You love baseball. Tim Kurkjian loves baseball. So while we await its return, every day we'll provide you with a story or two tied to this date in baseball history.

ON THIS DATE IN 1959, Tito Francona was born.

Francona is perhaps the game's best manager, a certain Hall of Famer. He's so good, in part, because no one is better with people of all kinds, especially his players, than Tito, which is his nickname because that was his father's nickname. For a guy who has no sense of direction, he has an amazing sense of place and time. He is the master of defusing difficult situations, easing tension, which he often does through humor.

In the Red Sox's cramped interview room many years ago, a Japanese reporter tried to ask a question in English about pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. The poor reporter, God bless him, was trying so hard, but in his broken English, it took nearly a minute to ask one question, which made everyone in the room uneasy. When the reporter finally finished, Francona said, "You're Western Pennsylvania, aren't you?" That, of course, is where Francona is from.

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Francona's first assignment with ESPN was the Bus Tour in spring training 2012, ESPN had us stay at Camp Wilderness, which was a Disney property, literally in the woods. The rooms were individual log cabins, with bunk beds, as if we were Cub Scouts. After 10 incredulous minutes, thinking ESPN was playing a joke on him, Francona called my cabin and asked, "Do want to come over, we'll go out in the back and make some s'mores?"

The funniest spring of my life continued two days later at Yankees camp with Tito as a working member of the media. "I was dressed in a Today's Man, $89 suit, pin-striped," Tito said. "It's the first time that I have ever said 'Good luck this year' to [then-Yankees manager] Joe Girardi and meant it. It was weird. I threw that suit in the trash can that night."

One of my dogs is named Tito. I told Francona.

"I bet he poops all over the house," he said.

Tito drives his scooter to and from the ballpark every day. One day, he gave me a ride.

"Now this is 'Dumb and Dumber'!" he said

I once asked Tito how bad the Phillies were when he managed them (1997-2000).

"We were so bad and, and we were so young," he said. "I was trying to teach them how to win, and how to be professionals. My closer was Wayne Gomes. Great kid, but so young with so much to learn. So I bring him in from the bullpen in the ninth inning, and he gets to the mound and he has mustard all over his jersey. I screamed, "Gomesy, what are you doing? You can't come into a game with mustard on your jersey!' He said, 'Tito, it wasn't me. Some people in the stands threw hot dogs at me when I was leaving the bullpen.'"

Then Tito laughed.

"And we were at home," he said.

The 2016 Indians, under Francona, nearly won the World Series, losing in extra innings of Game 7 to the Cubs. Soon after that loss, Francona had hip surgery.

"When I woke up," he said, "I was still groggy from the anesthesia, I thought we won."

Other baseball notes from April 22

• In 1970, pitcher Tom Seaver set a major league record, which still exists, with 10 consecutive strikeouts. They were the last 10 batters of the game.

• In 1988, second baseman Dee Gordon was born. Several years ago, he playfully told me, "I am the best basketball player in the major leagues. I can dunk any way you like; I can go by anyone; and I can shoot the NBA 3."

• In 2007, the Red Sox, managed by Tito Francona, hit four consecutive homers in one inning -- by Manny Ramirez, J.D. Drew, Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek -- off the Yankees' Chase Wright. The Red Sox became the first team since the 1963 Indians to hit four consecutive home runs in one inning. The fourth one that day in the '60s was hit by ... Francona's father, Tito. The first time it had been done was in 1961 by the Braves. Joe Torre hit one of them. And he was Chase Wright's manager on the Yankees.

• In 2014, Albert Pujols became the first player ever to hit his 499th and 500th home run in the same game.

• In 1966, second baseman Mickey Morandini was born. He is one of 15 players to turn an unassisted triple play. He did so in 1992. "Before the pitch," Pirates third-base coach Rich Donnelly said, "I heard Mickey yell to the other infielders, 'OK guys, let's get three.'"