Former Red Sox manager Terry Francona interviewed for the St. Louis Cardinals' managerial job, and he was a dark-horse candidate for the vacant Chicago Cubs opening. I'd also like to think he was a super-duper dark-horse candidate for the vacant Red Sox job. But instead Francona will be attached to every opening that comes up during next season because he's going to sit the 2012 season out. From Sean McAdam of CSNNE.com:

"I need to take a step back and re-energize. That's probably in my best interest right now. In fairness to myself, it's the best thing to do.''

This was the offseason if he wanted a job with a historic franchise that was willing to spend money on players, but I'll bet some time off sounds pretty good to him right now.

Francona was let go by the Red Sox after a disappointing 90-win season in which he ordered Jonathan Papelbon to suck against the Orioles, and told Carl Crawford repeatedly that he shouldn't hit or catch low line drives.