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SUGARLOAF TWP. – Nostalgia is probably the greatest drug of all to Joe Maddon.
As has become tradition, Maddon returned to Hazleton with his famous friends at his side, Christmas spirit in his gait, and glowing sentimentality of his hometown.
With a self-claimed Philadelphia Eagles-colored suit jacket and The Office references at his disposal, the Chicago Cubs manager was back to his Northeastern Pennsylvania roots on Friday night at the second annual Around the Horn event at Valley Country Club in Sugarloaf Township.
The event raised money for the Respect 90 Foundation. Proceeds will go directly to the Hazleton Integration Project. HIP is a multicultural community-based effort that sustains a community center geared toward economically disadvantaged youth and adults.
“If you have a chance to go down there, you can see the actual physical building improving on an annual basis,” Maddon said. “With the building itself, the participation among the kids in the community in the afterschool programs, athletic programs, cultural programs for kids and adults. It’s not just for the Hispanic population; it is for everybody.”
Maddon welcomed former Chicago Bears player and coach Mike Ditka to the event. Ditka, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, accompanied the fellow Windy City icon to Hazleton. A native of a Pittsburgh area mill town, Ditka said he relates to Maddon’s passion for his economically disadvantaged hometown.
“My hometown is Aliquippa,” Ditka said. “I used to go there a lot. There’s not much there anymore. What Joe is doing here: he’s trying to help people survive in one way or another. He’s doing a good job. I like people that don’t forget where they came from.”
The former Pitt tight end met Maddon after he joined the Chicago Cubs in 2015. He said that Maddon has brought hope to Chicago, just as he has to Hazleton with the HIP Project. He spoke about playing for former NBA great Pete Maravich’s father in Aliquippa.
Ditka had to leave the event early because of a cold. In his departure, he interrupted Maddon’s press conference to jokingly yell, “Joe, I just want to say one last word, you’re a winner and I’m going.”
Maddon noted that HIP is getting Lafayette College, Temple University and Penn State University to improve the educational facilities at HIP. An accelerated honors program that features eight students demonstrates success is “measured in thimbles before it is measured in buckets.”
PBS will feature the organization on an upcoming documentary called “American Creed.” The collaboration between Pulitzer-winner David Kennedy and former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is slated for February.
“When we originally did this, we wanted to set an example for the rest of Northeastern Pennsylvania,” Maddon said. “And hopefully that it would branch out beyond that to Pennsylvania and New York. And then hopefully from corner to corner. We’re still learning on our own and getting great feedback.”
The event featured auctions for memorabilia from Orlando Cepeda, Mike Trout, Paul Goldschmidt and Noah Syndergaard. Maddon said the Cubs clubhouse people “frisked the players on the other side as well as ours.” Three corporate sponsors joined the organization to generate more money.
“Everyone keeps getting more generous,” he noted. “It’s becoming more familiar and more palatable in a sense of understanding why it is so necessary to be on board when it comes to the integration of our Hispanic brothers and sisters to our culture here.
“I work from a visceral level. I can feel it when I come home, whether it’s in the city, how people interact with me, how they talk.”
The Respect 90 Foundation has branched out to the other cities that Maddon and his wife, Jaye, call home. It works in Tampa Bay, Florida; Mesa, Arizona; and Chicago, and covers a wide array of organizations, including homes for developmentally disabled, pediatric centers and youth boxing clubs. He credits the volunteers and “people with the boots on the ground” for HIP’s success.
Maddon repeatedly acknowledged his frustration with the political climate and the inability of politicians on both sides of the aisle to come together for a common purpose.
“You just can’t seem to come together to bring the entire country together,” he said. “I really don’t understand how it’s such a difficult concept to wrap your arms around. We’re trying to do our part in Hazleton. We’re trying to unify this city and bring everyone together, and be an example for everyone in the country.”
The three-time Manager of the Year adamantly spoke of his dismay toward the disconnect, fear and decline that he saw when he first started coming back to Hazleton. Maddon said he still believes that Hazleton can return to the “best place in the United States to grow up” that it was when he was a child. To do that, adults need to live up to the example that he sees in the children of the city.
“It’s the grown-ups that aren’t connected,” he said. “The kids – they’ll hang with whoever. They don’t care if the skin tone is a little bit different or the language is a little bit different. They just know whether they like you or not. Talk about a visceral level; they’re working on the correct level. It’s the grown-ups that are screwing it all up.
“We need to start acting like kids again, and that’s what’s going to make this thing work.”
