“I thought somebody that cared about me, didn’t,’’ ex-Red Sox manager Terry Francona tells the Boston Herald’s Michael Silverman. “That hurt.’’ Roughly 8 weeks after unloading to WEEI’s Glen Ordway and Michael Holly about the unseemly manner in which his former employers buried him with the Globe’s Bob Hohler, Tito turns to the Globe’s crosstown rival to object to the club’s callous spin on his final month in charge.

“When the stuff came out about the pills, I felt like ownership was rushing to defend themselves,’’ said Francona. “I wanted someone to defend me. I told (Red Sox  president and CEO) Larry (Lucchino), ‘Larry, you’re so worried what I’m going to think or someone else thinks, how do you think I feel?’ He was actually pretty good about it. He said, ‘I completely understand that.’

“On the flip side, I called (principal owner) John Henry seven or eight times. Never heard from him. I have not talked to John since the day I left. It makes you kind of understand where you stood.’’

“After awhile, I wanted somebody to sit down and go, ‘Hey man, these are the people you just spent eight years with,’ as opposed to worrying more about the press release. But, that’s probably why it was time to move on — in a nutshell.’