Jack McKeon is giving up his job as relief manager of the Florida Marlins for the time being, but don’t laugh when he says he will be on call to return in about eight years if needed. At 80, McKeon is the second oldest manager in Major League Baseball history and if he wants to go for the record, why the heck not? His birth certificate says he is old, but his outlook doesn’t.
Connie Mack was 87 when he managed his last game for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1950. Of course, Mack owned the team, so he could manage as long as he darn well pleased, or could still stand up.
The Marlins hired McKeon a second time in June after they collapsed into a 3-22 slump. The tailspin provoked manager Edwin Rodriguez to run away to an uninhabited island in the Pacific. The thinking by Marlins management was that, Hey, we did this once before and it worked, so let’s do it again. Enter McKeon.
The once before was 2003 when against all odds McKeon took over the Marlins in mid-season and led them to a World Series title. But there is magic and there are miracles. The magic was a crowd-pleaser once, but the 2011 Marlins were plumb out of miracles. They finished last in the National League East.
McKeon’s nickname is “Trader Jack.” That’s because in one of his baseball incarnations as a general manager he traded real players as frequently as some kids trade baseball cards.
Anyone who has either read the book “Moneyball,” or seen the recently released movie focused on A’s GM Billy Beane, will understand that it is important for a general manager to be able to blow some smoke.
McKeon took that skill to extremes since he was as closely identified with cigars as Groucho Marx. Just recently in the Cincinnati Reds clubhouse I heard a McKeon story that went like this: Just before entering a church for confession McKeon lighted a cigar roughly the size of a baseball bat. He paused at the front door, placed the stogie on a ledge, and went in. When he emerged a few minutes later, the cigar was gone. McKeon looked all around and then spied a bedraggled street person nearby puffing away happily.
Sitting in his office, Reds manager Dusty Baker, who at 62 could seek social security benefits himself, said that his pal Trader Jack made it politically possible for the Washington Nationals to hire 68-year-old Davey Johnson as manager. AARP should give McKeon an award.
McKeon said he is now returning to a strenuous lifestyle mowing his lawn in North Carolina, and hanging out with his family, but I bet he would have returned next year for another whirl if the Marlins had made the playoffs. And I wouldn’t rule out another McKeon ride to the rescue if the right team needs a temporary relief manager next year. Call to the Pen could bring McKeon back as a closer.