He wasn’t born using the name Maniac Magee. He arrived to this world called Jeffrey Lionel Magee, but when his parents died and his lifestyle changed, so did his name. And Maniac Magee became a legend. Even today children talk about how fast he could operate; about how exactly he strike an inside-the-park “frog” homer; how no knot, no matter how snarled, would stay that method once he begun to untie it. But the thing Maniac Magee is best known for is exactly what he did for the youngsters in the East Side and those from the Western Side.