Joe Maddon Still Won't Own Up to Anything

No one is questioning Rays' manager Joe Maddon's baseball knowledge.  No one is that stupid.  Instead, what should fall under the microscope is how Maddon treats his players and treats the game.

In late May, the Red Sox and Rays squared off at Fenway Park after a few pitches found their way into batters.  The Rays were the first team to throw at a batter, but when the Sox followed suit, Maddon called them out, saying it was a "really week, cowardly effort on their part."

Tuesday night, the Rays were in our nation's capital for a series with the Nationals.  Late in the game, Rays reliever Joel Peralta took the mound, and shortly thereafter was surrounded by umpires.  Nationals manager Davey Johnson asked crew chief Tim Tschida to check Peralta's glove for pine tar, which he did, and found "a significant amount of pine tar."  Peralta was ejected from the game, and will probably serve a suspension. Despite this, the Rays held on for a 5-4 victory.

So what's got Joe Maddon's panties in a bundle?

"'Insider trading, man. It's bush,'' Maddon said. ''It's bogus. That's way too easy, right there.''

Peralta was a member of the Nationals in 2010, so naturally, the Rays believe it was some disgruntled teammate who leaked the news.  What's really bogus?  The fact that Maddon nor any of his players will own up to their mistakes -- own up to cheating or to playing dirty.  Peralta made himself look totally innocent after the game, though...

"'That's a glove that I use for batting practice every day,'' he said. ''I'm every day playing catch with it, it's hot here - that's all I'm going to say about it.''

Free this man!  How did Maddon respond?  By saying that every player cheats, that his team is not the only team, and that the game essentially has no integrity anymore.

"They use it on bats all the time, hitters are able to use it when they go up to home plate.  I'm sure there's times when the ball is thrown around the infield, it can come back a little bit more sticky that before.  It just happens."

False.  Then Maddon went even further to make himself look like an idiot when Tschida told him he was allowed to check one player on the Nationals.  He chose Ryan Mattheus, and the results came back negative.  At this point, you'd think Maddon would come around and just shut up about the whole thing, but no -- seems like this will go on for a while.

"I promise you one thing, you're going to see brand-new gloves throughout the major leagues starting tomorrow, with pitchers on every major league ball club.''