Andrew Friedman returns

The architect of the Rays’ glory days will grace the FruitDome today and Wednesday with a much larger bank account.

Andrew Friedman, the whiz behind the curtain for the Rays/Devil Rays from 2005 to 2014, can kick up his feet at his old digs when the Dodgers make a rare appearance at the Trop. Friedman was Tampa Bay’s executive vice president of baseball operations before receiving big dough in la-la land to become the Dodgers’ president of baseball ops, a move that led to Joe Maddon becoming the Cubs’ Papa Bear.

Looking back, maybe we didn’t realize how lucky we were to have Friedman serving as the stage director for Maddon’s act. Maddon was the public face of the Rays’ show, but the manager’s goofy antics would have seemed empty without Friedman’s numbers crunching. Many of the organizational philosophies that remain under Matt Silverman and manager Kevin Cash were formed with Friedman behind the wheel.

It’s fair to say that the Friedman/Maddon era was Tampa Bay’s Camelot. Unless Silverman and Cash lead the Rays to a World Series title, they won’t top what Friedman and Maddon accomplished in those years together. The pair was a baseball version of Alfred Hitchcock and Jimmy Stewart.

Friedman helped transform Tampa Bay from a sorry excuse for a baseball team into a Cinderella. He did it for pennies on the dollar, too.

Enjoy the chance to remember the golden years.