Oct. 9--America will get to know Joe Maddon over the next week now that the Major League Baseball playoffs are down to a pair of series and now that the Tampa Bay Rays will be playing the Boston Red Sox every night on national TV.
The TBS announcers and analysts will rave about Maddon's unique approach, the quotes on the clubhouse wall (including one from Albert Camus), the Hugo Boss glasses, the Mohawk.
The Rays' third-year manager will be portrayed as a renaissance man, someone who, perhaps, has found a different way to manage a game of baseball.
Don't believe all of it.
Yes, he uses quotes not often found in major league clubhouse, and yes, he joined his players in getting a Mohawk, but Maddon is as old school as Casey Stengel.
Nine players playing hard for nine innings is a major reason why Stengel's New York Yankees teams won all those World Series titles.
"Casey probably thought it," Maddon said. "He just didn't have a T-shirt made up about it."
When asked Wednesday to describe himself, Maddon used one word: "Simple."
"I'd like to believe in fundamentals and simplicity, I really do," he added.
Cliff Floyd used the phrase "old school" to describe his manager.
"He doesn't take a lot of credit, but he deserves all of it," Floyd said.
Trever Miller agrees with Floyd.
Vega3001 
