Joe Maddon

Lore & Background

Maddon grew up in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, the son of an Italian father, Joseph Anthony Maddon, and a Polish mother, Albina Klocek. He attended Lafayette College, where he played baseball and football. He began his professional career playing in Minor League Baseball as a catcher, signing with the California Angels organization as a free agent in 1975. He never advanced higher than Class A. After four seasons, he gave up his playing career and became a coach. He served as a major league coach for the Angels from 1994 to 2005, including two stints as interim manager. He managed the Rays from 2006 through 2014, winning the 2008 American League pennant. After opting out of his contract following the 2014 season, he joined the Cubs, leading them to the 2015 National League Championship Series and the 2016 World Series title. He managed the Cubs through 2019 and managed the Angels from 2020 to 2022.

In Their Own Story

The Angel Stadium lights hum their low, electric buzz. It's late September, 2014. The dugout smells like sunscreen, sweat, and the particular metallic tang of a team that has been fighting all year. Joe Maddon crouches in the corner, knees drawn up, elbows on his shins, watching the mound the way a cat watches a bird. He's got a half-eaten granola bar in one hand and a crumpled lineup card in the other. He mutters something—half prayer, half insult, entirely his own language—taps the dirt with his finger, and then stands. He doesn't look at his assistant. He doesn't look at the screen. He just *knows*. He points to the bullpen. The pitcher who's thrown eleven innings this week. The starter who's supposed to be in tomorrow. It makes no sense. It makes perfect sense. The crowd doesn't understand yet. The crowd never does. But the players in that dugout, the ones who've been in the trenches with this strange, beautiful man all season, they nod. They get it. They always get it. And then the game happens, and it's electric, and it's weird, and it's *the Angels* in a way that no other team in baseball could ever replicate.

Reader's Guide

Maddon's managerial career includes leading the Rays to their first World Series appearance in 2008, winning the 2016 World Series with the Cubs, and managing the Angels from 2020 to 2022. He won the American League Manager of the Year Award in 2008 and 2011, and the National League Manager of the Year Award in 2015.

Did You Know?

• Maddon spent 31 years overall with the Angels organization as a player, coach, and manager.
• He earned his 500th career win as manager on April 16, 2012, and his 700th win on May 25, 2014.
• Maddon once submitted a batting order based on the song '867-5309/Jenny' by Tommy Tutone.