CLEVELAND - In two seasons, Terry Francona helped turn the Cleveland Indians back into contenders.Hell get more time to make them champions.Francona and the Indians agreed Tuesday to a two-year contract extension, a deal which carries through the 2018 season and includes team options for 2019 and 2020.Financial terms of the extension were not immediately known.Francona has been worth every penny since the Indians hired him following a disastrous, 94-loss season in 2012. Hes helped reshape the teams culture, infused enthusiasm into the organization and made Cleveland a more attractive destination for free agents. Players want to play for Francona.As excited as we were on the day we hired him, were even more excited today, having the benefit of working alongside him for the last two years, said general manager Chris Antonetti, who believes Francona can help sell the Indians to free agents. If you survey the player community, Tito is as well regarded as any manager for the environment he creates in the clubhouse and how much players enjoy and respect playing for him.The Indians approached Francona about the extension late last season, and it didnt take the sides long to reach an agreement.I always wanted to be part of the solution, Francona said. I just didnt want to come for a few years and move on. That was never my goal. I wanted to come and stay.The Indians have gone 177-147 under Francona, who won two World Series titles with the Boston Red Sox. The Indians went 92-70 in Franconas first season, winning a wild-card spot and making the post-season for the first time since 2007. He was named AL manager of the year.Francona may have actually done a better job in 2014.Despite injuries, trades, a leaky defence and sub-par seasons from several key players, Francona kept the Indians in the wild-card race. He was forced at times to play several rookies, but Francona was able to mix and match lineups and he got the most out of his bullpen.The Indians finished 85-77 and dropped to third in the AL Central. However, Francona had the Indians close until the final weekend and the club finished with consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 2000-01.I think the job he did this past season was equally as good, if not better than the job he did in 2013, Antonetti said. I think that consistency in the way he approaches each day allows him to be able to maintain that success year after year.Since 2004, Franconas teams have posted 10 consecutive winning seasons. Francona has endeared himself to his players with his openness and honesty, and the man known as Tito has become popular with Cleveland fans.Franconas extension coincides with the Indians locking up several young players to long-term deals. Over the past year, the club has signed All-Star outfielder Michael Brantley, second baseman Jason Kipnis and catcher Yan Gomes to multi-year contracts, giving Francona a strong nucleus of players to build around.Were not the finished product and we know it, Francona said. Were not sitting here patting ourselves on the back. But from where we were when I first came on board to where we are now, were getting better. We still want to get a lot better, but were going in the right direction and we have some players — a core group of guys who are not only good players but exceptional people and that bodes well for us.Francona said the negotiation with Antonetti was pretty simple, once they got past an early hurdle.Chris asked me to send him a contract proposal, Francona said. I thought about it for a couple days and I emailed him and I said, Chris, before I can send you a proposal, you need to write me and tell me what Im making now because I didnt know. On one hand, thats not terribly intelligent on my part. On the other hand, I think it shows that once I sign a contract Im comfortable, I dont look back.And thats where I wanted to be with this one, too. I told him, Chris this is sort of a funny way of saying, once I sign it, I dont really care anymore. I want to do baseball.Francona has won at least 90 games seven times and managed in the playoff six times.Francona has a career record of 1,206-1,062. Hes fourth among active managers in career wins behind San Franciscos Bruce Bochy (1,618), the Los Angeles Angels Mike Scioscia (1,331) and Baltimores Buck Showalter (1,259). Cheap Cincinnati Bengals Gear . 1-9 on TSN. With more than 65 hours of exclusive live coverage, TSN delivers all the action beginning with Draw 1 on Saturday, Feb. 1 at 2 p. Wholesale Cincinnati Bengals Jerseys . - Veteran Kings defenceman Robyn Regehr, sidelined since Game 1 of the Anaheim series, says hes close to returning. http://www.cheapbengals.com/. -- Michael Phelps is 0 for 1 in his comeback to the pool. Stitched Cincinnati Bengals Jerseys . -- Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw was placed on the 15-day disabled list Saturday for the first time in his seven-year career because of a swollen muscle in his left upper back. Cincinnati Bengals Jerseys China . The person spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcement was made. By releasing Bailey, the Broncos would open up cap space with the 12-time Pro Bowl player scheduled to make around $10 million next season.Next time you are watching a game and think to yourself, that was a bad goal, the goalie has to have that shot, you may very well be 100 per cent correct, but you also may be completely wrong, based on some underlying factors. Keep in mind a few things that are true when it comes to goaltending; physics and positioning, sometimes they both factor in to make a shot literally impossible to stop. I was doing colour commentary for the Pittsburgh-Ottawa game the other day and on the winning goal with under two minutes left that beat Craig Anderson, (a slapshot from just inside the face-off dot by Christian Ehrhoff), there was a defensive breakdown that allowed Ehrhoff to walk right downtown, tee it up and hammer it top shelf. Anderson did what he could to play the percentages on the shot, going into the butterfly, staying upright, and trying to make himself as big as possible. He was beaten by a great shot, but he also really had no chance to physically stop it if it didnt hit him. I have been working with a brilliant physicist named Alain Hache (who is the author of the Physics of Hockey) and he has done some terrific work regarding the science of the speed of the puck coming at goalies and the subsequent reaction time they have to make the save. I have tried to pick his enormous brain as to enlighten me with the other side of goaltending and he has done a great job of helping break down some physics that come with velocity of shots. This is a general thought process, but from a reaction standpoint, the average reaction time is 0.2 seconds. Now you have to factor in the distance where the shot comes from and the velocity (how hard the shot is) to see whether there is sufficient time to react to the puck, or if positioning is the only hope for the save. Lets take that Christian Ehrhoff goal on Craig Anderson as an example. Anderson was at the top of his crease which was about six feet away from his goal line. Ehrhoff was just inside the faceoff dot and around 18-20 feet away in total distance. For this equation, lets round up and say 20 feet for clear numbers. If he shoots the puck at 80mph, which is likely based on how much time he had to walk into to it and how hard hhe shoots the puck (this is on the low end of how hard I think he shot it), the reaction time would be counted as this: 80mph from 20ft away = a reaction time of - 0.dddddddddddd17seconds. So given this formula, with that shot by Ehrhoff, Anderson wouldve had 0.17 seconds to make that save, and if the average athlete reacts at a rate of 0.2 seconds, what we are seeing is a shot that was unstoppable based on sheer reaction time. Now this is where positioning factors in because if Anderson had taken some ice for himself, he would at least get an opportunity to be hit by the puck. Had the shot only been 60mph, the reaction time would be 0.23, which, in turn, is not much more time for Anderson to read/react, but if he anticipates and reacts properly, he at least has a chance to stop it, given he is in the same position in net. If this had been Zdeno Chara or Shea Weber firing it from there, hitting that 100mph neighbourhood, good luck. Thats where you have to hope that it hits you, because with that scenario, you only have 0.14 seconds to react to a 100mph slapshot from that distance. The scary part with all of these reaction time scenarios is that in this case, it was a clear shot by Ehrhoff. There wasnt any potential screens/tips, you didnt have to fight through bodies or legs to track the puck, you didnt have to worry about a potential pass scenario where there are options for the shooter to factor in on your depth in the crease; all the checklist things that have to be considered in that initial read of the play that a goalie has to process in a split second. Keep in mind as well when the using this formula, the distance is calculated from when the goalie first tracks the puck, meaning if the puck is shot from the point but the goalie doesnt see it until it goes by, lets say a high screen in the slot, then the formula begins with the distance between the goalie and when he first sees it, not from where the puck originates. So the next time you see a shot that goes in, and your initial thought is stoppable puck from that distance, there just may be some underlying science that factors in on the goal that helps explain why the goalie was late to react. 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