[PAPA JOE MADDON] Joe Maddon No Longer Thinks The Titanic Put Up A Good Fight

In an ESPN.com story about the Tampa Bay Rays’ bullpen, there was a telling quote from Joe Maddon about his own managerial style.

“My role has shifted,” Maddon said, “from being the eternal optimist to being the more pragmatic one. And I recognized both goals in advance. When I first came here, I knew it was going to be necessary to prop things up, and now I know it’s going to be necessary to somehow curb the enthusiasm.”

So, annoying the fans to no end was all part of Papa Joe’s master plan. And now that the team is doing well, it is now OK to be a curmudgeon. Now if we could get Maddon to actually tighten the leash on players as opposed to just promising.

Then again, this may explain why Papa Joe’s Chernoff face was frowning. Or maybe he is just worried that the Rays are playing above his goals.

Improved bullpen big reason Rays have high hopes [ESPN]

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2 Responses to “[PAPA JOE MADDON] Joe Maddon No Longer Thinks The Titanic Put Up A Good Fight”

1. Robert Rittner says:

   May 7, 2008 at 2:21 pm

   Let’s not be silly now. Maddon is one of the few managers who says interesting things publicly, and when I read this I was impressed he would be so frank.

   He is saying what some people have pointed out before, that his posture as a manager has to change as the team matures. There is no evidence that he is not holding players accountable, no indication of a lack of effort or that he is accepting or excusing mental mistakes.

   I agree that early in the year we did see some very stupid play on the field. But not only is it arguable that there has been some improvement, when it was happening, Maddon was very candid about it and did not sugarcoat at all.

   I thought we had gotten past the nonsense about Maddon setting a low goal of 81 wins. You may not be a journalist, but you are engaging in exactly the same kind of superficial, careless misinterpretation of a public statement that the worst of the journalists engage in, and like them, are repeating it as if it has become gospel.

   Reply
2. Anonymous says:

   May 7, 2008 at 4:29 pm

   i am pretty sure those last couple of comments were tongue-in-cheek

   Reply