After Hitting a ‘Very Dark Spot,’ Angels Are Ready for a Reset

Manager Brad Ausmus, after one year on the job, was fired by General Manager Billy Eppler the day after the season ended. The Chicago Cubs also parted with Maddon, who spent decades with the Angels’ organization before leaving to guide the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cubs to the World Series. By mid-October, the irreverent Maddon was back with the Angels, and on Tuesday he basked in the memories of Tempe Diablo Stadium, the Angels’ spring home.

“You get over here and you see the buttes in the background,” Maddon said. “I remember throwing batting practice to Bo Jackson out there, and having Gene Mauch and Whitey Herzog standing back there watching the whole thing, and Preston Gomez sitting up in the stands right there reading his newspaper.”

He laughed and continued: “No, I have nothing nostalgic about this place. It’s exciting to come here in the morning, and it’s only going to get better.”

Maddon has welcomed generations of former Angels to camp, from Bobby Knoop (1960s) to Frank Tanana (1970s) to Wally Joyner (1980s), and so on. “There’s WAR in the alumni,” Maddon explained, and he has hired an artist to paint stylized words on a blank hallway wall: “relentless,” “tough,” “first-to-third,” “la familia.” He calls it the identity wall.

“Listen, they’re universal words, it’s nothing new,” Maddon said. “But I felt when I was here with the Angels, we played the game a certain way, and there was a toughness about it.”

Maddon was the bench coach for the Angels’ only championship team, in 2002. That team was known for relentless contact hitters who slashed doubles and charged aggressively around the bases. They hit .320 in the postseason and won despite an unimposing rotation.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/sports/baseball/los-angeles-angels.html