Maddon honored for service to hometown

HAZLETON, Pa. — To his old friends here, he’s just Joey. He easily slips back into saying “youse” and referring to pizza as “pitz.” For everyone else, Saturday was Joe Maddon Day.

The Cubs manager was honored by his hometown for his years of service to the community. And, yeah, the fact that the Cubbies won the World Series for the first time in 108 years this fall had a little something to do with it, too.

Maddon likes talking about baseball. But he lights up when the subject turns to efforts to give back to the community. And he totally gets that the Cubs’ historic victory provides a bigger platform for him to talk about the things that are near and dear to his heart.

“That’s the really cool part about it,” he said. “It really supersedes baseball for me. When I get questions or interviews about [community work], that’s when I really do light up. So anything we can do to get out the word and make people more aware of what’s happening here, and how important it is and the strides we’ve been making, that to me is very exciting.”

About 200 people braved wintry weather to attend Saturday night’s event at the Hazleton One Community Center, home of the Hazleton Integration Project, which Madden helped found in 2011. The center serves about 2,000 people a week with a variety of classes and programs.

A procession of government leaders, including Pennsylvania Secretary of State Pedro Cortes, State Representative Tarah Toohil and Hazleton Mayor Jeff Cusat, saluted the local kid who made it big. Maddon was a standout athlete at …

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