Joe Maddon - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

The son of an Italian dad, Joe (who shortened the family name from Maddonini), and a Polish mom, Albina (Beanie), Maddon grew up in an apartment over his dad's plumbing shop. His father, Joe Sr. passed away in 2002, six months before the Angels won the World Series with Maddon as bench coach. His mother, Beanie, 78, is still a waitress at the Third Base Luncheonette restaurant in Hazleton, PA, a family business so named by his Aunt Ted in 1947 because "Third Base is the next closest place to Home."

Maddon attended Lafayette College, where he played baseball and football. He is a member of Zeta Psi fraternity. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Lafayette College on September 2, 2010.

He is a former minor league catcher, who never advanced higher than A ball, which he played for four seasons. In his four seasons, he never had more than 180 at bats, and the most home runs he ever hit was three for Salinas in 1977.

He served in the Angels organization for 31 years.

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