Rays Manager Joe Maddon Does His Best Thinking On A Bicycle

There's a cool new saying in the Tampa Bay area and it's "9=8."

It's the mantra created by Joe Maddon, the manager of the miracle Tampa Bay Rays baseball team who said if 9 players can play hard for 9 innings it means the team would get into the field of eight teams that qualify annually for Major League Baseball's post-season playoffs.

Word on the street is that Manager Joe thought of the 9=8 slogan while cycling -- an activity that Joe likes to do. Joe likes to bike 12 miles a day and even rents a bike when the Rays hit the road for their away games.

In a recent New York Times story, Joe talks about the importance of his bicycle:

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — That bike. Of all the items that teammates would watch Joe Maddon lug on trips with the Angels — books without pictures, wine magazines, an iPod pulsing with Springsteen and Green Day and Pavarotti — none made them smile and shake their heads more than his beloved mountain bike.

The Angels’ bench coach from 1996 to 2005, Maddon would, before most every trip, take it apart — wheels, chains, from seat to nuts — so that he could pop it on the plane. Upon arrival, he would lay the pieces out on his hotel room floor and, quite happily, put it all back together again. Then bike to the ballpark.

“I can still see him doing that,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He just loved that bicycle.”

Maddon has retired his wrenches because he now can afford to rent bikes on the road for his 80 or so miles of weekly riding.

And in today's USA Today, manager Joe also talks about the bicycle:

The manager of baseball's surprise team is an out-of-the-box thinker who insists he doesn't make those decisions by the seat of his pants. The seat of a bicycle is another story.

An avid rider, Maddon often cruises around major league cities trying to conjure ways for the Rays to win. This season it has worked, as he has managed Tampa Bay to its first winning season and playoff berth in its 11 seasons.

"It's therapeutic," Maddon says. "Managing definitely is a passion. But bike riding (is), too, if that makes any sense."

I'm the organizer of the 2008 Bicycle Bash by the Bay, a big bicycle festival in St. Petersburg, FL to promote and celebrate bicycling as a healthy lifestyle and effective mode of transportation. I have reached out to the Tampa Bay Rays to see if Manager Joe can attend the Bicycle Bash by the Bay in his back yard in St. Petersburg.

Thing is, Joe's team has qualified for the playoffs (9 does, in fact, equal 8) and the Rays might still be in action by the time the Bicycle Bash by the Bay rolls around on Oct. 19.

Either way, you know Manager Joe will be pedaling somewhere between now and Oct. 19.

Keep biking Joe and be safe out there!