I’ve met Joe Maddon twice, briefly, and found him amiable, giving and an overall groovy dude. There’s a cool story on the Rays manager in the Oct. 6 issue of Sports Illustrated. Every Rays fan should read it, even if you’ve checked out all the local press on Joe.
Written by Stephen Cannella, it’s a full profile on the Tampa Bay skipper, to check it out, click here.
In case you can't read the piece now, here's a couple of tidbits. Let's start with the best line in the story:
"With all due respect to the Republican presidential ticket, your best chance to see a maverick in action this fall may be to follow the Rays … "
Maddon's eyeglasses are by Hugo Boss.
He bikes 5-10 miles most days.
He was way ahead of the pack on statistical analysis in baseball, carrying a laptop two decades ago when, Cannella writes, "computers were rarer in clubhouses than Pavarotti cassettes."
As a minor league coach for the Angels, he came up with his own stats, one of them being "jug runs," which are runs that go for the jugular, increasing a lead in the late innings to put a game out of reach.
Maddon's father Joe changed the family name from Maddoninnni.
There's a lot more in the SI piece. It's a good read. I strongly urge you check it out.
This article appears in Oct 8-14, 2008.