Joe Maddon Hopes He And Rick Renteria Can Be Friends

Chicago Cubs‘ manager Joe Maddon expressed an interest this week in forming a friendship with the man he ousted for that position, Rick Renteria.

Joe Maddon is generally perceived to be a really smart dude around MLB circles. He also seems personable and generally well-liked. As such, he probably has no trouble making friends. When it comes to striking up a new friendship, however, he might want to reconsider in this particular case.

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Maddon was asked this week about former Cubs’ manager Rick Renteria, the man he unseated to take the job. That move was generally regarded with mixed reactions around the league, but one thing seems certain: it had to make Renteria upset. Even still, Maddon seems to think that he and Renteria could somehow come out on the other side of this thing as friends (quotes from CSN Chicago):

"The one thing that bothered me the most was that. It’s almost a Utopian situation for me. I’m a baseball-lifer myself. I get it. I didn’t like what had happened to Rick personally, but again that was not my decision to make. In the future I’d like to be able to sit down and talk with him and hopefully we can become friends because I don’t really know Rick but we have some common buds, Buddy Black being one of them and I have heard nothing but wonderful things about him."

No, Joe. Just no.

Here’s the especially tone-deaf thing about these comments: Rick Renteria is a baseball-lifer too. This was probably his dream job too, maybe even a “Utopian situation” for him. So to justify it that way is just plain arrogant.

There is no way that this part of things plays well, so Maddon just needs to let this one go and chalk it up as the cost of doing business.

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