Sunday, October 19, 2008

A Love Note for Joe Maddon

(to anybody who doesn't care about baseball: DO NOT READ ON. you will be bored)

Needed to take some time to officially announce my man-crush on Joe Maddon.

For those of you who don't know who he is, he's the manager of the AL-champs currently going to the World Series, the Tampa Bay Rays.

For those of you unfamiliar with the team, they're a ten-year-old franchise who until this year had never finished a season with an over .500 record.

The new ownership took a chance on this bookworm/baseball genius who wears big black thick-rimmed nerd glasses and uses existential philosphy to motivate players. And behold! Look what happened.

Joe Maddon, you are an S.O.B. in the best possible way. As a Cubs fan (and a baseball nerd) I feel a kinship with the Rays. Except the Rays only have ten years of failure to overcome. Oh, and the Rays are competent.

That you took a team of young guns (Cliff Floyd pretty much being the only vet) and got them to believe in themselves and tap into their resources this quickly and to this degree is simply amazing.

Kill the Phillies. Ever since Larry Bowa left I haven't given a shit about them anyway.

Man-love,

Lee

P.S. Jim Hickey, I haven't forgotten about you. You're one of the best pitching coaches around.

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