Maddon finding all he wants with Rays

Column

Joe Maddon has gone global.

Dig: Maddon and his wife, Jaye, vacationed in Europe last month. One day, they were exploring the famed Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona, the unfinished work of the architectural great Antoni Gaudi.

"We were deep in the bowels of this cathedral and this kid from Taiwan comes up to me and asked, 'Are you Mr. Maddon?' " Maddon said. "He said he was a big Rays fan. He loved the way we play."

A kid from Taiwan in the basement of a church in Spain — Go Rays.

The world would be a smaller place if Joe Maddon ran it, though the radio guys would wonder why he's batting Switzerland leadoff …

He's still your Joe, Tampa Bay, and probably will be for quite some time. Wednesday, the Rays announced Maddon's three-year contract extension.

It was no surprise. The Rays and Maddon are a perfect fit. The two-time AL manager of the year could have had his pick of any managing vacancy out there in the offseason, probably could have named his price. He'll report to spring training for a seventh season with the only team he was interested in.

"For me, you don't have to look somewhere else — it's right here," Maddon said. "I mean, everybody wants to look somewhere else — it's right here."

There's still work to do. Two AL East titles, three playoff trips and a World Series appearance still amount to unfinished work for the architectural great John Joseph Maddon.

Can you name another manager or coach, any sport, who's better at putting players in a position to succeed? Is there a better encourager, a better dream weaver?

From where Maddon stands, he sees a Rays organization built on trust and cooperation, on synergy and ideas, inside and outside the box, anything that works.

A sense of humor doesn't hurt, either. At Wednesday's news conference, Rays baseball operations chief Andrew Friedman couldn't help but mention Maddon's ever-changing hair color. It's now reddish, more youthful than last season, even.

"We'll save the Benjamin Button of major-league managers for another time," Friedman said.

Maddon laughed.

We have it so good with these guys it isn't even funny.

But who doesn't feel a few days, moments or even years younger when they're around Maddon? He doesn't have a dismissive or negative bone in his body. It's part of his secret to winning, a Benjamin pushing mostly the right buttons, though it isn't a secret anymore, apparently not anywhere.

At the news conference, Maddon sent birthday regards to his son in Arizona. Joey turned 27 on Wednesday. Joey's dad turned 58 last week.

"Fifty-eight's the new 38," Maddon said.

He took this job in 2005. He told us you have to believe something before you can see it. The Rays proceeded to lose, a lot, for two seasons.

And then we saw. And we saw. Right up through last September, when we saw a night we still don't believe.

Maddon felt this was the right place all along. He knew it all over again on Monday, when he came to the Trop. He got to the Rays clubhouse — and it was filled with his bubbling, chattering ballplayers.

"You'd think it was the middle of the season," Maddon said.

It was like that Wednesday, more than a dozen Rays hitting, fielding and throwing on the Trop rug as Maddon spoke upstairs.

"This is the place," he said.

Winter recess wasn't all vacation. There was Maddon's annual "Thanksmas" for the needy. And there was the December kickoff to Maddon's ambitious Hazleton Integration Project (HIP), a heartfelt attempt to bridge cultural divides in his Pennsylvania hometown.

The Rays are donating $100,000 to Maddon's causes. HIP began with four days of events, dinners and fund raisers, including a showing of "It's a Wonderful Life" with Spanish subtitles.

"It was great, it was fabulous," Maddon said.

The man feels as blessed as George Bailey.

"I am a little on the George side of things right now," Maddon said.

Ask anyone in Tampa Bay, or Taiwan.