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Joe Maddon hosts hometown fundraiser with help from Bill Murray

Mark Townsend
·Yahoo Sports Contributor

The passion, energy and goodwill of Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon may be unmatched within the baseball world. If there’s one person outside baseball who matches it, it would be actor, comedian and diehard Cubs fan Bill Murray.

On Friday, those two forces of positive energy reunited in Maddon’s hometown of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, and they did so for a good cause as Maddon hosted his annual Hazleton Integration Project fundraiser.

The event served as the official kickoff to a weekend filled with activities benefiting Maddon’s hometown project. Maddon himself arrived early, helping to break ground on a new $250,000 playground project on Thursday.

According to the Citizens’ Voice, Hazleton Creek Properties founder William Rinaldi is covering the costs for that project, which is certainly worthy of its own acknowledgement. But the massive playground is just one extension of a bigger movement Maddon has spearheaded that’s aimed at uniting the many diverse cultures that now populate Hazleton.

Since helping to form the Hazleton Integration Project (HIP) in 2011, Maddon has made it a point to return home during the holiday season to continue giving back and to witness the progress that’s been made.

“Joe obviously hasn’t forgotten where he came from and hopefully we mentor some of these children so when they grow up, and they do successful things, they won’t forget where they came from,” Rinaldi told those gathered at the groundbreaking.

“It’s very important that people like him actually help people in the community,” said Luis Baez, a volunteer at the Hazleton One Community Center. “He did a really nice thing actually. I’ve never seen someone like him. These days, they don’t do that anymore.”

Like most years, Maddon didn’t come alone. He’s never brought a star quite like Murray though, who not surprisingly served as the life of the party.

Murray appeared at the fundraising auction Friday night. Other luminaries in attendance were ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian, Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, MLB Network’s Peter Gammons, MLB.com’s Lindsay Berra, who is the granddaughter of the legendary Yogi Berra, and boxer Tim Witherspoon.

Lifelong Cubs fan Bill Murray (left) and manager Joe Maddon have become fast friends in Chicago. (Getty Images)
Lifelong Cubs fan Bill Murray (left) and manager Joe Maddon have become fast friends in Chicago. (Getty Images)

Organizers say that the event was sold out, making it another highly successful weekend for the Maddon, HIP and the Hazleton community.

“It’s all about creating a positive environment for kids to grow up in,” Maddon told Lindsay Berra. “When I grew up, Hazleton was the best place in the world to grow up, and then it was not. My goal is that kids growing up here will come back 10 years from now and be able to say, ‘Man, that was the best place in the world to grow up.'”

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!