Jack McKeon

Minor league player and manager

Born in South Amboy, New Jersey, McKeon was a 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m), 195 lb (88 kg) catcher who threw and batted right-handed. He played baseball for the College of the Holy Cross, and also attended Seton Hall University and Elon College, earning a bachelor of science degree in physical education.^[5]

McKeon spent his entire early professional career (1949–64) in the minor leagues. He became a playing manager in 1955 and then worked in the farm system of the original Washington Senators franchise, and its successor, the Minnesota Twins, handling Triple-A assignments for the Vancouver Mounties (1962), Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers (1963) and Atlanta Crackers (through June 21, 1964). He scouted for the Twins starting in mid-1964 before joining the Royals in 1968, one year before their Major League debut, as skipper of their Class A High Point-Thomasville farm team^[6] and won the Carolina League playoff championship.^[7] He led their Triple-A affiliate, the Omaha Royals of the American Association, from its founding in 1969 through 1972, and won two league titles.

Manager of Royals and Athletics

McKeon, then 42, was promoted to manager of the Kansas City Royals for 1973, succeeding Bob Lemon. The 1972 Royals had gone a disappointing 76–78 during the strike-shortened season, and moved into brand-new Royals Stadium in 1973. Paced by the slugging of first baseman John Mayberry, an All-Star performance from centerfielder Amos Otis and the 20-win season of left-hander Paul Splittorff, McKeon's 1973 club won 88 of 162 games (.543, the best record yet compiled by the five-year-old franchise), six games behind eventual world champion Oakland in the AL West and the fourth-best mark in the entire American League. The 1973 Royals also saw the mid-August call up of 20-year-old George Brett, the future Hall of Famer.

But the 1974 Royals could not sustain that momentum and finished 77–85 (.475), next-to-last in the West division. The following year, the 1975 Royals improved to a 50–46 mark by July 23, but the uptick was not enough to save McKeon's job.^[8][9] He was replaced by Whitey Herzog, then a coach for the California Angels.^[8][9] Herzog led Kansas City to three successive AL West titles (1976–78), and, in the 1980s, he would become one of McKeon's trading partners when both were general managers in the National League.

McKeon spent 1976 back in the minor leagues as skipper of the Richmond Braves of the International League. He then was named manager of the 1977 Oakland Athletics during a time when team owner Charlie Finley was trading away veteran talent in anticipation of free agency. Nevertheless, McKeon had led the stripped-down A's to a respectable 26–27 mark by June 8, only six games out of first place in the AL West, when Finley shocked baseball by replacing him with Bobby Winkles.^[10] McKeon remained in the Oakland organization as an assistant to Finley, while the A's struggled under Winkles for the rest of 1977 at 37–71. In 1978, however, history repeated itself. The undermanned A's roared off to a 19–5 start and were still in first place at 24–15 on May 21 when Winkles resigned because of Finley's micromanaging.^[11] McKeon, who'd become a coach for Winkles during the off-season, then returned to the manager's post and finished the 1978 season, with Oakland winning only 45 of 123 games and falling into sixth place in the seven-team division. McKeon then departed the Oakland organization, managing the Denver Bears, Triple-A affiliate of the Montreal Expos, in 1979.

General manager of Padres

McKeon then moved from the field into the front office. He began the 1980 season as the top assistant to Bob Fontaine, the general manager of the San Diego Padres. During the 1980 All-Star break, with the Padres in last place in the National League West Division, owner Ray Kroc and club president Ballard F. Smith fired Fontaine and replaced him with McKeon, making him a first-time general manager at the age of 49. During his first off-season, he set about rebuilding the Padres through a flurry of trades—earning his "Trader Jack" nickname.

He began by acquiring young catcher Terry Kennedy from Herzog's St. Louis Cardinals in an eleven-player deal. Over the next four off seasons, he would also trade for Dave Dravecky, Garry Templeton and Carmelo Martínez, draft young stars Tony Gwynn and Kevin McReynolds, and sign free agents Steve Garvey and Graig Nettles, the core of San Diego's 1984 National League champions. In June 1989, he traded his own son-in-law, pitcher Greg Booker.

He told the New York Times in 1988: "Why do I trade? I'm aggressive. I'm confident. I'm a gambler. I'm willing to make a trade and not be afraid I'll get nailed."^[12]

Manager of Padres and Reds

McKeon stayed in the front office through the terms of four different managers. When the fourth skipper, Larry Bowa, started 1988 at 16–30, McKeon took over the managerial reins himself on May 28. He led the Padres to a 67–48 mark for the rest of 1988, and an 89–73 record in 1989. But when his 1990 Padres stalled at 37–43 at the All-Star break, McKeon turned the team over to coach Greg Riddoch. Slightly more than two months later, he was ousted from the general manager's job when the Padres' new owner, Tom Werner, hired Joe McIlvaine away from the New York Mets.

McKeon was out of baseball in 1991–92 before joining the Cincinnati Reds in 1993 as a Major League scout and then senior adviser for player personnel, working under GM Jim Bowden. He was in his fourth season in the latter job on July 25, 1997, when at age 66 he was asked to return to the field as the replacement for Ray Knight as the club's manager. The Reds were 43–56 and nine games out in the National League Central Division, but McKeon coaxed them to a 33–30 mark for the rest of the season. He then survived a poor 1998 campaign, with Cincinnati again posting a sub-.500 (77–85) record and finishing 25 games out of first place in its division (though the Reds had lost talent from previous years and were actually considered to have overachieved.) McKeon turned the Reds around in 1999, leading them to 96 victories and a tie for the National League wild card through the full 162-game season. However, the Reds were defeated 5–0 by the Mets in a one-game playoff held in their home ballpark, Cinergy Field, and were eliminated from the postseason. Nevertheless, McKeon was named 1999 NL Manager of the Year for his achievement.

On the eve of 2000 spring training, the Reds electrified their fans by acquiring superstar center fielder Ken Griffey, Jr. — a Cincinnati native and son of the Reds' coach and former star — in a trade with the Seattle Mariners. Young Griffey hit 40 home runs, but the Reds posted a disappointing 85–77 record and finished ten games behind the Cardinals. After the season ended, McKeon was relieved of his managerial duties.

Two-time NL Manager of the Year

McKeon was again named National League Manager of the Year in 2003 — the result of leading the Marlins, who had a record below .500 when he took the job as their manager on May 11 to the post season (and, eventually, a World Series victory). With that victory, he became, at 72, the oldest manager to win the World Series, winning against the New York Yankees, against whom he wanted to play his first World Series, having lived in South Amboy, New Jersey and attending Yankee games while a child.^[1]

On October 2, 2005, just after the Marlins won the last game of the 2005 season, McKeon announced that he would not be returning the following season. McKeon led the Marlins to three of the six winning seasons in franchise history, but there was a consensus within the organization that a managerial change was in order.

On June 20, 2011, after manager Edwin Rodríguez resigned, the Florida Marlins held a press conference to announce that McKeon had been named interim manager. "I don't need this job but I love it", McKeon said, in taking over a team that had lost 10 straight and 18 of its last 19. He retired after the conclusion of the 2011 season.^[13]