Maddon: 'Don't have [show] in Tampa Bay'

Speaking prior to his team's game against the Red Sox Friday afternoon at Fenway Park, Rays manager Joe Maddon laughed when asked if he could imagine having a weekly radio show in another city other than the one his team plays in. "I don't even have one in our own city," he said. "I don't have one in Tampa Bay."

The question was asked due to the controversy surrounding Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine's weekly appearance on a New York sports radio station. 

Maddon said if he was to start a radio show, it would most likely be in his hometown of Hazleton, Penn. "I could have one on WAZL, the mighty 1490," he said. "That's the place I would do it."

Maddon also addressed the notion that former Rays' catcher Kelly Shoppach might give the Red Sox advantage, carrying knowledge of his old team. It was one of the reasons Valentine said Shoppach got the nod in the starting lineup Friday.

"Only if the pitcher executes," Maddon said. "There's always those different thoughts, theories. At the end of the day it's about two teams, players executing on both sides. The best laid plans can go asunder if you just can't execute them.

"He has a good working knowledge of us, we have a good working knowledge of them regardless of who is catching for us. I mean J-Mo was with Toronto for the last couple of years. I don’t know if there’s a great advantage to be gained unless [Josh] Beckett throws the ball where he wants to. It’s hard to say there’s an advantage to be gained there."

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