Jack McKeon - Im Just Getting Started: Baseballs Best Storyteller on Old School Baseball, Defying the Odds, and Good Cigars

1. Dont Move the Wrecker

Ive been fired six times. Thats not bad. The way I figure it, thats once every 12 years. Hell, Im only 74.

Smoking cigars and staying in shape are important to me, so I take a few puffs and I work out every day. Five hours before the game youll see me walking around the ballpark with that cigar in my hand, walking two or three miles, doing it my way.

One day in the spring of 2003 I was working out at the YMCA back home in Elon, North Carolina, and I noticed this young gentleman bouncing a basketball. He had to be 77 or 78 years old, and we got to talkin. He told me the North Carolina Senior Games were coming up and said, Im with the senior softball and basketball teams. We need another player. Can you play?

OK, I said. I can handle both of those. Ill help you out. How old are these guys were playing?

He said, Seventy-two and above.

OK, but Im not going to hurt one of these guys if I hit them with a softball, am I?

No, no, they know what theyre doing, he said.

How long do you practice?

About an hour, some of these guys cant go too long, he said. We practice on Tuesday and Thursday nights.

I laughed and told him my grandson played baseball on those nights. I couldnt go, but I didnt need the practice. Id be all right. Sign me up, I thought, this old catcher can still play a little.

Hey, when are those Senior Games? I asked.

August, he told me.

You know, I never did show up. Something came up. I had to go back to managing in the Major Leagues with the Florida Marlins... and win the World Series against the Yankees. As for that old guy back in North Carolina, it turned out that his team won the championship, too. They didnt need me after all, but the Marlins sure did.

Three days after that World Series, I signed a one-year extension. Then, after that season, I signed another extension. I dont know how long I can manage, but in my mind Im just getting started. Casey Stengel went to 75. If I decide to stay, I wont turn 75 until the 2006 season, so I have two more seasons to go to tie Casey. I dont think I can catch Connie Mack. He went all the way until 88. I dont think I want to do that.

My wife Carol is the happiest one of all now that Im back in the dugout. She said, Jack, you drove me crazy being at home after being away all those years. The best thing about having you back managing is that I get the TV clicker back. That and shopping.

When Carol found out we were going to the White House to meet with President Bush after beating the Yankees, she raised her champagne bottle in the managers office of the visiting clubhouse at Yankee Stadium and offered this toast, Yeah! More shopping!

Carol likes to shop as much as I like to manage. And after 55 years in the pro game, I like to manage a certain way. Too many players today are coddled. I dont play favorites, but I will bend a little, thats something I learned how to do. Darn right Im old style, it works. You have fun, but you play hard. Too many managers want robots out there. Youve got to give the players some freedom to think on their feet. You cant call every pitch and then expect your pitchers to know how to get out of jams.

I took over the Marlins on May 11, 2003. One game soon after, the guys were horsing around in the dugout, and I blew my stack. Look at you guys, I screamed. You guys talk the talk, but you dont know how to walk the walk. Youre a bunch of babies.

They rallied to win that game and as they came back into the clubhouse they were yelling, We walked the walk. I knew at that moment that we had something going.

Another lesson Ive learned as a manager is you cant be afraid to make the tough decision. Early in my career as a manager, Id worry about what the writers or the owners said. I wouldnt have done it this way before, but now Ive got the guts to do it. Ive learned to manage my way. Like a lot of people, Ive gotten smarter with age.

Now Ive got my first World Series ring. And its a big, beautiful one, the biggest of all time. Our owner, Jeffrey Loria, knows how to do things right.

Managing a team is really about managing people, and its all I ever wanted to do. From the time I was 12 years old in South Amboy, New Jersey, I was managing a baseball team. Id set up the roster, set the schedule, and arrange the transportation.

My father, his first name was Aloysius but we called him Bill, was in the garage, taxi, and wrecking business. He supplied the bus for the games and sponsored us: we were called the McKeons Boys Club. It was a great setup for me. In the winter, we practiced in the garage. We hung chicken wire over the windows and lights so nothing would get broken when we knocked the baseball around. This was in the forties, so if you think about it, I had the first indoor baseball facility and batting cage. I was ahead of my time even back then.

At night, we practiced near the traffic cloverleaf, where there was a grassy area and the lights from the highway gave us enough light to hit by. Wed play baseball day and night, summer and winter. It was never too cold to go hit.

When I wasnt playing sports, I was up in the garage, hanging out and helping my dad or driving a wrecker (even though I was underage). The garage is where I got a real education, the best kind of education, an education in lifes lessons.

My father taught me how to deal with people, business smarts, and street smarts. I learned a lot just watching him operate. And the man could operate. I saw the way he could manipulate the city council, the police, and the business leaders in town. I saw how shrewd he was.

He was one tough SOB.

One New Years Eve there was a three-car accident out on Route 35. There was no assignment for the wreckersit was first come, first served. We got to the scene first, and then two other companies came by. The cop on the scene gave two of the cars to the wrecking company that brought two wreckers, and the other car was given to the other guy. My father didnt get any. He was shut out.

He looked at me and said, Were going to city hall.

He pulled right in front of city hall in the circleright in front of the steps where all the police cars have to go throughand parked the wrecker right there. He blocked the driveway so nobody could get past. Then he went inside and told the cops, I dare you to move that wrecker. He walked out, and we went home.

The next morning the chief of police called. I answered the phone, and the chief asked, Wheres your father?

In bed, I said.

Would you have him call me right away? I want him to move the wrecker.

He aint gonna move that wrecker, I said.

Later on, the chief called again, and this time my father answered the phone. He told the chief, Yeah, Ill move the wreckerwhen you put it in writing that I get every wreck in South Amboy.

They did just that, and he went down and moved the wrecker. That was the first big deal I ever saw. Anyone else they would have locked up, but my father had a legitimate gripe. Thats when I learned, if youre right, you go for it. You dont move the wrecker.

The baseball business is just like dealing with the city council. Instead of councilmen and councilwomen, I got ballplayers, management, and umpires. The biggest thing I learned from my father was to never give up on a deal. He kept working until he got what he wanted, whether it was a taxi route with the school system or a deal with the Pennsylvania railroad during the war hauling railroad workers to trouble spots.

Ive done it all and Ive been everywhere. I handled the books for my fathers taxi business, I handled the food stamps, the gas stamps, and all the regulations. I learned by doing.

Ive had all kinds of jobs. I opened the first sports bar back in the fifties in Burlington, North Carolina. I taught school; pumped gas; drove the wrecker and a taxi; fixed cars; delivered mail; sold tires, TVs, and refrigerators; was a basketball referee; and worked the night shift in a hosiery mill. Ive been in the Air Force, where I played baseball and I became a sharpshooter, medal and all, even though I never went to the range. In 1951 I managed the baseball team that won the Air Force Championship. I played baseball all over the place and hit three ways: righty, lefty, and seldom.