Sarah Lauch, the award-winning executive producer of Comcast SportsNet Chicago’s Original Content, was greeted warmly when she and her crew arrived to tape a documentary about colorful Chicago Cubs manager, Joe Maddon, in his hometown of Hazleton, Pa.
Lauch and her crew — CSN’s “Insider” writer Patrick Mooney, who provides daily Cub coverage, videographers Scott Changnon and Pat Gostele — were taping the half hour doc, “Going Home: Joe Maddon,” that airs on CSN Thursday, Jan. 14 at 9:30 p.m.
They taped for three days in Hazleton, a city of 25,000, in December. That was a year since the Cubs hired Maddon from the Tampa Bay Rays and after Mooney heard about Maddon’s philanthropic and coaching work in his hometown.
Then, CSN had to wait until after the Cubs 2015 season ended — with Maddon leading the team to the 2015 National League Championship — before they could start production.
“The first person we met when we got to Hazleton was Joe’s mom, Albina (aka Beanie),” Lauch said. “She was rolling meatballs and cracking jokes. We had lunch at the Third Base Luncheonette, where she still works four days a week.”
This was all part of the doc about how Maddon still makes an impact on his hometown, even being away most of the year.
Tensions between longtime residents and newcomer Latinos had bubbled over in recent years and the community center brought all cultures together.
“The police chief said the community center literally has changed the town from what it was five years ago,” said Lauch, who also edited the doc.
“I grew up in a small town like that so I kind of knew what we were going into,” Lauch said. “But no one can realize the impact Joe Maddon makes every day, even when he’s not present. One of the last sound bites was about how his heart is always there, but he wishes he could do more.”
Lauch originally planned to shoot a doc in Cuba
Lauch’s Maddon assignment came by the luck of the draw – and the expiration date on her passport.
She originally was scheduled to helm a Comcast crew in Cuba, taping a Major League Baseball delegation of players and officials on an instructional and goodwill tour of the island. But her passport had just expired.
“Kevin Cross (CSN Chicago’s news director) pointed at me in a meeting and asked, ‘You got your passport?’” Lauch recalled. “I said, ‘Funny you should say that, I was about to renew it.’”
But the Cuban junket was practically spur-of-the-moment and Cross needed a producer who could leave almost immediately. In Lauch’s place, he tapped Ryan McGuffy, her frequent sports doc co-producer, for Havana.
Lauch, a native of Manheim, Pa., went to Hazleton.
The encore airing of “Going Home: Joe Maddon,” on Friday, Jan. 15, will coincide with Maddon’s appearance at the sold-out Cubs Convention at the Sheraton Grand Chicago hotel.
George Castle is a longtime Chicago sportswriter and historian.
