New Rays manager Joe Maddon is glad the formal introductions are over - he has coaches to hire, players to talk to and a team to improve.
By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer
Published November 16, 2005
[Times photo: John Pendygraft]
New Devil Rays coach Joe Maddon stands in the dugout at Tropicana Field. The team's new bosses believe he has what it takes to build a winner.
ST. PETERSBURG - The 25 years it took Joe Maddon to realize his dream of becoming a major-league manager suddenly seemed like no time at all. He slipped on his green No.70 Devil Rays jersey, answered a few easy questions, posed for some photos, and got ready to move past the pomp and take on the circumstances as the Rays' fourth manager.
"This has been a very stressful moment to get to this point right here," Maddon said after his formal introduction. "Just getting up there today, I've always anticipated that moment, so that was the most crazy thought I had going on.
"Now it's just to get back down and actually get to the business end of this thing, which I'm much more comfortable with. I'm really looking forward to this - I am really looking forward to this - and the deeper you get into it, the more it occupies your thoughts, and that's really a good thing."
Maddon, 51, has lots to think about.
There's a coaching staff to be hired, players to get to know, and a system rooted in fundamentals and hard work to be put in place throughout the organization. Along the way, he has to make a new home in the Tampa Bay area, navigate the transition from Angels bench coach to Devil Rays manager, shape a roster to fit his pitching and defense approach, and, when all that is done, figure out how to turn a team with a small payroll and a rugged AL East schedule into a winner.
"I'm into detail and I'm into the organization stuff," Maddon said. "But chaos once in a while is actually refreshing."
Maddon's first priority is hiring a coaching staff, a collaborative effort with the front office he hopes to complete within a week, seeking staffers who are energetic, patient and good listeners and - perhaps most important - share his positive outlook.
Mike Butcher and Bobby Ramos seem likely to join him from the Angels minor-league staff. Rays incumbent third-base coach Tom Foley, Triple-A manager Bill Evers, and minor-league hitting coordinator Steve Henderson have meetings with him this week to discuss positions. Incumbent first-base coach Billy Hatcher is another potential candidate.
"I really believe in empowering coaches and letting them do their jobs," Maddon said. "For me on a daily basis it would be brief meetings or thoughts exchanged with these guys and then "Go get 'em.' ... That allows the manager then to manage."
Foley, who has been with the Rays since 1996, said he would like to remain: "I've been here a long time, I've put my heart and soul into it and I'd love to stay, but you have to be wanted."
Once Maddon gets the staff hired and his programs in place, he plans to reach out to the players and to learn as much as he can about them. He values personal relationships, and says it's not unusual for him to go out with players after games to eat, drink and, most importantly, talk.
He has a good sense of the Rays' overall strengths and weaknesses - having impressed team executives with a thick binder of notes during his interviews - and specific ideas for improvement. "Your position players are pretty darn close," Maddon said. "You can see where the pitching needs to be improved upon and the defense definitely needs to be improved upon. I'm not saying that the people that are out there aren't good - they're good - we just have to focus on those areas."
Maddon's way to get there is to work at it. He plans to have the Rays well-drilled in fundamentals, noting how teams work on plays during spring training and don't do so again the rest of the season. Under Maddon, the Rays will learn the proper way to play, though he plans to present it more through creative methods than in punitive fashion.
"You need to do the little things properly as often as possible," Maddon said.
The preparation will last through much of the winter, and introductions will extend into the spring. But starting April 3 in Baltimore, Maddon has to have the Rays ready for the rigors of the AL East. His plan is to have them more focused on playing the game right than who they are playing.
"You beat the game of baseball through execution," he said. "Get away from the color of the shirts or who's in it or what it says on the front because that really doesn't matter."
Executive vice president Andrew Friedman said the Rays chose Maddon because of his background in player development, his experience as a big-league coach and his skills as a teacher, leader and communicator. "I strongly feel Joe will be a difference-maker for us for years to come," Friedman said.
Maddon, who signed a two-year contract for about $1.1-million with a two-year option, can't want to get started.
"You spend 14 years in the minor leagues wanting to just get to the big leagues and the moment you do it's like no time has elapsed," he said. "Then you come to the big leagues and you spend 12 years and now I'm getting this chance and it's like no time has elapsed. ... You just do your job and if you do your job well and the right situation comes along you may get a chance - and I always believed that I would."
