2008 World Series Rate-a-Record: Joe Maddon’s iPod

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As we learned in the 2008 NLCS, the manager of a major league team functions as a DJ of sorts, selecting just the right groove to fit the ebb and flow of the game. We’ve yet to determine exactly what Phillies manager Charlie Manuel spins while sipping a late-night bourbon, but we’re pretty sure its not an artist who would be confused with a Kentonite. Charlie’s probably more of an oldtime, late-night country radio DJ, making his selections from that ample gut. He’s not worried about rocking the house as much as he is putting a little spark in the lives of longtime couples trying to reignite what little spark they have left after a hard day’s work.

Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon, on the other hand, fancies himself as an auteur, with his cool horn-rimmed glasses and fauxhawk, his tales of drinking beer in some souped-up early ’70s Javelin with his Hazleton, PA high school buddies, and his penchant for peppering the Ray’s locker room with literary quotations. He’s some unexpected cross between Phil Jackson and Drew Carey, or as one Townsman pointed out recently, the older, wiser Joe Walsh. When he talks music, which is more often than any Major League manager I can remembers talking music, he usually starts with The Stones and ends with The Boss. He’s not been shy in declaring which side of the Temps vs Tops divide he leans. As a fan of the team that I’m hoping will smash his team’s march to the Top of the Pops, I can honestly say this is all cool. Joe Maddon is a breath of fresh air. If he were managing any team but the Rays at this point in the baseball season, I’d give the guy his due and move on. As it is, however, I feel compelled to take a more critical look at his iPod.