Joe Maddon is not known for his fiery managerial style. That's a good thing. Typically, managers think they all have to be Lou Piniella to "motivate" and "focus" their millionaire players, which rarely seems like it actually works. (Even when it does "work," it's usually coincidence.) Still, Maddon barked at his team for a while the other night (HT: Walkoff Walk), one of those in-house chats that leak out and get called "fiery." Scott Kazmir believes it "really needed to be said," though what needed to be said is still up in the air. Joe, can you clarify?
"I think it had to be said,'' Maddon explained. "I've done it on an individual basis, and I still believe that's the right way to do it. But at some point it had to be done within the group, because you can lose a pennant by one game, and I've been there. Every game matters, every game counts, every play counts. The assumptionists of the world, I would like to eradicate. I want to eradicate assumptionism.''Wha? The Rays have been something of a revolution in the AL East this year -- no longer will the tyranny of large payrolls stamp its boot on the neck of the weak -- so I suppose it makes sense that Joe Maddon is talking like a slightly insane revolutionary. "Eradicate assumptionism?" I don't even know what it means, but you usually don't hear language like that unless it's followed by the sound of machine guns firing into the sky. Down with the assumptionist menace!
