona Fall League. Ordinarily, the Arizona Fall League draws few eyes, but in 1994, the Scorpions’ left fielder was Michael Jordan. Yes, THAT Michael Jordan. The management of the Tucson Toros arranged for the Scorpions to play a regular-season game against the Tempe Rafters in Tucson. All 7,836 tickets were sold out four days in advance. Fans started lining up at ticket gates at 3:30 p.m., three hours before the first pitch.

It was all about Jordan, of course. He would go 2 for 4 and steal two bases as the Scorpions won 4-2, but I thought it was Francona who won the day.

Two hours before the game, Francona walked into the first base dugout and held an impromptu press conference. About 20 media people surrounded him. He spoke of Jordan at length, about his fond days playing for the Wildcats and that someday, if it all worked out, he hoped to be a big league manager.

“That’s a 100-to-1 shot,� Francona said. “When you get in this business, you really understand how many cards have to line up to get a crack at managing in the big leagues — and staying there. I’m 35. I’m going to give it my best shot.�

The 100-to-1 shot came through. After 2,000 big league victories, the man who once officiated high school basketball games in Benson and Tombstone is destined for the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.