Joe Maddon: Phillies fans caused ruckus at Rays' hotel during 2008 World Series

Joe Maddon still has some vivid memories of managing the Tampa Bay Rays against the Phillies in the 2008 World Series. He spun one tale Wednesday evening before Game 2 of the Cubs-Indians World Series.

As you've probably heard by now, Cleveland was threatened with a rainstorm that forced the game to start an hour earlier than planned. That caused a reporter to ask Maddon during his pregame conference to reminisce about the last time - in fact, the only time - bad weather forced the in-game suspension of a World Series contest.

Said game, of course, was the one in which the Phillies ultimately clinched the title.

The suspension of play caused the teams enough of a headache. But things got even crazier after the Rays left Citizens Bank Park that night. Here's Maddon's story:

We finally found a hotel. We had already checked out to go back to Tampa, regardless of the result of that game. So the game ends up in a suspension. Ziggy (director of team travel Jeff Zeigler) had already checked us out, so we didn't have a hotel. Did not have a hotel. Everybody's bags were in the truck or whatever.

So we found a hotel in Wilmington, Delaware -- the du Pont, I think it was. I remember at 1:00 in the morning, the entire organization is standing in this magnificent lobby there, and I thought that was a pretty cool moment having us all there at the same time under some really difficult circumstances. But even being down in the series, et cetera, it was still kind of a memory that I'll always remember.

The Philly fans, they knew we were there somehow. Five o'clock in the morning they're driving around the hotel blowing the horn, trying to wake everybody up at 5:00 in the morning, 6:00 in the morning.

[...]

You want to play the game all the way through. It's a little bit different right now. But that's my recollection. It was really an awkward moment, not knowing exactly what was going to happen, had we not scored that run in the top of the fifth inning. But the weather conditions were extreme. But it's still one of my better memories in baseball.

I don't know how many managers would say that sort of thing is a good memory, but Joe Maddon is far from your usual bench boss. Props to him for being so gregarious about the episode now.

Here's a New York Times article about that night.