The visiting manager’s office at Angel Stadium was too small to fit the Chicago media contingent on opening day, so Joe Maddon met everyone in a dark hallway outside the clubhouse after the Cubs’ victory over the Angels.
“Where should I stand?” Maddon asked.
“Up against the wall,” someone replied.
Maddon complied, facing the wall and putting his palms up against it as if he were under arrest.
It was vintage Joe — slightly dry, with a hint of wry — and served as a harbinger of things to come.
This Cubs team would not only win and win often, it would lead the league in good times, or die tryin’.
Here are some of the ways Maddon’s inimitable managing style affects the Cubs, on and off the field:
Art of doing nothing
Maddon said in spring training he excelled in the art of “doing nothing.”
“I didn’t have enough chance to do nothing last offseason,” he said. “I want more of an opportunity to do nothing, and I mean that in a positive way. When you get this downtime, to be able to do nothing well, that’s my goal.”
The art of doing nothing is evidenced in Maddon’s philosophy regarding his players’ work habits. Since coming up in the minors, position players are taught to arrive at the ballpark early, take batting practice on a daily basis and prepare for a game hours before the first pitch.
Maddon junked that last year, instituting “American Legion week” and instructing his players to just show up for the game, as they did while playing American Legion ball.
“If you treat it that way, it keeps their minds fresher,” Maddon explained. “And if their mind is fresher, they’ll play a better game.”
Now doing nothing isn’t everything, it’s the only thing, and “Do simple better” is the mantra. No team takes less batting practice than the Cubs, and no manager has a longer leash on his players.
” ‘Whatever it takes you to get ready for a game that night, you know what it takes, so do that, don’t do anything else,’ ” Maddon said he tells players. “Just don’t do something eyewash-wise that’s going to ameliorate an old adage.”
Players still get their work in, but they don’t have to spend hours at the ballpark.
When the Giants scored five runs in three games against the Padres in mid-September, manager Bruce Bochy canceled the next day’s BP and ordered the players to show up late.
“Really good call by Bochy,” outfielder Hunter Pence said. “Do less, accomplish more.”
Sound familiar?
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Wackier than thou
The Cubs have kept the T-shirt industry thriving in 2016, thanks in no small part to Maddon. Making T-shirts with catchy slogans was part of Maddon’s annual shtick with the Rays, as Ben Zobrist knows well.
Why do Maddon’s T-shirts matter?
“They’re interesting, that’s why,” Zobrist said. “They’re entertaining. He’s not just great at slogans and making it fun, he really lives it out and tries to see the whole vision played out through the course of the season.”
The ubiquitous “Try Not to Suck” T-shirts took Maddon’s approach to a new level. The slogan consciously toys with the Cubs’ well-earned image as losers, slyly suggesting they will make an attempt at not being awful. The psychological ploy could have backfired if they actually did suck.
The dress-up road trips were also a continuation of Maddon’s Rays days but included some new wrinkles (the minimalist zany suit trip in Pittsburgh) and a now annual classic (the onesies trip in Los Angeles). Maddon is particularly fond of onesies.
“They’re always acceptable on a road trip,” he said.
Are the wacky costume trips overkill?
Maybe.
Do people still search the internet the next day to see what outfits the Cubs wore?
Definitely.
Unconventional wisdom
Using Travis Wood and Pedro Strop in left field. Having Jon Lester pinch hit in the 12th inning and instructing him to bunt home the winning run. Moving position players around with the audacity of Dr. Strangelove in the War Room.
These are just a few of the things Maddon has done that go against the grain.
It cements his image as an outside-the-box manager, even if his decisions don’t always work. (Someone should have talked him out of warming up veteran starter John Lackey in a couple of extra-inning games and then not using him.)
One former manager said it was easy for managers like Maddon and former Cardinals skipper Tony La Russa to take risks because they were on long-term contracts and never had to worry about the consequences.
But that’s debatable. If Maddon were on the final year of his contract with no hope of returning, he probably would do the very same things.
He enjoys taking risks.
Instant messenger
Before a pregame interview in Whitey Herzog’s office in 1989, the Cardinals manager offered me a cold beer and some fried squirrel.
“Shot three squirrels in my backyard with a BB gun last week,” he said. “Skinned ’em and ate ’em up.”
Those fried squirrel days are long gone. Some modern managers often spend five minutes or so dealing with the media, trying to reveal as little as possible and hoping to get it over with as soon as possible.
Maddon will answer any question, anytime, no matter how strange it sounds, so the players know they need to do likewise.
“Joe, let me paraphrase one of your favorite groups, Pink Floyd,” Maddon was asked last week before a Cardinals game at Wrigley Field. “If you don’t need a brick in the wall, what do you need going into this series?”
Maddon briefly gave a puzzled look, then dispensed with a long-winded answer that ended with the thought: “The brick, for me, would be to just continue to make progress with our two-strike approach.”
Managers send messages to players and fans through the media, so you would think any general manager would want a manager who enjoys communicating with reporters.
Unfortunately, Maddon is an anomaly.
Entertainment weekly
One small moment from this super-sized season shows why Maddon is so beloved on the North Side.
During the ninth inning of a game Sept. 12 at St. Louis, umpire Joe West ejected Maddon while he was trying to buy time for Aroldis Chapman to warm up.
Maddon blatantly tried to get his players to stall after Kyle Hendricks’ no-hitter was broken up so Chapman could get in a few more throws. West, a longtime villain to Cubs fans, told catcher Miguel Montero the team would be charged with a mound visit if he went out to talk to Hendricks, prompting a full-metal Maddon episode with the beefy ump.
Maddon basically accused West of turning a misdemeanor into a felony, saying no other major-league umpire would have made such a big deal of it.
Former Cubs manager Lou Piniella always said Yankees owner George Steinbrenner instructed him to put on a show with umpires once in a while to get the Yankees on the back pages of the tabloids. It was deja vu all over again.
Managers are a fairly generic bunch, making Maddon stick out in the crowd. After he finished his news conference blasting West, Maddon channeled his inner Lou.
“It was entertaining,” he offered.
Twitter @PWSullivan
http://embed.sendtonews.com/player2/embedcode.php?fk=1K5jh214&cid=4591
