Maddon hoping his word is bond

The Rays manager wrote all his players to try to set a tone for camp.

By EDUARDO A. ENCINA
Published February 22, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - Joe Maddon knew it might seem corny that he spent the offseason being a pen pal to his players.

"It's happened to me my entire life," Maddon said, "so that's nothing new."

But as the Rays hold their first full-squad workout this morning, Maddon wants to make this year's camp more cerebral than last season's get-to-know-you spring. He hopes his offseason letter-writing campaign sets the right tone for his second season as manager.

Maddon wrote individual letters to each player on the 40-man roster at the end of the season. He challenged some veterans to emerge as leaders. He encouraged young players to keep working hard. Three other letters followed to "keep in touch and provoke thought," Maddon said.

"It got me anxious to get back out there," pitcher Scott Kazmir said. "You read it and see how it applies to you. I took it that you have to have confidence in yourself, confidence in your teammates and believe you can succeed."

Each letter had a motivational theme. In the first, Maddon preached about aiming high and erasing doubts. He wrote about Michelangelo taking four years to finish the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painting some 300 figures while on his back on a self-made scaffold. The masterpiece seemed an impossible task at the time.

Maddon ended that letter with, "Let's shock the world." Other themes were trust in teammates and discarding conventional wisdom.

"He really wants to win and wants to instill it in all of us," pitcher Jason Hammel said. "If you can grab just one little thing about it, it can help."

The letters weren't necessarily the type of strategy going on in most clubhouses, but Maddon said they set the tone for creating "The Rays Way" and are the first step in turning around a losing mentality.

The coaching staff is also meeting with each player during the first days of camp to discuss goals.

"Baseball players for years have had this reputation of being these tobacco-chewing, crotch-grabbing, dirty-joke-telling guys, but why can't we be more than that?" Maddon said. "What's wrong with presenting thought? ... We really can't teach them anything. We can only make them think."

Said infielder Ty Wigginton: "For some guys it might trigger something, and for other guys it might not. And for the guys it doesn't, they might not need that trigger anyway."

Maddon understood that some players might not have read the letters, and some said they never received them. He said he would place copies in the clubhouse for those who wanted to read them.

"I really believe this stuff, and this is the way we need to think," Maddon said. "Some of this stuff might appear corny, but the moment we turn the corner, it's going to become cool."

Eduardo A. Encina can be reached at eencina@sptimes.com.

[Last modified February 21, 2007, 23:08:03]