The run-up to last Saturday night’s Tampa Bay Rays’ game against the Toronto Blue Jays was well under way. Less than three hours and counting.
The Rays’ locker room was upbeat, a function of up-tempo, almost-loud music and emotional carry-over from the previous night’s walk-off win. Players were dressing for more success. Some were already heading out to loosen up prior to batting practice. Coaches were busy with their pre-game routines.
Another day at the MLB office.
And Joe Maddon, the office manager of this over-achieving franchise that is once again in the late summer playoffs hunt, was in his adjacent digs waxing animated and passionate about something. How much the team needed Matt Moore back in the rotation? No. The approaching stretch run with little relief from off-days? No. The intriguingly ironic prospect of adding former Ray Delmon Young to the roster mix? No. The implications of ever-evolving rules on instant replay? No.
Maddon, 59, was actually reflecting on the 2010 winter of his epiphany–in his hometown of Hazleton, Pa. Prepping for the Jays’ game could wait a little longer.
He leaned forward at his desk and recalled that on a December visit home he had been viscerally impacted by what he had seen: a Hazleton he barely recognized. It was a community being torn apart by a cultural chasm steeped in ignorance. “I was upset,” said Maddon. “I was a lot upset. Our town’s gonna die, I thought. We are pushing people apart–and away.”
Hazleton is a hardscrabble town of about 25,000 in eastern Pennsylvania. Its roots are anthracite coal–and generations of European immigrants. Now the city is 40 percent Hispanic. In the 2000 census, it was less than 5 percent.
The changes have been abrupt and disruptive. Linguistic and cultural divides–abetted by the animus of stereotypes and mutual distrust–had replaced melting-pot metaphors. A few years back, Hazleton even achieved national notoriety when it passed the Illegal Immigration Relief Act to formally discourage the hiring of or renting to illegal immigrants. A federal judge later struck it down, but “60 Minutes” dropped in for a segment on the turmoil and controversy.
“This wasn’t what it was like when I was growing up,” pointed out the son of plumber Joe Maddonini (who contracted the family name) and waitress Albina Klocek. “Generations ago it was Poles and Italians and Slavs and Irish. And we thrived because of our grandparents.
“Sure, they had problems and they had stereotypes back in the day,” Maddon added. “But we overcame that kind of thinking. Now we have an updated version of the same problem. And we have an opportunity to relive history if we can bring people, especially the children, together.”
HIP Founded
To that end, in 2011 Maddon created the Hazleton Integration Project (HIP) to foster dialogue between the Hispanic and Anglo communities and facilitate a forum for breaking down barriers and unifying the varied cultures. Volunteers, fund-raisers and corporate donors followed. Key partners were the Ripken Baseball Foundation and the nascent HIP board of directors.
Then two months ago, Maddon personally did the ribbon cutting for the Hazleton One Community Center, a neutral place where disadvantaged children from both sides of the divide could participate in no-cost or low-cost cultural, educational and sports programs. The eclectic activities range from arts and crafts, guitar lessons, volleyball and family yoga to Spanish- and English as a Second Language classes.
It began with an enrollment goal of 200-250. It now enrolls more than 700. It’s open six days a week, 9:00 a.m. to 8 p.m. It has one paid employee and approximately 50 volunteers.
“We heard no Anglos would come to the center,” said Bob Curry, president of HIP’s board of directors. “We’ve all been proven wrong. We’re providing healthy alternatives to the streets. We teach respect for all ethnicities. Without Joe, we could not have done what we have done. You can see people getting more used to working together. His impact on this community is profound. That he is the flag bearer for this movement is huge.
“There are a lot of celebrities who talk a good game about their home town, but Joe is fully invested,” added Curry. “We’re in touch all the time.”
Reaching The Kids
In fact, here in the baseball manager’s clubhouse office, Maddon seemed a light year from a pennant race and what to expect from Roberto Hernandez down the stretch. In baseball, there’s always next year. In Hazleton, the future–absent a game-changing intervention–had been anything but viable until a few years ago.
“There are some people who want to see other people fail,” asserted Maddon. “People can teach their kids to hate. This is what we have to eliminate. Eliminate the small-minded thinking. All this superficial nonsense. You get the kids together, and it will be overcome. I believe that.”
Maddon also believes HIP can be a model for other areas similarly frustrated by societal fault lines. “If we are successful, I can see this initially spreading to the outlying areas in Northeast Pennsylvania,” said Maddon. “What we’re stressing is communication, trust and respect. That’s what permits civilizations to survive and succeed.”
And, no, it’s hardly lost on Maddon that the baseball team he manages is a high-profile, cross-cultural microcosm of Anglos, African-Americans and Hispanics. “We live it every day,” he underscored.
But don’t look for the opinionated Maddon–whose large reservoir of Hispanic friends includes recent Hazleton acquaintances as well as roommates, teammates and players across the decades– to get caught up in the polarizing politics of immigration. It’s not his style or milieu–even though some may discern a kumbaya side and some may yearn for a political endorsement.
“I’m not apolitical,” he explained, “but I don’t see this as a Democratic or Republican issue. I try to look at both sides. I’m not qualified legally. But to me the reality is this: People are here. Now are they ‘illegal people’ or is this an ‘illegal process?'”
We’ll give the final–apolitical–word to his friend of nearly 40 years, Bob Curry.
“Joe has always seemed to intuitively do the right thing,” assessed HIP’s Curry. “He has helped the people of Hazleton feel good about themselves. His success is a collective success. And when you get the right person asking the right questions, your community will listen. And your community will trust.”