Episode 60 – Garrett Boorojian and Joe Maddon discuss relationship building in a team environment.
On relationship building: “It means everything.” – Joe Maddon
Joe’s feedback about his conversation with Garrett: “Thanks Garrett, great preparation, I really appreciate that too and good luck with the number 61.”
Specifically, Garrett and Joe had an incredible conversation (Episode 60) about his (Joe’s) youth / upbringing in Hazleton, Pennsylvania; growth, development, and leadership in baseball – as a player, coach, and World Series Manager and Champion; mentors / role models in the game; special connections with Joe Namath and fellow coaches and players over the decades; team–first attitude and innovative approach / philosophy to the game, and thoughts regarding the evolution of today’s development of MLB coaches and players; personal views regarding the role of analytics today that Joe knew so much about back in the 1990s; Tampa Bay Rays’ “Game 162” in 2011; Joe’s great respect for baseball writers / journalists; Respect 90 Foundation partnered with his former Executive Director Rick Vaughn; Hazleton Integration Project; podcast and “The Book of Joe” that Joe co–wrote with Tom Verducci; etc.
Garrett truly appreciated all of Joe’s insight and wisdom, about baseball and life, for Garrett and his audience to listen to and learn from Joe.
In his final words in their interview about relationship building in a team environment, Joe said “listening skills to [him] are so underrated and not spoken about enough.”
After the interview, off–line, Joe flipped his camera around and showed Garrett the picturesque Thomas Kinkade–like scene overlooking Joe’s backyard in Hazleton. Garrett and Joe looked out in the distance beyond Joe’s golf course. Joe wanted Garrett to see what he was seeing during their interview. When they met at the Tampa Baseball Museum at the Al Lopez House, Joe recommended to Garrett that their interview take place when Joe was back in Hazleton because he loves the environment (“setup”) there. Joe mentioned that he was growing tomatoes in his garden and loves Italian cuisine. Garrett’s wife, Angela, and son, Peter, are Italian Catholic like Joe – hence another quality Joe’s and Garrett’s families have in common. Joe then played a full morning of golf after their interview.
When this interview occurred on the morning of May 8th, 2025, it was just a few short hours before a new pope (Pope Leo) was chosen as the first American pope in history – and who grew up in Chicago!
Given that Joe is Italian Catholic, and that he led the Chicago Cubs to a World Series Championship in 2016 (that broke the 108–year drought for the Cubs), it certainly was meant to be for Garrett to interview Joe on the same day that Pope Leo made his first public appearance to the world from the Vatican.