Ex-Cubs skipper Joe Maddon on why baseball stopped loving him back

SHARE COPY LINK Share CLOSE Twitter Facebook Bluesky Email Reddit Flipboard Joe Maddon still meditates every morning — 10 to 15 minutes upon waking, in his bed, a pillow over his eyes, deep breaths, focusing on what he’d like to make of the day ahead. The ritual lasted longer when he was still managing in the big leagues, which he hasn’t done since the Angels fired him 56 games into the 2022 season. At 72, the top item on his agenda these days is often a round of golf at the country club outside his hometown of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, where he plays with the same pals he’s had since childhood. Even if Maddon has fewer urgent matters on which to ruminate than he did, say, as the Cubs were closing in on a curse-busting 2016 world championship, he remains a thinker, a feeler, a strong believer in intuition. In baseball terms, Maddon is still all about “the human element,” as he often put it, rather than bloodless, soulless data. Which certainly is one of the biggest reasons the game he loves stopped loving him back. “Yeah, it kind of did,” he told me. “That’s a good way to put it.” At 54, Maddon managed the Rays to their first division title and the World Series and became a star. At 62, he helped bring the mother of all championships to the North Side, where he’d been received by fans and the organization alike as a sort of savior. By 65, he was in a lame-duck season with the Cubs, his relationship with the front office doomed by philosophical incompatibility. At 68, he got fired. No teams have come knocking on his door since, and by now there’s no discernible chance of that changing. “What I do and how I do it, I don’t think it’s necessarily sought after anymore,” he said. “In today’s world, whether it’s baseball or the corporate world, experience is not necessarily sought after. What everybody’s looking for is a more controllable asset that they can then nurture in their own image and likeness. That’s what they like. “When I was coming up, it was very important to have your own thoughts and ideas because the manager was more autonomous and had to set the direction for the organization both on and off the field. In today’s game, in terms of the hiring process, I don’t think that’s what anybody’s looking for. The way things are handled — pregame [decisions], how teams are put together, the way tablets are used and tech — it’s not going to change. Control beats experience, intuition and feel because those three words, these guys have never done that. When you say that to them, it’s like you’re speaking a different language.” Maddon stays involved with the game as a favorite guest of MLB Network host Brian Kelly and with the “Book of Joe” podcast he does with writer Tom Verducci. He does corporate speaking engagements, a nice way to make a buck. He plays in golf tournaments and keeps in touch with former coaches and players. He also still loves to feed people, a lifelong enjoyment for someone who grew up in the family-owned Third Base Luncheonette in Hazleton. For 20 years, Maddon has hosted “Thanksmas” meals at holiday time for community members experiencing homelessness. It started in Tampa, Florida, and expanded to Hazleton and Chicago. On Saturday, Maddon will be back to serve Italian and Polish food — his specialties — alongside staff and volunteers at the Care For Friends facility in Lincoln Park. “I’d like to try to bring some dignity to people who may have lost some of their own personal perspective on things, just based on their lot in life and how tough it’s been,” he said. Later this month, Maddon and wife Jaye will pile into their sweet, beloved ride, motor down to Florida and spend the winter months at an RV resort near the St. Petersburg Country Club, where they are members. Some things never change. Related Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong wins NL MVP to cap all-time season of homers, stolen bases and defensive excellence As Cubs chase pitching, how would they approach potentially replacing a third of their lineup? Maddon’s baseball proclivities haven’t changed. He’d still pull Kyle Hendricks from Game 7 of the World Series when he did. He still defends his extreme use of reliever Aroldis Chapman in that series. Some around the Angels will never wrap their brains around what Maddon did a couple of months before his dismissal, intentionally walking a hitter with the bases loaded and his team trailing by a run. Yes, the Angels ended up winning. A young writer asked Maddon after that game about the “analytics” of the move. “Numbers are one thing; human beings are something completely different,” Maddon lectured, adding that it had “nothing to do with math.” So what if the move made spreadsheets spontaneously combust? There’s one current big-league manager with whom Maddon most closely relates, and that’s World Series winner, well-liked “oldster” and fellow born raconteur Pat Murphy of the Brewers, who is 67. “I love the way they play,” Maddon said, “and I think the way they’re playing really reflects the sensibilities of Murph. “I just talked about how hard it is for a manager to make an impact based on the overarching philosophies of front offices, but Murph is one guy who has found his way through that. They realize how important he is to their success. I’ll say it straight-up — that team does not win it with anybody else managing them.” Maddon and Murphy have known and liked each other for decades. When Maddon managed against the Brewers as a Cub, he didn’t spend much time trading stories and yuks with then-Brewers skipper Craig Counsell. He and Counsell’s then-bench coach, Murphy, always sought each other out before games, though. “He and I have a lot in common,” Maddon said. “The sensibilities are very similar.” Same goes for the experience. “That’s what you’re seeing when he’s sitting on the bench or in postgame conversations with the press or whomever, it’s just all the years of having done this,” Maddon said. “He’s able to slow it down. He always has something to draw back on that permits him to slow moments down, and that’s what he does really well. And in the game today, I think that’s the sort of thing that’s missed.” SHARE COPY LINK Share CLOSE Twitter Facebook Bluesky Email Reddit Flipboard Steve Greenberg Chicago Sun-Times Reporter/columnist, sports Next Up In Chicago Cubs Bears QB Caleb Williams stars in Cubs' PCA MVP video Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong wins NL MVP to cap all-time season of homers, stolen bases and defensive excellence As Cubs chase pitching, how would they approach potentially replacing a third of their lineup? Bears QB Caleb Williams celebrates platinum glove with Pete Crow-Armstrong Ben Brown undergoes neck surgery, further muddying Cubs’ already unclear starting-pitching picture for 2027 Tarik Skubal would liven arms race with Brewers, but Cubs have plenty of pitching needs beyond staff ace