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The GOP Presidential Candidate in 2020 Should Be…

by John on 07/24/2017

Joe_MaddonJoe Maddon.

That’s right. The Cubs’ Manager should be the Republican standard bearer.

Yup, the Party of Lincoln should go to the bullpen in the proverbial first inning before things get way too out of hand.

So, you’re going to argue that a reality show host is better?

Is this tongue in cheek?  Maybe, but no.  Hey, we elected Trump.  You hear about other entertainers wanting to run for office now.   A baseball manager is just as much in the entertainment business.

Hear me out, though.

Watch the story about Maddon’s efforts in his hometown on NBC’s Sunday Night with Megan Kelly.

big data baseballThen read this book, Big Data Baseball, which shows Maddon’s success as manager of the Tampa Bay Rays and how he helped change baseball.

Why bring in a baseball manager to run the country?

  1. I predicted Trump’s nomination more than a year before it happened. Like many of you who wanted Trump, I understood why.  You wanted Washington to work for you, not for themselves. You realized that only a small percentage of Americans were thriving.
  2. Trump’s chances of getting reelected, let alone re-nominated, seem very low because he has failed on almost every promise. Sure, there is a core of Trump supporters who will stay with him. But the majority of Americans are very transactional: they will see there are no results and the inability of this President to solve our problems.
  3. Maddon fulfills everything that Trump promised but never delivered.  Maddon is a manager of people and a problem solver.  He made the Cubs a World Series champ!  It hadn’t been done in more than a century!  Maddon never declared bankruptcy.

Consider all this:

  • Maddon understands facts and research.  He took the Tampa Bay Rays, an expansion franchise, and turned them into a perennial contender even though they had little money and a lack of talent. Maddon used big data to turn his team into defensive stalwarts.  Defense and pitching win games and championships.  He was one of the first to embrace defensive shifting where he would load more fielders on one side of the diamond based on hitters’ tendencies cutting down on hits and runs by the opposing team.  Trust me, I am a Red Sox fan. Whenever the Red Sox played in Tampa I felt they were always underdogs despite having better talent.  On the other hand, Trump seems confused about basics like the difference between Medicare and Medicaid.
  • Maddon knows how to bring people together.  He made baseball fun for his players.  They had pajama parties. They celebrated every win with a party inside a party room. 
  • But Maddon also holds his players accountable.  Look at what happened to his Cubs Catcher Miguel Montero who couldn’t throw out any base runners stealing.  Instead, Montero blamed the pitchers for not holding the runners closer.  Publicly blaming a teammate is a no-no with Maddon.  Montero was optioned to the minors and then traded to Toronto. You could say Maddon deported him to Canada!   Montero wasn’t discarded from the World Champs because of his abilities — he was a 2-time all-star — but because of his inability to be a teammate.  
  • Maddon knows how to take his expertise and use it to help people in everyday life.  Again, I urge you to watch the Megan Kelly piece.  He went back to his hometown of Hazleton, Pennsylvania and — if I may add — he made it great again.  He brought the town together when it had been divided along racial lines.  As a result, the community is doing better and businesses are making money.

Clearly, the idea of bringing in an outsider who would drain the swamp was a great idea for our next President.  Now many of us are realizing we just chose the wrong outsider.

Let’s call in Joe Maddon then.

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