Maddon is a player in this

Dusty Baker, Felipe Alou, and Tony Pena are all former star players who will draw strong support in Manager of the Year balloting, which will be announced in the coming days. Joe Torre will go to the Hall of Fame because of his success as manager of the Yankees, not because he won an MVP award as a Cardinals third baseman. Maddon works as bench coach for Mike Scioscia, who in 2002 was honored as the American League's Manager of the Year after guiding the Angels to a World Series title but before that won a World Series ring as the heart-and-soul catcher of the 1988 Dodgers.

The Orioles reached into the former-player bag when they named Lee Mazzilli, the former Mets bonus baby, as their manager Friday.

Of the 30 major league teams, 26 have managers who had at least a cup of coffee in the big leagues. The Sox were not one of those teams. Grady Little never got past Double A as a minor league catcher. Jack McKeon, the 72-year-old baseball lifer, won a World Series with the Florida Marlins and never played. Buck Showalter of the Rangers and Dave Miley of the Reds never made it to the big leagues.

And Maddon, who has an interview scheduled this week (most likely Wednesday) with Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein, never played past Single A ball.

Maddon, 49, said yesterday he suspects that may be the primary reason he never has interviewed for a big-league managing job outside of the Angels, the only organization for which he has worked. And he may have a point, because otherwise Maddon brings the kind of credentials that would attract attention: bright, organized, honest, innovative, personable, communicative, with a broad background as a minor league manager, hitting instructor, player development executive, and big-league coach.

The native of Hazelton, Pa., who attended Lafayette College as an economics major, loves Springsteen, is hoping to catch Simon and Garfunkel next weekend in Anaheim, and is well-read, counting Pat Conroy ("Prince of Tides," "Beach House") as one of his favorite authors. Angels people praise his sense of humor and uniformly positive outlook on life. And he said he always has counted Boston as one of his favorite stops.

What makes him best qualified to manage the Sox?

"Myself," he said yesterday by phone from California. "I think I'm an organizer. I know I am. My good training in different positions in the past has given me specific ideas about what I like to do offensively, defensively, and with a pitching staff.

"I don't want to sound pretentious, but the stuff I bring is a baseball thing. I've been doing this for a long time, and I've had some really wonderful mentors."

Maddon cited former Angels coach Bob Clear, pitching guru Marcel Lachemann, former Sox hitting coach Rick Down, Dodger hitting coach Ben Himes, and former infielders Bobby Knoop and Larry Bowa as major influences in developing his philosophies. He also had a good word for a former Sox manager, John McNamara.

"He was a master at running things and organizing things," Maddon said, "and he had a tremendous air of calm that was very infectious, and important in any situation."

Maddon knows his way around a computer.

"I've been using one since 1990," he said. "I use it as an organizational tool. I like looking at numbers, but I like making them simple. For me, the most important thing is to take a lot of numbers and simplify them. Players can't hold onto a lot of stuff during a game. There's a fine balance between giving them information and still allowing them to play unobstructed."

No one was more organized and had a better grasp of statistics in Boston than Joe Kerrigan, who played a major role in Jason Varitek's success here, but other players found Kerrigan's reliance on numbers overbearing and stultifying. Maddon noted that you have to recognize that some players are more receptive to and better equipped at handling information than others, and you should proceed accordingly.

But for all his affinity for stats, and his enthusiasm for the intricacies of the game, Maddon has clarity about what separates the successful managers from the also-rans.

"Understanding the pulse of the players," he said. "That makes all the difference."

That would appear to have been Little's strength in Boston, judging by the testimonials offered by players.

"I haven't been there," Maddon said. "I haven't lived in Grady's situation. I like Grady a lot. I thought he did a great job. You have to live it first-hand to understand.

"Maybe the standards are higher there. So be it. You could still be very successful and called a failure. That's the way it is. But that's cool. You know that going in."

That's something you understand, whether or not you played in the big leagues.

You don't say

One of the more remarkable aspects of Pedro Martinez's conference call Friday was his acknowledgment that he may have to sign for less money in his next contract, a startling admission for any superstar who is still productive. Epstein made it obvious he plans to go to the GM meetings in Arizona with an open mind regarding deals, granting no one on the current roster untouchable status. Epstein reiterated in a conference call Friday that Nomar Garciaparra has not given him any reason to believe he doesn't want to come back. Epstein, on having so many marquee players entering the last year of their contracts (Martinez, Garciaparra, Derek Lowe, Trot Nixon, and Varitek): "When players go into the final year of their contracts, which is something that happens all the time in baseball, it creates an interesting dynamic but one that these guys are paid to deal with. Virtually all the players on our team are true professionals who deal with bigger distractions than that in the course of their career. If you look at the Florida Marlins team that won the World Series, as well as the Yankees, as well as the other teams in the playoffs, they all had players going into the final year of their contracts and they were able to perform and in a large part were responsible for the success of their clubs. I don't think it's a distraction that's insurmountable in any way." As for the possibility of free agents walking without the Sox getting anything in return (Roger Clemens and Mo Vaughn revisited), Epstein said: "It's not an ideal situation, but it's something that we can live with if we're not able to work something out that makes sense for both sides. What's forgotten in that analysis of not getting anything in return if indeed a player were to play out his contract in Boston and not re-sign with us at this time next year is the value of a season, and the value of a winning season. How can you put a figure on how valuable the 2003 season was for all of us associated with the Red Sox, the players, the fans? It was a tremendous ride and we didn't even get to the World Series this year. I think we have big plans for 2004 and beyond, but the players you're talking about -- if indeed any of them do play out the season and not re-sign with Boston -- will have been parts of a very important season in 2004. You can't look at players just as assets, and assets that you have to translate into future assets. They're part of the team in 2004. I'm sure it will work out, and we hope it will work out that core will remain part of Red Sox winning teams in the future. But right now, 2004 is very important. We're not just going to make a trade with a player for the sake of transferring that asset when it might not be the best thing for 2004 and beyond."

Market forces

There are more than 200 free agents on the market, and more players will become free agents when they're nontendered contracts on Dec. 20, and the big names -- Vladimir Guerrero, Gary Sheffield, Pudge Rodriguez, Andy Pettitte, Bartolo Colon -- can't count on the wide-open bidding that occurred in the past. The baseball calendar, which used to end right after the winter meetings, now extends nearly to the start of spring training in terms of player movement. "I think it's going to be a long offseason," said Epstein, who scored big last January by adding David Ortiz and Kevin Millar. "I know that for certain." On the eve of the GM meetings, the Yankees have stirred some excitement in reports that they have targeted Arizona ace Curt Schilling as a potential acquisition, but Schilling, who turns 37 Friday, would have to waive his no-trade clause. Schilling told ESPN's Dan Patrick he probably wouldn't do so, but was less certain in comments he made elsewhere. Schilling is due to be paid $12 million in the last year of his contract (half that money is deferred), and the Diamondbacks are looking for ways to reduce payroll from $95 million to $80 million . . . And allow me to wish a happy 50th anniversary to two of my favorite people, Lionel and Dely Edes. Stay together a few more years and you just might see a World Series.

Material from personal interviews, wire service reports, other beat writers, and league sources was used in this report.