How Joe Maddon became the most awesome manager in baseball

By Will Osgood | Apr 12, 2015

Nov 3, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; (Editor's Note: Caption Correction) Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon speaks during a press conference at the Cubby Bear Lounge near Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports /

Joe Maddon has become the best manager in baseball, and it’s no accident how he got there.

Joe Maddon quipped at a Chicago area charity event on Wednesday night after his Chicago Cubs had earned their first victory of the season, that his team was the best 1-1 team in the majors. That’s perhaps the most Joe Maddon thing ever quipped — and it’s one of them any reasons he’s the most awesome manager in baseball.

Maddon is just beginning his career as the Cubs’ manager after a wildly successful eight-year run leading the previously defunct Tampa Bay Rays. Yet just a few games in and he is already the most popular manager in Cubs history. Truth be told, he is the most popular manager in all of baseball presently.

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Players love him. The media loves him. Fans cannot get enough of him.What is it that makes Joe Maddon so popular?

It would seem to be the same thing that makes him such a successful manager. Unlike many managers in today’s game, Maddon has a unique ability to balance sound baseball strategy with the ability to understand his players and relate to them.

As an example, Maddon has begun his first season managing in the National League by reorienting his batting lineup so that the pitcher hits eighth instead of the customary final spot in the order. While that is no guarantee of an altogether better batting order, it exemplifies Maddon’s out of the box thinking, which characterized his run in Tampa Bay, where he took an average roster with few stars to a World Series appearance in 2008 and four playoff appearances in eight seasons.

Speaking of his ability to relate to players, Maddon hired a DJ the same day the Cubs announced they were sending Kris Bryant and Javier Baez to the minor leagues to start the 2015 season. It may have been coincidence or a well calculated plan to ease his player’s minds as the media critiqued the organization’s decision to basically delay the future that has been talked about for so long.

Knowing how Maddon operates though, this DJ thing was probably going to happen regardless of how the Kris Bryant situation was handled. Maddon was known in Tampa for giving his players opportunities to exhibit their personalities, in much the same way that he exhibits his own. Just one example of such thing in Tampa Bay was the annual tradition he established of having rookies dress up. Last September, the Rays rookies dressed up as Mario Bros characters.

But Maddon is not known only for these idiosyncratic procedures but for posting philosophical type quotes on bulletin boards in the clubhouse. The type of quote he would post is similar to one he uttered in his introductory press conference in Chicago in November.

“Don’t ever permit the pressure to exceed the pleasure.”

In that introductory press conference, Maddon told reporters he was going “to live downtown” and that he wanted “to feel the energy”. He raved about the challenge of managing a team which hadn’t won the World Series since 1908.

Joe Maddon is a baseball lifer. He signed with the California Angels in 1975 as a catcher after playing baseball and football at Lafayette College. He never advanced past Single-A though. He simply was not talented enough.

But way back when, it was apparent that Maddon would be a coach. After three seasons trying to make it as a player, Maddon began as a scout for the Angels, before eventually filling roles as coach, minor league roving hitting instructor and manager in the Angels’ farm system before taking his rightful spot as bench coach for the major league squad.

Before Mike Scioscia, the Angels rarely enjoyed success, but it was Maddon who was the constant. Every new manager to come to town kept Maddon on the staff, knowing he was a crucial piece to any possible success the team could have.

Maddon grew up the son of an Italian father and Polish mother, both of whom were blue collar workers—his father owned a plumbing shop, his mother was and still is a waitress. That background instilled in Joe a superior work ethic to go along with his rambunctious personality. As is the case with so many children of immigrants, Maddon had a desire to fulfill his family’s intended destiny when coming to the new world.

The advantage Maddon had over his ancestors was a free mind which desired to learn and take in as much knowledge as he could attain. It’s made him one of the sharpest minds in baseball in the 21^st century.

Joe Maddon may not be the manager who rids the Cubs of their curse—whichever of the curses you subscribe to believing in. If he can’t do it though, there may not be anyone else who can.

As much as Theo Epstein loves his sabermetrics—and Maddon used them in Tampa, and is plenty comfortable doing so in Chicago—he also knows they only go so far. Data is crucial, but so too, are relationships and team building.

Players still need a manager they can trust, a manager they know has their back, a manager they know will put them in the best position to succeed.

Organizations need a manager they know is committed to them, to the city, and to winning. That is what the Cubs need and that’s what they have in Maddon.

The Chicago Cubs, for once, have the best manager in baseball, Joe Maddon. Now all they have to do if pull it all together so this doesn’t end up being a waste of everyone’s time.

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