Now Rays manager Joe Maddon is best friends with a penguin (PHOTOS)

The cutest thing you’ve ever seen in a baseball clubhouse.

By Rubie Edmondson – April 24, 2013 

Tampa Bay Rays         @RaysBaseball

Today's VIP guests are...penguins! Maddon: "I wanted the players to chill out a little bit. ...get it?" pic.twitter.com/czTKwLSq7h

 

Yesterday, Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon introduced the world to his new best friend, a cockatoo named Mindy. Today, it seems Mindy’s been replaced — by an adorable, as-of-yet unnamed penguin:

If you’ve finished squealing with delight and would like some backstory, the cockatoo and penguin are apparently both members of the newly-formed “Maddon’s Menagerie,” a parade of exotic animals that come to the Rays’ clubhouse from nearby zoos and sanctuaries. Famously quirky Maddon explained it thusly to MLB.com:

“I think a lot of times, it gets confused when things aren’t going well. It’s not because your guys aren’t working hard enough or they don’t care enough. Sometimes it’s just not working. Let’s go and take the other road less traveled with a bird in the clubhouse.”

…alrighty, then.

Meanwhile, this seems as good a time as any to break out the For The Win PENGUIN POWER RANKINGS: 

3. Lil’ Penguin

2. Danny DeVito:

1. Mario Lemieux

(Photo: AP)

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

(Photo: BuzzFeed)

(Frederic J. Brown/AFP/GettyImages)

(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

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