OK, fine, I’ll be the one to say it:

The White Sox should hire Joe Maddon as their next manager.

The solution for the Sox is right there under their noses. Well, technically, Maddon is hanging out in his hometown of Hazleton, Pa., and soon, when it gets too chilly to golf there, he’ll head out to Mesa, Ariz. But the man has been known to spend some quality time in Chicago.

Your move, Rick Hahn. And Kenny Williams. And Jerry Reinsdorf and whoever else will have a hand in this decision. It’s not really that complicated, is it? Do simple better, embrace the target and — this is important — try not to suck.

Maddon, 68 — oh, stop, that isn’t old — is ready to manage again.

“Once the season’s over, I would anticipate some kind of requests or phone calls,” he told the Sun-Times, “and I’m just going to wait and see what all shows up.”

Maddon does have stipulations he wants to make crystal clear, stemming from his years with the Cubs — particularly toward the end — and his experience with the Angels, who fired him in June. Specifically, he needs to be able to manage his way, with the backing of the front office, and not the other way around. If he isn’t allowed to prepare for a game without the door to his office being used as a turnstile by management and its minions, it’s going to be a problem. If lineup cards are essentially going to be filled out for him, this whole idea is a non-starter.

Yes, this is about analytics. Isn’t it always? Maddon believes in their usefulness, but not to the exclusion of whatever else a skipper who’s been around the block and just might be innately gifted has to offer.

“I don’t like some of the methods incorporated in the game and the fact that analytics has taken over baseball to the point where baseball serves analytics as opposed to analytics serving baseball,” he said. “That’s my rub right now. I’d like to see it actually put in its place, for lack of a better term, and be an aid, not be an end-all, and put baseball in the forefront again and have it be supported.”

Maddon expounds on this in a new book, “The Book of Joe: Trying Not to Suck at Baseball and Life,” which goes on sale Oct. 11. During baseball’s pandemic shutdown in 2020, he recorded 100 hours over nearly as many rides on his bicycle in the Arizona heat. A Sony dictaphone in his pocket and a microphone clipped to his shirt, he went chronologically through his life and his baseball career, uploading the sound daily and sending it to his publisher, his literary agent and co-author Tom Verducci.

“Dig deeper,” they’d tell him, and he would dutifully oblige.

He thought he’d be managing the Angels when the book came out, but a 12-game losing streak to end a 157-172 stint got in the way of that plan. So did the way things worked — or didn’t — with his bosses in Anaheim. It’s for the best, he figures.

“The timing of the book is perfect, if unintentional, because now everybody knows exactly what I feel about things and where I stand,” he said. “So I think the suitors will be sincere, and, if I hear from people, that’s great because they like it. If I don’t, because they didn’t like it, that’s fine, too.”

You know what’s likable? Six straight winning seasons in Tampa and the first four postseason appearances in franchise history, beginning with a run to the World Series in 2008 that included a 3-1 division-series knockout of the Sox. And 97-, 103-, 92- and 95-win campaigns in the first four of his five years with the Cubs, before then-president Theo Epstein made his World Series-winning skipper a lame duck in 2019.

“In my perspective, it should’ve never happened that way,” Maddon said. “We should’ve been there longer together, and that includes Theo [who left in 2020].”

Maddon’s pennant-winning squad in Tampa had a position-player core of Evan Longoria, Carlos Pena, B.J. Upton, Dioner Navarro and Carl Crawford. By the end there, he was winning with Longoria, James Loney, Ben Zobrist, Desmond Jennings and Yunel Escobar.

Ask yourself: What the heck did they have that Tim Anderson, Luis Robert, Yoan Moncada, Eloy Jimenez and Andrew Vaughn don’t?

Maddon in the dugout, for one. But more talent? More potential? Not a chance.

During the abbreviated 2020 season, Maddon became pretty tight with then-Angels executive Tony La Russa and discovered they see many things about the game similarly. Is that an instant red flag? Not to me. La Russa was, with the Sox, a Hall-of-Famer who’d lost his fastball. Dismissing him beyond that seems petty and intellectually lazy.

After La Russa, though, it would take guts for the Sox to hire Maddon or, for that matter, anyone else of whom a sizable slice of the fan base would not approve. Then again, Sox fans are conditioned by now to be dubious.

Maddon? He’s older than most. He’s most famous for winning it all with the hated Cubs. He made some funky moves with the North Siders, too, like sending reliever Aroldis Chapman out for a third inning in Game 6 of the World Series.

“I know that was the wrong thing to do,” Maddon says now.

Ooh, so we can cross that off the “cons” list? Nice.

The truth is, it doesn’t leave much to yammer and fret about.

Said Maddon of his friend La Russa, “Regardless of what people might have been saying, he was still going to do what he thought he should do in the moment, which I appreciate.”

That’s all Maddon hopes to do going forward, and the Sox should take keen interest in how that could play out. After all, this is no ordinary Joe.

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The Bears looked like they aced out the Vikings for general manager Ryan Poles in January when they offered Poles the job before he could go back to Minneapolis for a second interview as one of two finalists to replace Rick Spielman.

The Vikings hired the other finalist –Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, a former commodities trader who was the Browns’ vice-president of football operations and had interviewed with the Bears.

Regardless of whether Poles chose the Bears over the Vikings (he had not been offered the Vikings job), it was on paper a victory of sorts for the Bears — they hired a candidate someone else wanted. Poles was one of the hottest GM candidates in this year’s cycle, and the Bears made the quick move to keep him from the Vikings. For a franchise that once hired Phil Emery over Jason Licht — and subsequently Marc Trestman over Bruce Arians — that’s pretty good.

Poles and Adofo-Mensah come from different worlds. Poles played on the offensive line at Boston College. Adofo-Mensah played basketball at Princeton. Poles is rooted infootball-gene, eye-test talent evaluation under three football-guy GMs with the Chiefs. Adofo-Mensah has a master’s degree in economics from Stanford and grew up in the world of analytics with the 49ers and Browns.

They can both succeed and both fail. Poles is more than a football guy. Adofo-Mensah is more than an analytics guy. Poles hired a defensive-minded coach in Matt Eberflus. Adofo-Mensah hired a Sean McVay protege in Kevin O’Connell. They both were hired when Aaron Rodgers was 38 and not 31 — a factor that can’t be ignored in the NFC North.

Both GMs took unexpected paths in their first draft. Poles, with Justin Fields in a developmental mode, took defensive players with his first two draft picks — cornerback Kyler Gordon and safety Jaquan Brisker in the second round. Adofo-Mensah traded the No. 12 overall pick to the division-rival Lions and moved down 20 spots to No. 32 to get Georgia safety Lewis Cine.

The Vikings are 3-1 with a victory over the Packers already this season. But Poles’ has the early edge in the draft. The Bears have three starters out of 11 draft picks — Gordon, Brisker and fifth-round left tackle Braxton Jones, plus a rotation contributor in defensive end Dominique Robinson and punter Trenton Gill.

The Vikings have one rookie starter of their 10 draft picks in second-round right guard Ed Ingram. Cine had played only two defensive snaps this season when he suffered a season-ending broken leg blocking on a punt return against the Saints in London last week.

Second-round cornerback Andrew Booth has played just two snaps — both on special teams –because of a quad injury. Third-round linebacker Brian Asamoah has played only special teams. Fourth-round cornerback Akayleb Evans has played 32 snaps on defense. Then again, Adofo-Mensah didn’t clear the decks in a total rebuild like Poles has done, so he had fewer openings for rookies. It’s early.

And both rookie GMs are veering toward big decisions at quarterback. For Adofo-Mensah, it’s whether he can win a Super Bowl with Kirk Cousins. For Poles, it’s whether Justin Fields is the long-term answer. Regardless of their background, experience or style, all NFL general managers share one thing in common — they have to get the quarterback right.

2. Nobody has to write an apology to Matt Nagy, but the notion that Fields, Darnell Mooney, Cole Kmet and others would suddenly blossom when they were no longer shackled by the Nagy offense hasn’t come to fruition.

Even with a minimum workload, Fields is completing 50.7% of his passes — the lowest in the NFL among quarterbacks who have started three or more games. Mitch Trubisky was benched with the Steelers on Sunday, with a 59.5 completion percentage, 5.6 yards per attempt and a 73.7 passer rating –all below his Bears numbers. Allen Robinson has nine receptions for 95 yards and one touchdown with Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford on the Rams.

Even if you factor in that all are in the early stages of a new offense, those numbers are below expectations. So the answer to the “Was it Matt Nagy or …” question is pretty clear: “Both.”

3. Did You Know? The 98 rushing yards on nine carries by Giants quarterbacks Sunday (Daniel Jones, 6-68; Tyrod Taylor 3-30) were the most quarterback rushing yards allowed by the Bears since 1976, when Broncos’ back-up Norris Weese — an early replacement for injured starter Craig Penrose, had 12 carries for 120 yards in a 28-14 victory at Soldier Field.

4. There’s not a lot to like about the Bears’ offense right now, but there was nothing fluky about Khalil Herbert’s 23-yard gain on a well-executed third-and-20 screen pass in the second quarter.

That was the Bears’ first conversion of a third-and-20 or longer since 2007, when Garrett Wolfe gained 32 yards on a third-and-27 screen pass in Week 17 against the Saints.

5. Cornerback Jaylon Johnson has missed the last two games with a quad injury he suffered in practice, but will be needed more than ever against the Vikings and Justin Jefferson, who had 10 receptions for 147 yards in a 28-25 victory over the Saints in London last week. Jefferson has had 100 or more receiving yards in three of four games against the Bears (8-135, 8-104, 5-107).

Then again, when the Bears played the Vikings without their entire starting secondary in Week 15 last year, Jefferson was held relatively in check (4-47, one touchdown) by a defensive backfield of Kindle Vildor, Teez Tabor, Thomas Graham, Deon Bush and Marquis Christian.

6. Will jet lag be a factor in the Bears-Vikings game? The Vikings declined the bye week after playing in London last week. Five teams previously have played the week following the overseas trip –they are 2-3 (2-2-1 against the spread), with the Dolphins losing to the Falcons 30-28 last year.

7.The Bears’ failure to react when Fields’ fumbled after he was sacked by linebacker Azeez Ojulari was reminiscent of the defense’s failure to react to Aaron Rodgers’ fumble when he was sacked by Julius Peppers in the fateful 2013 season finale against the Packers.

Guard Cody Whitehair and the linemen in the area of the play and wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown were given “loafs” in film review, Eberflus said. But upon review it wasn’t nearly as egregious as the Rodgers fumble, when Bears linebacker James Anderson literally ran over to the loose ball without picking it up, thinking it was an incompletion.

“That one’s a little bit harder [Sunday], because it’s coming from behind,” Eberflus said. “Typically when you have a fumble and I’m a defender, you know we’re punching the ball, we’re all pursuing the ball, we can see the ball. I think Cody got caught off guard, as well as the linemen.”

8. The Bears’ rushing defense (183.3 yards allowed per game) not only is last in the NFL through four weeks, but the highest total through four weeks in the NFL since the 2012 Saints (186.8). In the previous five seasons, the Bears were averaging 87.6 rushing yards per game through four games.

9. Josh McCown Ex-Bears Player of the Week: Saints quarterback Andy Dalton, playing for injured starter Jameis Winston, completed 20-of-28 passes for 236 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions for a 108.6 passer rating in a 28-25 loss to the Vikings at Tottenham Stadium in London.

10. Bear-ometer: 6-11 –at Vikings (L); vs. Commanders (W); at Patriots (L); at Cowboys (L); vs. Dolphins (L); vs. Lions (W); at Falcons (W); at NY Jets (L); vs. Packers (L); vs. Eagles (L); vs. Bills (L); at Lions (L); vs. Vikings (W).

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