The brain trust
The visiting manager's office at Angel Stadium was too small to fit the Chicago media contingent on opening day, so Joe Maddon met everyone in a dark hallway outside the clubhouse after the Cubs' victory over the Angels.
“Where should I stand?” Maddon asked.
“Up against the wall,” someone replied.
Maddon complied, facing the wall and putting his palms up against it as if he were under arrest. It was vintage Joe — slightly dry, with a hint of wry — and served as a harbinger of things to come.
This Cubs team would not only win and win often, it would lead the league in good times or die tryin'.
Here are some of the ways Maddon's managing style affects the Cubs, on and off the field:
Maddon said in spring training he excelled in the art of “doing nothing.”
“I didn't have enough chance to do nothing last offseason,” he said. “I want more of an opportunity to do nothing, and I mean that in a positive way. When you get this downtime, to be able to do nothing, well, that's my goal.”
The art of doing nothing is evidenced in Maddon's philosophy regarding his players' work habits. Since coming up in the minors, position players are taught to arrive at the ballpark early, take batting practice on a daily basis and prepare for a game hours before the first pitch.
Maddon junked that last year, instituting “American Legion week” and instructing his players to just show up for the game, as they did when playing American Legion ball.
“If you treat it that way, it keeps their minds fresher,” Maddon explained. “And if their mind is fresher, they'll play a better game.”
Now doing nothing isn't everything, it's the only thing, and “Do simple better” is the mantra. No team takes less batting practice than the Cubs, and no manager has a longer leash on his players.
“ ‘Whatever it takes you to get ready for a game, do that, don't do anything else,' ” Maddon said he tells players.
Players still get their work in, but they don't have to spend hours at the ballpark.
When the Giants scored five runs in three games against the Padres in mid-September, manager Bruce Bochy canceled the next day's BP and ordered the players to show up late.
“Really good call by Bochy,” outfielder Hunter Pence said. “Do less, accomplish more.”
Sound familiar?
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
The day before the Chicago Cubs announced Theo Epstein's five-year contract extension, he sat in a vacant Wrigley Field and considered how he has changed since 2002. That year the Boston Red Sox made him the youngest general manager in baseball history.
“I think I believed a lot more of my own bull... back then than I do now,” the Cubs' president of baseball operations said, laughing. “The world is gray and I used to love making it black or white.”
Back then, he was the Yale grad and fervent Red Sox fan from Brookline, Mass., who was the team's third choice to be general manager. Then he led the Red Sox to their first World Series championship in 86 years. Three years later, they won it again.
But glee deteriorated in Boston, and Epstein came to Chicago in 2011. Today, he is a 42-year-old husband and father who plays rock guitar for charity and leads the Cubs on an odyssey that might carry more angst and euphoria than the Red Sox's championship run of 2004.
The Cubs, who have not won a World Series since 1908, are favorites to win it all this year — champs instead of chumps. Giddy anticipation is at epic levels among a global fan base that deserves a lifetime achievement award for optimism and perseverance.
While all that swirls, the man who, with two lieutenants, assembled the team is trying to maintain perspective, something he said he has gained over the years while he nurtured his empathetic side. He also has come to terms with his internal struggle over focusing his extraordinary mind and work ethic on a game; at least that's what he says.
“That's definitely something that I've felt and thought about and articulated to my friends,” Epstein said. “They always have really good answers for me, which is that in the right situation you could impact a lot of people in a lot of positive ways by rebuilding a team that faces adversity and triumphs in the end.”
... Baseball, Theo Epstein said, has an “intrinsic connection” to him on many levels.
He said he loves the symmetry, the action, the timelessness, even “the unknown” of baseball. He loves how it reflects the real world's adversity and provides escape.
“You're allowed into it when you're playing or watching or working in it,” he said, “and it's really fulfilling ... you can gain these little insights and sort of chip away at the unknown in ways that are really rewarding.”
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