No Jogging in Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon gets no relief from his 3-1/2 game AL East lead over the Red Sox. Actually, it's more fair to say Maddon's players get no relief. The manager's as anal-retentive as ever, as B.J. Upton learned last night against the Rangers after jogging out a ground ball.

Manager Joe Maddon took the extraordinary — and, for Upton, extremely embarrassing — step of waiting until Upton took his position in centerfield in the bottom of the sixth inning to pull him from the game. He said Upton will be benched again tonight and is considering additional disciplinary action.

Passionate, instant-reaction anger is expected from managers; at least that's what Lou Piniella and Ozzie Guillen taught me. But Maddon is so calculating he waited for the inning to end before blowing up on Upton, just to maximize the harshness. That sort of cold rage is more frightening than spur-of-the-moment heat. The additional day off seems especially serious, considering Carl Crawford just got sent to the DL.

Buster Olney notes this sort of managerial stomping is becoming more common. So how long until Joe Torre drags Manny off the field by his ear?

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.