Almost a year to the day, Joe Maddon took over as manager of the Chicago Cubs. He talked playoffs, even World Series right away. This kind of talk isn’t the same as when Lou Pinella took over and said “We’re going to win here.”
As much optimism as there might have been around those Cubs, this Maddon hiring felt different. We saw what he did with the Tampa Bay Rays, transforming the team from a laughingstock to World Series almost overnight in 2008.
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