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Maddon: Trust, Accountability Changed Rays' Fortunes

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By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 23, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - Rays manager Joe Maddon had an interesting response in his pre-game news gathering today when asked about how he went about changing the culture of the Rays.

We've seen the result, of course, but Maddon said it all actually began when he first took the job three years ago. The Rays were a directionless organization there, a place where players passed through either on their way to a better gig or in the hopes of drawing one more paycheck.

Changing that attitude, Maddon said, was his biggest challenge.

"When you've been so bad for so long, to just try and become better physically I think is absolutely insane. We needed to change the way we think. For me, that is accountability. That is about trust. Nothing, no group or organization, works without trust.

"I thought we were totally a 'no-trust' organization. There was no accountability whatsoever. There was no consistency from what I can gather. If I wanted to create mission statement, which I kind of tinkered with a bit, it's about accountability. It's about consistency. Trust. Those are the factors that permit you to really take something like it had been and turn it into something good."

Maddon, as we know, believes strongly in the power of positive. He has already put the Game 1 loss in the rearview mirror, a byproduct of the unwritten "30-minute rule." His players are told to spend no more than 30 minutes after a game, win or lose, focusing on that night's events before turning to the next page.

Maddon devours self-help books and mentioned "The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People" by Steven Covey as the one that got him started down this path.

"To get it to change, you had to change people and the way people thought," he said.

As you can tell, since the conversation went in that direction there wasn't a whole lot of pre-game angst by the Rays. Then again, there never is.

One thing for sure: They will play tonight's game. The same can't be said for Game 3 on Saturday in the open-air Citizens Bank Park in Philly. The forecast is for rain, rain and more rain, and Major League Baseball already has contingency plans in place to simply eliminate the Tuesday off-day in case Game 3 is rained out.

The Series would still resume, if necessary, on schedule in St. Pete next Wednesday.

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