Ex-Cubs skipper Joe Maddon on why baseball stopped loving him back

Joe Maddon still meditates every morning — 10 to 15 minutes upon waking, in his bed, a pillow over his eyes, deep breaths, focusing on what he’d like to make of the day ahead.

The ritual lasted longer when he was still managing in the big leagues, which he hasn’t done since the Angels fired him 56 games into the 2022 season. At 72, the top item on his agenda these days is often a round of golf at the country club outside his hometown of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, where he plays with the same pals he’s had since childhood.

Even if Maddon has fewer urgent matters on which to ruminate than he did, say, as the Cubs were closing in on a curse-busting 2016 world championship, he remains a thinker, a…