April 17, 2012

Ep. 181: Joe Maddon

EASTON, Pa. - Joe Maddon '76, manager of the Tampa Bay Rays, will be featured on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. The 181st edition of the Emmy-winning program debuts tonight - Tuesday, April 17 - at 10 p.m.

Maddon, the 2011 American League Manager of the Year, led the Tampa Bay Rays on a dramatic run to the Wild Card this past season with a 91-71 record. He also earned the award in 2008 after guiding the Rays to their first World Series appearance in franchise history. Maddon, who majored in Economics at Lafayette, was the Leopards' catcher for three seasons prior to signing as a free agent with the California Angels in 1975.

After four years as a backstop in the Angels' minor-league system, Maddon remained with the organization in various coaching roles. He served two short stints as interim manager of the Angels in 1996 and 1999 and was a bench coach for the club's 2002 World Series Championship. He became the Rays' manager in November of 2005. Maddon, a 2009 Maroon Club Hall of Fame inductee, was awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree from Lafayette on Sept. 2, 2010.

Maddon has remained active as a Lafayette alumnus. He is currently sponsoring the Joe Maddon '76 Lafayette Baseball Tour, a fundraiser to supplement the baseball program's annual operational budget as well as other large-scale projects germane to the program.

The Lafayette Friends of Baseball have announced that Joe Maddon '76, the manager of the Tampa Bay Rays, has donated his four tickets to select Rays' games throughout the 2012 MLB season. The winner of each auction, which spans 38 dates and 14 different Major League ballparks, will receive four tickets and field passes to meet with Maddon during batting practice. Each auction ends two weeks prior to the date of the game. In addition to 11 Rays' home games, tickets are available for games in Arlington, New York, Baltimore, Boston, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Cleveland, Anaheim, Oakland, St. Paul, Seattle and Chicago.