When you think of unorthodox in baseball, Joe Maddon comes right to mind.
And, with time, it seems like Gabe Kapler won't be far behind.
In his first three games as a big-league manager, the Phillies' skipper has already turned some heads, but for the wrong reasons.
Like the Cubs' Maddon, a risk-taking manager who will breach conventional thinking more than anybody, Kapler very well could bring a similar vibe to the new Phillies.
That being an outside-of-the-box, analytical-driven approach, which may leave the old-school baseball fan scratching their head from time to time.
Can such peculiarity work in a city like Philadelphia?
Maddon, who managed Kapler, put things quite perfectly in a terrific piece by The New York Times' Tyler Kepner.
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He's strong enough to absorb any blows he's going to get in the beginning, because definitely, the cheesesteak guys aren’t going to dig on that early on. Maybe the sushi people will be O.K., but not the cheesesteaks. So he's going to have to fight through that.
I know these folks, I’ve been there. But they have a nice team, and as they continue to blossom and his stuff works, the cheesesteak guys will start eating sushi.
Well, the cheesesteak guys won't start eating sushi — that might be a stretch.
But, hey, with some patience (and winning), maybe the cheesesteak guys can understand why sushi is good, too.
Kapler obviously has some convincing to do.
Nobody said going from cheesesteaks to sushi would be easy.