Terry Francona, the college Player of the Year in 1980, can now be seen on ESPN. Photo by Eric Hartline-US PRESSWIRE

Former Arizona All-American outfielder Terry Francona, fired as the Boston Red Sox manager, will be joining ESPN for next season, joining an impressive cast of ex-Cats in the media world.

Francona’s multiple duties will include joining the crew of Baseball Tonight and working as an analyst for Sunday Night Baseball, essentially switching jobs with Bobby Valentine, who replaced Francona as the Red Sox manager.

Francona, with his mix of humor, storytelling ability and honesty, should be brilliant in his new role.

He joins a few other ex-Cats at ESPN — NFL analysts Tedy Bruschi and Antonio Pierce, and college basketball analyst Miles Simon.

The most visible Wildcat on TV could be Steve Kerr, who made a big name as a five-time NBA champion and the general manager of the Phoenix Suns. He returned last season to the lead NBA analyst role for TNT.

Kerr is also appearing on TNT’s show “Open Court” — a roundtable open-forum discussion with Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Webber, Steve Smith, Reggie Miller and host Ernie Johnson.

Kerr, in a Q&A with SLAMonline.com, said he remembered a story from his playing days that he wished he had told on the show:

“We did a segment on trash talking. And I had forgotten until after the show that when Michael (Jordan) was playing with the (Washington) Wizards and I was with the (San Antonio) Spurs. It was the last year of my career and his. We ended up matched up with each other in transition in a cross-match. I got the ball isolated with him. I yelled out to my teammates, ‘I got a little one, clear out!’ And Michael started laughing because it was so preposterous. I started laughing and there was a picture in the paper the next day of him guarding me and both of us just cracking up laughing. (Laughs) And that was a really fun moment that the average fan doesn’t hear much about. I actually kicked myself the next day for not recounting the story on the show.”

Other prominent former Wildcats in the media business are Glenn Parker (college football analyst for Versus, which is soon to be rebranded as the NBC Sports Network), Joe Magrane (MLB Network), Sean Elliott (San Antonio Spurs telecasts), Tom Tolbert (sports talk show host with KNBR in the Bay Area) … and UA grad Dan Hicks is one of NBC’s announcing stars.

Former UA linebacker Antonio Pierce, here celebrating the New York Giants' victory in Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, will have new duties in front of the camera this season.
Photo by John David Mercer, US Presswire

NOTE: This is part of the weekly “Nothing But The Notes” column at WildcatSportsReport.com, one of the partners in the TucsonCitizen.com Sports Network. For notes on basketball recruiting, incoming freshman guard Daniel Bejarano, sophomore big man Kyryl Natyazhko and more, check out the link at WildcatSportsReport.com.

Now-retired New York Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce announced last week he is joining ESPN as an analyst, yet another ex-Wildcat in a prominent TV role.

Tedy Bruschi joined ESPN after retiring last summer, former Suns general manager Steve Kerr will become a lead NBA game analyst for TNT next season, Glenn Parker is a college football analyst for Versus, and Joe Magrane works for the MLB Network.

Moreover, UA grad Dan Hicks is one of NBC’s announcing stars. Sean Elliott was at ESPN for a while; now he works on local San Antonio Spurs telecasts. Tom Tolbert was an NBA analyst with NBC, ABC and ESPN (he was part of the broadcasting team of the 2003 NBA Finals with Brad Nessler and Bill Walton) before becoming solely a radio personality in San Francisco.

Miles Simon, after his contract as an assistant Arizona basketball coach was not renewed in the summer of 2008, worked last season as a college basketball analyst for Fox Sports Net.

All in all, an impressive roster of ex-Cats in the TV biz.

Who’s your TV favorite? Anybody we missed? …

Quick story about Pierce: Many UA fans noticed over the years that he often did not say he was from Arizona during the TV introductions players do at the start of games. He often identified himself as being from Mount San Antonio (Calif.) College.

“To be honest, I won a national championship there when I was in junior college, so I like to give respect to those guys,” he said at the 2008 Super Bowl Media Day. “I keep in touch with a lot more guys from my junior college than I do from the University of Arizona, oddly enough. That’s the only reason.”

Pierce always had a chip on his shoulder that he didn’t get the starting middle linebacker job as a senior in 2000. The position went to sophomore Lance Briggs, and Pierce felt the supposed slight contributed to him going undrafted in 2001.

But the bigger problem came when Dick Tomey was fired after the season, and — according to Pierce — new coach John Mackovic failed to offer support to the outgoing seniors and talk them up to the NFL scouts.

“It was kind of hectic when, what’s his name, Mackovic, came,” Pierce said in 2008.

“He was pretty much a you-know-what toward the former players. I couldn’t play for that guy. I understand — we’re leaving the school and we’re not going to do nothing for you. But, at the same time, we’ve been there two, three years and we can’t use the weight room at a certain time? We can’t use the grass? They couldn’t unlock the gates (to the practice field) so we could work out?”

Just another wonderful Mackovic story. …

What the Arizona softball team needs most of all for next season is a strong No. 2 pitcher to take the physical and mental pressure off sophomore-to-be Kenzie Fowler. That help should come in the form of incoming freshman Shelby Babcock, who told us recently that she will be attending the second session of summer school to get acclimated to college and begin her Arizona career.

Whereas last season’s No. 2 pitcher, Sarah Akamine, relied on movement and a drop ball, Babcock gives the Wildcats another power pitcher. “I’m consistently at 68 (mph),” she said. “I hit 71 once.” And that is definitely elite speed. Babcock, from Broomfield, Colo., said, “Arizona had been my dream school since Day 1 of playing softball. When I went down there I fell in love with it.” …

Beyond Fowler and Babcock, Arizona’s next-in-line star pitcher is Nancy Bowling, who was recently selected the Sophomore Player of the Year in California by Cal-Hi Sports. Bowling was 18-5 at Royal High in Simi Valley, with a 0.58 ERA. She struck out 268 in 156 2/3 innings.

Read the rest of the “Nothing but the Notes” column at WildcatSportsReport.com.