After his team’s 8–4 win in Game 1 of the NLCS, Cubs manager Joe Maddon was asked to explain the thought process behind some of the curious strategy that both he and Dodgers counterpart Dave Roberts had employed in the instant classic. "Play the game three times—before, during and after,” said Maddon. “Gene [Mauch] told me that many, many years ago."
That a manager pursuing a championship would quote the skipper who set a record for the most games managed without winning a pennant—let alone a World Series—is one of the 2016 postseason’s more interesting ironies.