MESA, Ariz. – Joe Maddon snapped his fingers, a reminder about the rhythm of the game and how you need to have a feel for the moment that can’t be found on an iPad in the dugout.
“That’s why I have that card in my back pocket,” Maddon said.
It’s always about the players. Maddon could have signed into Netflix and watched episodes of “The Office” during the games Jake Arrieta pitched in the second half of last season and still looked like a Manager of the Year.
But the Cubs are also an organization, packing up the Sloan Park clubhouse on Wednesday and leaving Arizona as a World Series favorite built around old-school talent evaluations, under-the-radar scouting finds, a sophisticated game-planning network, the Ivy computer system and the personality of their progressive manager.