Imrem: Joe Maddon's focus stays on Chicago Cubs

As of Tuesday afternoon, Joe Maddon had no concrete plans for Wednesday night.

Maybe the Cubs manager will check out whether anything's up at the Music Box Theatre. Maybe he'll go to a wine tasting. Maybe he'll go barn dancing.

The man has a variety of interests … so who knows?

Maddon might even take time to watch the Giants and Mets play in the National League wild-card game.

“What time does it start?” Maddon asked.

For the record, first pitch in New York is scheduled for 7:09 p.m. in Chicago.

“I'll watch … probably,” Maddon said. “I don't know exactly where.”

Not that the game is important to the Cubs or anything.

It's just that Friday night in Wrigley Field, the Giants-Mets winner will play the Cubs in Game 1 of the NL division series.

The question: Something like how much he has been concentrating for the Giants and Mets.

Maddon's answer: “Zero.”

He wasn't being disrespectful to the Giants and Mets. Nor is he taking for granted that the Cubs will make a run right into the World Series.

Joe Maddon, veteran of just about everything in baseball, understands that the Cubs won't survive the postseason just because they had baseball's best regular-season record.

But Maddon is certain that the Cubs have to be focused on themselves than on any other team.

Maddon often cites historical figures, and on this day it was former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden.

“Coach Wooden, the great Coach Wooden,” Maddon said, “wasn't so much concerned about the opposition (as about what his own team is doing).”

A few moments after that comment, the Cubs took the field to play a simulated game that put the fun in fundamentals.

That pretty much sums up the Maddon Way, doesn't it, mixing sweat and smiles?

There's no other explanation for center fielder Dexter Fowler batting and running the bases wearing a Miami Dolphins helmet.

“We gotta enjoy this,” Maddon said.

Then, in his inimitable way with words, he called it “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that hopefully we'll experience annually.”

When asked whether he settled on an NLDS pitching rotation, Maddon drew giggles by asking media relations director Peter Chase whether he had.

Receiving permission to proceed, Maddon rattled off Jon Lester, Kyle Hendricks, Jake Arrieta and John Lackey, with the assumption being that Lester would throw again if a Game 5 is necessary.

Cubs pitching could be why Maddon appeared less than obsessed with whether the Giants or Mets will show up Friday night.

The Cubs are so deep in starters that 15-game winner Jason Hammel might not make the first-round roster.

Workouts are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday as the Cubs prepare to play their first compelling game since clinching the NL Central title three weeks ago.

The consensus among alleged experts is that the Cubs would be better off playing the Mets, whose pitching is decimated by injuries, than the Giants, who have four quality starters.

Don't mention that to Maddon, however. Giants or Mets? He doesn't care as much about them as about the Cubs.

“Whatever happens happens,” Joe Maddon said of the Giants-Mets game. “It really is about us.”

Maybe Tuesday's simulated game was a playoff preview to him: Cubs vs. Cubs.