72-year-old McKeon having good old time with Marlins

 

Like a lot of septuagenarian men, Jack McKeon is enjoying the good life in Florida.

 

"I'm having fun in the sun," McKeon said. "That's what Florida is all about, right?"

 

McKeon is a little different than most 72-year-old Floridians. He doesn't hang out at the golf course, look for bargains at Publix or drive a Lincoln Town Car 15 miles per hour under the speed limit in the left-hand lane of an interstate.

 

McKeon isn't even retired. He is managing the Florida Marlins, having replaced the fired Jeff Torborg on May 11.

 

McKeon isn't just marking time either at 72. He has the Marlins in the middle of the National League wild-card race and has emerged as a strong candidate for the league's Manager of the Year award.

 

"Jack has done a good job with this team," said Derrek Lee, who has been the Marlins first baseman since 1998, a year after Florida won the World Series then dismantled its team in a cost-cutting maneuver.

 

"I'm not saying Jeff Torborg didn't do a good job here and we might not have won if he were still managing. But a lot of things were going wrong for this team earlier in the season. Jack came in, told us we could win and then basically has just let us go play."

 

Florida was 16-22 when McKeon was the surprise choice to replace Torborg. Besides playing poorly, the Marlins had lost the ace of their starting rotation, A.J. Burnett, to reconstructive elbow surgery.

 

A franchise that has had only one winning season since its inception in 1993 appeared headed for another long year when McKeon came aboard. Having been out of baseball since being surprisingly fired as Cincinnati's manager following the 2000 season, one year removed from a 96-win year and a loss to the New York Mets in a one-game playoff for the NL wild card, McKeon knew the Marlins had talent.

 

While McKeon spent a lot of time at his home in Elon College, N.C., watching his grandchildren play in their youth league baseball and softball games, he also kept track of the major leagues through his satellite dish. One of the teams that intrigued him was Florida.

 

"You could see all the talent they had assembled, everyone talked about that even when I was still managing the Reds," McKeon said. "I knew they had the players to win but I don't know if the players believed in themselves.

 

"The first day on the job, I gathered our guys together and told them they had the talent to win and there was no reason to make any excuses for losing.

 

"The rest has been basically up to the players. It's not like I've had to punch a million different buttons to make this team win. I've stayed out of the way and they've gone out and played up to their ability."

 

Many young managers try so hard to force the issue in today's game. In their never-ending zeal to micro-manage, they wear out a path between the dugout and the pitcher's mound while making so many double switches that their lineup cards look like giant ink blots by the end of a game.

 

McKeon, though, knows a better way of doing things because of his vast experience. McKeon spent 15 years managing in the minor leagues before landing his first major-league job with Kansas City. He spent three seasons with Royals, then had managerial stints with Oakland (1977-78), San Diego (1988-90) and Cincinnati (1997-2000).

 

"I'm to the point in my career where wins and losses aren't really the most important thing in the world," McKeon said. "I'm just here to help. I just hope I can help these players get a little bit better, more as a people than as baseball players, maybe treat people a little nicer, maybe go to church now and again."

 

While he downplays the Marlins' record, it would be quite a feat for McKeon to lead the Marlins to post-season play.

 

He is the third-oldest manager in major-league history behind Hall of Famers Connie Mack (88) and Casey Stengel (75). Among the major professional sports in the United States, the NFL's Marv Levy and George Halas were the only others to coach at an age older than 72.

 

"If I was an old 72, it would be different," McKeon said. "I don't feel my age at all, though."

 

McKeon doesn't look it, either. He is still in great shape because of a daily regiment that includes getting to the ballpark around 9:30 a.m. for 7 p.m. games.

 

McKeon walks five miles in the morning, then goes to the bullpen and reads newspapers and smokes cigars until the coaches and players begin arriving in the early afternoon. After that, the gregarious McKeon starts preparing for the game and talking baseball with anyone willing to listen to a man whose professional baseball career started as a catcher in the Pittsburgh Pirates' farm system in 1949.

 

"People ask me if I can handle the rigors of this job but what rigors are there, really?" McKeon said. "Nothing this much fun can be considered rigorous."

 

Still, McKeon doesn't know if he will return after this season. He is on a one-year contract.

 

"When you get to my age, you take it one day at a time," McKeon said with a grin.

 

It is quite obvious, though, that McKeon looks willing and able to keep having fun in the Florida sun for a long time to come.

 

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