March 16, 200521 yr TAMPA - Jack McKeon was telling stories. It seems a cab driver and a priest were standing outside the gates of heaven, when St. Peter gave the cabbie a nice, thick robe and a pair of golden slippers and welcomed him inside. But the priest got just terry cloth slippers and a cloth robe. ``What's the deal?'' the priest said. ``I spent my life preaching and teaching.'' ``True enough,'' St. Peter said. ``But when you did that, people fell asleep. When the cabbie was driving people, though, they prayed.'' Jack McKeon has a million of 'em, and the manager of the Florida Marlins probably has told them all. But still we listen, as a bunch of us did outside the visitors' clubhouse Tuesday at Legends Field, because McKeon reminds us it's still possible to have fun at the ballpark. That seems particularly important when too much of the news has been bad in this, the spring of the syringe. McKeon is 74 and has been a big-league manager off and on since 1973. He still does it with wit, a wink, a stogie, a sense of humor, and there aren't enough people like him in the game. He's not just an entertainer. He has become one of the game's top managers by relying on instinct, and his are usually good. Such as when he used ace Josh Beckett on three days' rest to close out the Yankees in the 2003 World Series. A lot of people thought McKeon was crazy, but Beckett pitched a gem and the Marlins won the Series. They should be in the hunt for it this year, too. ``This can be a very good club, provided everyone stays healthy,'' McKeon said. ``It's the same thing the Yankees would say, or anyone else.'' http://sports.tbo.com/sports/MGBCDT1ZC6E.html
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