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Globetrotting Maddon Is On Top Of The World

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 13, 2008

It figures that the man who managed to turn the baseball world upside down would still be globetrotting Wednesday when he received the news.

Suffice it to say, Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon, just two hours into the first stop of his honeymoon, will go down as the first American League Manager of the Year to do a telephone news conference from Rome. That's in Italy.

He does it his way, doesn't he?

Maddon and his wife, Jaye, were married Saturday aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, Calif.

First planned tourist stop in Rome?

"The Vatican," Maddon said. "St. Peter's and right into the Sistine Chapel."

The pope will probably ask for his autograph.

Joe Maddon made it big this season.

For turning a laughingstock into a World Series team and a pennant winner, Maddon won in a runaway in voting by members of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Believe it or not, it was not unanimous. Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire received a first-place vote, presumably from someone who knew nothing of the first 10 years of Rays history.

But there was Joe Maddon, who made believers of everyone.

Even when the Rays were losing and losing, he stayed firm and kept smiling.

"I promise, I never despaired in any way, shape or form," he said. "You get your teeth kicked in a little bit, but if you just keep going, there's going to be a nice reward at the end of it."

Three seasons ago, Maddon took over a franchise in mid-misery and patiently, happily, gloriously managed to get glory out of it.

"It all started with Joe," Rays first baseman Carlos Pena said last month.

The Rays won 66 games in 2007.

They won 105 games in 2008, including the postseason.

They made fans and memories.

Joe Maddon and the Miracles, that's who they were.

They were one of the truly great rags-to-riches stories in baseball history.

Wait - they had rags?

And Maddon was always the life of the party, caring, thoughtful and fun.

When a guy can quote Albert Camus and Albert Einstein, and he's talking about how you put a bullpen together, you know you've got something special.

Yes, America fell in love with the man in the funny glasses in October.

He built his team his way.

His hunches nearly always worked.

The Rays won.

He was portrayed as Mr. Nice Guy when he arrived, too soft, not enough edge to whip this sorry brigade into shape.

Well, when the talent began to blossom, on came Maddon's edge.

There he was in spring training, telling his guys they could make the playoffs.

What about Smokin' Joe Maddon yapping at the Yankees after the Rays and Yankees fought in spring training? Or jawing at Boston Red Sox troublemaker Coco Crisp during a game in June at Fenway Park?

What about Joe Maddon yanking Rays center fielder B.J. Upton from the lineup more than once for not hustling? What about the night Maddon went to the mound and Rays reliever Troy Percival didn't want to come out of the game. And he kept talking. You could read Maddon's lips.

"That's enough."

More than anything, more than even 9 = 8, that might sum up the 2008 miracle that was the Tampa Bay Rays.

That's enough.

That's enough losing.

That's enough laughing at the Rays.

Joe Maddon was on the phone from Italy, talking about a manager of the year award he received 26 years ago.

"The one parallel, it's probably a horrible one, when I first started managing, it was when we won a championship in Salem, Ore., I think it was 1982, and I had a really young team and we beat a veteran team, the Medford A's, and I was voted manager of the year at the time."

It's been awhile.

Joe Maddon has come a long, long way.

Not nearly as far as the Rays.

On to the Sistine Chapel.

You know, that other work of art.

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