The son of an Italian father, Joe Sr. (who shortened the family name from Maddonini), and a Polish mother, Albina Klocek, Joseph John Maddon, Jr. grew up in an apartment over his father's plumbing shop in West Hazelton, PA. His father died in 2002.

Joe has managed the Los Angeles Angels, the Tampa Bay Rays and the Chicago Cubs. He is a three-time Manager of the Year Award winner (2008/AL, 2011/AL & 2015/NL), and has won four Division Titles (2008, 2010, 2016 & 2017).

Maddon began his professional career playing in Minor League Baseball as a catcher, signing with the California Angels organization as a free agent in 1975, but never advanced higher than Class A, in which he played for four seasons.

He began his coaching career in MLB with the Angels in 1994 and proceeded to manage the Rays from 2006 through 2014, winning the 2008 American League pennant.

After opting out of his contract following the 2014 season, Joe joined the Cubs, led them to the 2015 National League Championship Series and was named the 2015 National League Manager of the Year. In 2016, Maddon managed the Cubs to their first World Series title since 1908.

Unorthodox, tactical and inventive, he was the first manager to systematically use defensive shifts against opposite batters, when their use had been sporadic before; he was soon imitated by many of his peers. Part of his way of thinking is that he likes to keep the opposing manager wondering what he will come up with next, something which was characteristic of managers such as Earl Weaver and Gene Mauch in an earlier era. However, if those two were high-strung and intense personalities, Maddon is quite laid-back and knows how to keep things in perspective, making him extremely well-liked by his players..

(excerpted from BR Bullpen & Wikipedia)