Rays Manager Joe Maddon is a Cardinals Fan

[Migrant Redbird]

Borrowed from a Cardinals forum.

Three Articles on Joe Maddon, Cardinal Fan since age 10.

Rays skipper Maddon doesn't manage by any book

You want funny? His hometown newspaper, the Hazleton Standard-Speaker, currently is running an online poll, asking readers to respond to the question, "Who are you rooting for in the World Series: The hometown boy or the hometown team?"

As of early Friday evening, the Phillies had 62 percent of the vote, Maddon had 38 percent.

"I love that," he says. "Because that speaks to loyalty right there. Even if they know Joey, they ain't switching. And I know that because I'm a Cardinals fan. I understood. I get it."

http://scott-miller.blogs.sportsline.com/mcc/blogs/view/6270335?tag=Joe%20Maddon

That's one of his Yankee Stadium memories, but not the most vivid. No, that came in August, 1963.

"My dad took me with my Uncle Pete and Hank Toth to a Yankees-White Sox game," Maddon says. "The Yankees won 3-0, Whitey Ford pitched, Johnny Blanchard hit a home run, we exited out the center field gate by the monuments and when we walked outside my dad asked if I wanted a hat.

"I said yes, and I chose the St. Louis baseball Cardinals hat. That's the year I became a Cardinals fan. St. Louis Blues, Hawks, football Cardinals, even the St. Louis Billikens for awhile.

"All from that hat."

I always claim that the Cardinals have the most attractive uniforms of any professional sports team, but how he could get in bed with the Blues, I can't understand. )

Birdland