Chicago Cubs: Top 3 Maddonisms we don’t want in a new skipper

Chicago Cubs: Anxiety lives in the future

This Maddonism reminds me of an old Seinfeld episode where the character George, who’s trying to keep his blood pressure down, learns of a rage-controlling exercise where he is supposed to say the phrase, “serenity now” every time he gets angry.  A high-strung person already, George begins ‘yelling’ the phrase when he gets angry, causing himself even more stress.

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Everyone gets nervous, but professionals use that nervous energy to create plays on the field. So why are we running from anxiety? A new Chicago Cubs manager’s theme could very well be, “Anxiety now!”

Epstein wants the pressure, the fear of losing, the must-win every game attitude to begin on Opening Day, not in late September. Epstein even mentioned how the team doesn’t seem to get serious until September because they seemed to think they can always get it done. For the past two years, they haven’t, though, and too many games slipped away during the season. There needs to be a sense of urgency now to get it done. Anxiety now!

Offensive production is down. Where is the sense of urgency? Epstein wants to see a new manager that sees it “all” as an emergency. Of course, an emergency said manager will fix.

It seems the only real anxiety Maddon felt was during his pitching changes and relief decisions. This is where a new manager has to be smart and not over-think the issue or problem. The former Chicago skipper could never get the timing right for making changes.

He would either move his pitchers too early or too late and Maddon did get it right once in awhile as well to be fair. Epstein’s new skipper needs to feel the anxiety for moving pitching at anytime necessary but understand timing is everything.

Let the anxiety begin and flow daily until the season is over. Anxiety now! Not in the future.