Joe Maddon

Dodgers manager Joe Torre is an admirer of the Tampa Bay Rays, who have three games to get the one victory they need to reach the World Series. "I'm pretty impressed with what Joe Maddon has done down there," Torre said yesterday, referring to the Tampa Bay manager. The Rays' potential crystallized for Torre after he watched them take an extra-innings victory in September against the Boston Red Sox, who trail the Rays in the American League Championship Series, three games to one. "At that point, they made me believers that they're for real and that they could look them right in the eye and not back away.

The Tampa Bay Rays are in the World Series because of . . . Bruce Springsteen? On Sunday morning, hours before the most important game in Rays' history, manager Joe Maddon took a long ride on his mountain bike with the Rolling Stones and the Four Tops blaring on the iPod. At Tropicana Field, Maddon made a bold choice. He switched the music to the Boss while filling out the lineup card for Game 7 of the American League Championship Series. The Rays, who had never won more than 70 games in their 11-year history before this season, crashed into the World Series with a 3-1 victory against Boston.

He's still "Joey" around here. That hasn't changed. Nothing much seems to change in Hazleton, a blue-collar community built on the shoulders of Italian and Polish immigrant coal miners. It's a small-town place, a nexus of tiny neighborhoods, where almost everyone knows everyone else on a first-name basis. It's why Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon always will be "Joey" to the people who know him and watched him play as a two-sport star at Hazleton High in the early 1970s. Sure, things are different for Maddon today.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon admits that this postseason has been a coming-out party of sorts for centerfielder B.J. Upton. Besides tracking down balls in the outfield and making it look easy with his smooth glide, Upton has been a much different offensive player than during the regular season. After hitting .273 with nine home runs and 67 RBIs in 531 regular-season at-bats, Upton has been a power machine in the Rays' two playoff series. He is hitting .304 with seven home runs and 15 RBIs.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A fact, according to the Elias Sports Bureau: When the Phillies went 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position in Game 1, that was the most fruitless at-bats with RISP for any team in any World Series game. Ever. And the Phillies still won. All of this has left Rays manager Joe Maddon impressed with the red team - because of the other, little things they did to win. Maddon comes across as a guy who loves to see the game played correctly, who just loves this whole deal.

Boys in the hoods It's official - Joe Maddon is the new picture boy for hoodies. Maddon's cold-weather mode of dress was briefly banned by Major League Baseball, which relented in a day or two under an avalache of laughter. The Tampa Bay manager got a new hooded sweat shirt Wednesday - a personalized Patriots hoodie in the mail from New England coach Bill Belichick, America's most famous hoodie wearer. The jacket he sent Maddon has "J.M. " on the front. "Very cool," said Maddon, before heading off for an Eminem concert.

Joe Maddon had a good reason for interrupting his honeymoon. About an hour after he landed in Rome, Maddon easily won the American League Manager of the Year award yesterday for guiding Tampa Bay from baseball's basement to the World Series in one astonishing season. Lou Piniella took the NL honor after leading the Chicago Cubs to the league's best record. Maddon, who succeeded Piniella as Tampa Bay manager in 2006, was a runaway winner in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

NEW YORK - Kirk Gibson and Joe Maddon won manager of the year awards Wednesday - one for overseeing a worst-to-first turnaround that lasted all season, the other after a frantic playoff push in the final month. Gibson was a clear choice in the National League for guiding the Arizona Diamondbacks to the West title. A former MVP as a rough-and-tumble outfielder, Gibson was honored in his first full season as a big-league manager. Maddon won the American League award for the second time.

KIRK GIBSON and Joe Maddon won Manager of the Year Awards yesterday - one for overseeing a worst-to-first turnaround that lasted all season, the other after a frantic playoff push in the final month. Gibson was a clear choice in the NL for guiding the Arizona Diamondbacks to the West title. A former MVP as a rough-and-tumble outfielder, Gibson was honored in his first full season as a big-league manager. "I certainly had a vision," Gibson said on a conference call during a vacation in northern Michigan, adding, "It's certainly not all because of me. " Maddon won the AL award for the second time.

NEW YORK - Kirk Gibson and Joe Maddon won manager of the year awards Wednesday - one for overseeing a worst-to-first turnaround that lasted all season, the other after a frantic playoff push in the final month. Gibson was a clear choice in the National League for guiding the Arizona Diamondbacks to the West title. A former MVP as a rough-and-tumble outfielder, Gibson was honored in his first full season as a big-league manager. Maddon won the American League award for the second time.

ARLINGTON, Texas - Matt Moore was the ultimate wild card. Making only his second major-league start, Moore looked like an ace in pitching seven innings of two-hit ball Friday as the improbable Tampa Bay Rays opened the real playoffs with a 9-0 victory over the defending AL champion Texas Rangers. Kelly Shoppach homered twice and drove in five runs, and Johnny Damon also homered as Tampa Bay dominated the whole way behind their 22-year-old rookie pitcher. The Rays played for the first time since their dramatic rally on the final day of the regular season.

Here's a compelling reason for Phillies fans to root for Tampa Bay to catch Boston in the AL wild-card race. If the Rays accomplish the feat, they can soothe a bitter memory, a little. The Rays were nine games back of the Red Sox heading into play on Sept. 4. No major-league team has overcome a nine-game deficit in September to claim a postseason berth. The closest was the St. Louis Cardinals, who trailed the Phils by 81/2 games on Sept. 3, 1964, made up the ground, and went on to win the World Series, a Phils collapse that Touch 'Em All eminence grise Don McKee can recite by rote.

Say it ain't so, Joe Joe Maddon makes it all sound reasonable. But really, does baseball need more instant replay? All you have to do is look at the NFL to see it's not a good idea, for a variety of reasons. The Tampa Bay Rays manager thinks baseball should examine controversial calls this season to see whether expanded instant replay would have an impact on those situations. Maddon's remarks came after he was tossed Wednesday night when the umpires got together and reversed a call that had favored the Rays.

CHICAGO - Paul Konerko hit two home runs and Gavin Floyd pitched eight masterful innings Sunday as the Chicago White Sox beat the slumping Tampa Bay Rays, 6-1. Konerko's solo homers in the first and fifth innings gave him three this season. He has a 10-game hitting streak dating from last year and has driven in a run in all but one game for Chicago this season. The loss dropped the Rays to 1-8, the worst start to a season in franchise history. Tampa Bay has scored 11 runs in its eight losses, and put nine runs on the board in its only win. Floyd (1-0)