Scioscia, Maddon: Brothers in arms

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – It was just before Thanksgiving, maybe even the night before, as Joe Maddon remembers.

The year was 1999, which mattered most to Maddon for this reason. “It was the first time in my professional career,” he said, “when I didn’t know if I had a job.”

The phone rang. It was Mike Scioscia, the newly named manager of the Angels.

Scioscia, the former Dodgers catcher, had been selected from seven candidates. Among the finalists was Maddon, who had spent the previous September as the Angels’ interim manager and somehow had salvaged a few shards of dignity out of a wreck of a season.

Maddon had been in the Angels’ organization for nearly 25 years, holding about every job a baseball lifer could. Failed minor-league catcher. Scout. Minor-league manager. Roving hitting instructor. Director of player development. Minor-league field coordinator. Big-league coach.

Maddon jumped in as manager when Terry Collins was fired, and the Angels went 19-10 under him. He was homegrown, and deserving.

But then the general manager, Bill Bavasi, was fired, and the new guy, Bill Stoneman, had no history with Joe Maddon. He hired Mike Scioscia, and Joe Maddon wondered where – and if – he would fit in.

Scioscia reached out with the phone call. I want you to be my bench coach, he told Maddon.

“We talked, and I knew immediately I liked him,” Maddon said. “A couple of weeks after that, he had a meeting with all of his coaches, and I knew we were going to get along.

“I loved his sense of humor. We were from the same part of Pennsylvania (outside of Philadelphia). He’s full Italian, I’m half, so we had all these Italian things going on. There was a lot of common background, and we hit it off.”

That first phone call told him something else, too. Scioscia, who never had managed in the majors, was turning to a man whom he just had beaten out for a job and asking him for help.

“That spoke to me,” Maddon said, “that this guy had a lot of self-confidence. He was not going to be intimidated by anyone on the staff about his job. He’s always going to do what he thinks is right in the job, regardless of the consequences, and I’ve always respected that.

“Furthermore, after our first year working together, I told him and other people, ‘You’re going to be here at least 10 years if you choose to be.’ I felt that good about his ability. There was a mutual respect from the beginning.”

Scioscia guided the Angels to a World Series title in 2002, with Maddon sitting alongside. Now, as Scioscia tries to take the Los Angeles Angels back for another run at a title, an unexpected obstacle looms: the team Maddon finally got a chance to manage, the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Angels, with a run in the ninth, edged the Rays 5-4 Wednesday to reclaim the best record in the American League from the Rays. But Tampa Bay has given the Angels fits all season. The Rays took the first two games of the series here and six of nine overall.

Maddon was ejected from Tuesday’s come-from-behind win. He has been ejected nine times in his short career. Four have come in games against his former team.

“It had to be against the Angels once again,” he said afterward, “which really sucks. That part I hate.”

But there is nothing he would love more, he said, than for the Rays and Angels to meet with the AL pennant on the line.

“That would be an absolute thrill for me and a great challenge for us,” he said. “It would be awesome.

“I look at them and I see us. And I think when they look at us, they see them.

“It’s a style of play, an aggressive kind of play based on pitching and defense. Offensively, there’s a little bit of difference in philosophy. They have more guys that just swing. We have more guys who can work an at-bat. They have more experience overall than we do, but I think we’re built on basically the same concepts.”

Troy Percival, who won a World Series ring with the Angels and currently pitches for the Rays, has had long relationships with both managers.

“They have similarities in the way they run a game,” he said. “Personality-wise, they are complete opposites, but when they run the game, they both think everything through thoroughly.

“Joe is unbelievable. I know for a fact he thinks three innings ahead – what might happen, what could happen, what scenarios he wants and chooses. Having played for both of them, they’re incredible. Joe is just really good at adapting and learning from everything. I’m sure he’s grabbed a lot of Scioscia, but he puts it in his own mold.”

Rays reliever Trever Miller said that when he met Maddon, he “seemed like a numbers nerd at first.

“But he’s one of the coolest guys I’ve ever been around. I was impressed by how intelligent and well-spoken he is. He’s knowledgeable about a lot of different areas, not just baseball. He’s a wine connoisseur, an athlete – he rides his bike everywhere – and he’s genuinely concerned about you and your family.

“His personality is like a spider. It goes in all different directions. He wants to be a complete man, which is something maybe we should all want.”

Scioscia is not surprised Maddon has turned the Rays into winners.

“Maybe it came about quicker than some people expected,” Scioscia said, “but there’s no doubt, you give Joe the opportunity to build and give him input on what kind of players they’re going to draft, what the player development is going to be, what the major league philosophy is going to be, he’s going to have them going in the right direction.

“It’s great to see. I’ve seen it firsthand. Joe is a terrific evaluator of talent, and he’s got a passion for the game that is off the charts.”