McKeon had seen it all in baseball -- until now

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- His name is Jack McKeon, and he is a legendary baseball man and a legendary baseball character, famously known as “Trader Jack” when he was with the Padres. He was 72 years old when his Florida Marlins beat the Yankees to win the World Series in 2003. He is 89 now. His current job is senior advisor to Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo, and he was talking on Friday morning about Spring Training being called off the day before.

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“I’m going to turn 90 in November,” McKeon said. “My first Spring Training was in New Orleans in 1949, after I signed with the Pirates. Took the Crescent Limited [train] down from [New] Jersey. Picked up my buddy, Nellie King, in Philadelphia. I’ve pretty much been in this game ever since. And I still don’t know what to do with myself without baseball.”

I was with him the other day outside Rizzo’s office at Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. He was, as always, chewing on an unlit cigar. He took a year off before Rizzo brought him back last season, but McKeon said he didn’t like his time away from baseball very much.

“You know what I want to do today?” he said. “Go to a ballgame.”

At 89, and going on 90, McKeon -- the only manager to win 1,000 games in both the Minor Leagues and in the big leagues -- sounded like a kid who had just watched the circus leave town. No more Spring Training in Florida and Arizona. Opening Day has been pushed back from March 26 for at least two weeks, and perhaps longer than that. McKeon has seen it all across what has been a truly wonderful baseball life, which is still ongoing. Now, he has seen what COVID-19 has done to his sport, and to all the sports.

“But the Commissioner did the right thing,” he said. “This is Spring Training. There’s no time in the baseball year when our fans get as close to the players and as close to the game as they do in February and March. Like, it’s right there for them to reach out and touch. Except, good Lord, that’s the last thing you want right now. It’s not safe for them and it’s not safe for the players.”

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Then, he paused. “Am I sad that baseball goes away for a while? You’re damn right I’m sad. Everybody’s sad,” McKeon said. “A friend of mine finally made it to Spring Training this year and told me he couldn’t believe how great it was. Now, he says he’s at least glad he came down here before we had to call it off.”

McKeon managed the Royals and A’s and Padres and Reds and Marlins and, finally, the Marlins again. Fifty-four years after that first Spring Training, he finally ended up on top. He gave the ball to a big thrower named Josh Beckett on short rest against the Yankees in Game 6 of the 2003 Series, and he watched Beckett pitch one of the most dominant shutout games in World Series history.

“I took some heat before that one about starting the kid on three days’ rest,” McKeon said the other day. He smiled around the cigar. “Then, all anybody wanted to talk about afterward was the heat he threw at the New York Yankees.”

He ended up with a winning record as a big league manager after 16 seasons, at 1,051-990. Again: He has seen almost everything in the game over the past 70 years. Now, he sees what the coronavirus has done to baseball and to the country and to the world.

“No games of any kind for people to watch,” McKeon said. “No ACC Basketball Tournament for me to watch on Thursday. No Spring Training game today. No college ball, no high school ball.

“No nothing. People say you don’t appreciate baseball until you don’t have it, even in the short run. Not me. The worst day I ever had in baseball was great.”

It is a strange new world. The NCAA Basketball Tournament was cancelled on Thursday. The Masters golf tournament in April has been postponed. And 47 years after McKeon first came to Spring Training as a big league manager, he has been in the game long enough to see a Spring Training called off.

“Funny thing about baseball,” McKeon said on Friday morning. “As much as you think you love it, you always seem to love it just a little more in the spring. I think the fans feel the same way, whether they’re in Florida or Arizona. It’s why I’m just sad today, for everybody who does love this game.”

No game for Jack McKeon on Friday. The last game for the Nats this spring was against the Yankees on Thursday at Ballpark of the Palm Beaches.

“No baseball,” the old baseball man said. “What am I supposed to do, mow the damn lawn?”