The Reckoning Begins as Chicago Cubs Part Ways with Joe Maddon

Ironically, the ultimate proof that Joe Maddon performed walk-on-water miracles for the Chicago Cubs is the very fact that as of Sunday afternoon, he was finished in Chicago.

There was a time when any manager leading the Chicago Cubs to a World Series championship would have had the job for life. For two lives. Tell people back in 1950 or 1970 or 1990 that the team would willingly bid farewell to a man just three years removed from leading the Cubs to a World Series title, and they would have demanded, What's next? People carrying phones with them 24/7 and actually snapping pictures with the devices, too?

Well, yeah.

Times change. Maddon no longer has the keys to Wrigley Field because it is a…