Thursday, October 16, 2008

The difference between life-and-death and fun-and-games

How does Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon keep pro sports in perspective?

Maddon, whose team is up 3-1 on the Red Sox in the ALCS, thinks about something the Ray's director of team travel, Jeff Ziegler, a former police officer, said in a conversation once:

"He told me that when he was on the police force they would treat their work like fun and games when it was really life and death. He said he was surprised when he came to baseball and found that people treated it like life and death when it's fun and games. I try to remember that."