Not even the coronavirus will make McKeon retire. And how potential rules affect Marlins.
A six-pack of Miami Marlins notes on a Tuesday:
▪ When Carol McKeon isn’t playing Scrabble — or talking on the phone with family — she has a job she takes very seriously:
Protecting one of South Florida’s baseball treasures.
Jack McKeon, the irascible but lovable manager who guided the Marlins to their 2003 World Series championship after taking over that May, will turn 90 on Nov. 23.
Carol and their three children want to make sure he gets there, and well beyond.
Since the coronavirus pandemic changed American life in March, McKeon has been holed up at his home in Elon, North Carolina, waiting to resume a baseball career that has spanned eight decades.
“Jack is driving me nuts,” Carol said by phone this week. “He’s just so bored. He’s used to being on the go. [Before this] he would get up early every morning, go to church and work out. He would be out until 1 o’clock.”
Now he’s home around-the-clock, except for their occasional car trips to the post office or the drive-through lane at the bank.
“He’s really been good,” Carol, 87, said, cognizant that senior citizens are particularly vulnerable to this pandemic. “I’m surprised he hasn’t wanted to get out more. He knows the danger; he’s been good about it.”
Since new Marlins ownership parted ways with team advisers McKeon, Tony Perez, Andre Dawson and Jeff Conine in September 2017, McKeon has been an advisor to Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo, annually attending about 100 minor and major league games to evaluate players and offer input.
And he wanted to make one thing very clear this week: Not even a global pandemic is going to get him to retire.
He plans to resume working if and when the season starts, in accordance with MLB rules and government guidelines.
“This is not going to end my career,” he said. “It might end the year. I’m not going to retire. I’m too young to retire.”
McKeon — who was 281-257 in parts of four seasons as Marlins manager (2003, ‘04, ‘05 and 2011) and 1051-990 in 16 years as a manager overall — said this has been the first May since his teens that he wasn’t at a ballpark.
“It is a void; you traveled all your life for 75, 80 years and now you’re stuck,” he said. “I like to move around. This is boring!”
He fills time by watching the news and classic baseball games, mowing his 15-acre lawn every day (even though it doesn’t need it), running 2 1/2 to 3 miles daily on the treadmill, lifting weights and taking his 5-year-old poodle, Scooter, on a walk two or three times a day.
“I was watching Al Leiter’s [1996] no-hitter,” said McKeon, who named the family dog after the nickname for former Yankees shortstop and 1950 American League MVP Phil Rizzuto.
“I’m not worried [about coronovarus],” he added. “I don’t get afraid of that stuff. I’m in pretty good shape; I have workout equipment. And I haven’t been anywhere.”
The McKeons’ three children — Kristi, Kori and Kasey (who’s a scout for the Nationals) — bring their parents cooked meals and alternate picking up their groceries from the Food Lion and Harris Teeter.
Kristi lives in the home next door; she has been a rock - and diligently watched over her parents — while dealing with the aftermath of the tragic loss of her husband, former big-league pitcher Greg Booker, who died of melanoma nearly 14 months ago.
“If I have to go to the post office, Kristi will say, ‘Where have you been’ or ‘where are you going?’” Carol said. “I say, ‘Just going to the post office. We’re not going in.’ The kids are really concerned.”
McKeon was saddened to hear of last week’s passing of Dolphins legend Don Shula at 90. He remembers speaking with Shula a handful of times, including a lunch — just the two of them — at one of Shula’s steakhouses after the Marlins won the World Series. Predictably, they talked a lot about their respective sports that day.
“He was a very cordial guy,” McKeon said. “He thanked me for the job I did. There was great [mutual] respect. I was very appreciative” of Shula’s kindness.
McKeon also appreciates the Marlins’ followers who stop him, during normal times, to express their appreciation for the 2003 title; the Marlins were 16-22 when he replaced Jeff Torborg that May. They went 75-49 after that, and McKeon became the oldest manager to win a World Series (at 72) and was named National League Manager of the Year for a second time.
Even 17 years after the World Series, McKeon said he still receives occasional letters from Marlins fans, some asking him to return signed baseball cards.
“I want to see the Marlins do well for the fans’ sake,” he said. “There will be love between me and Miami forever.”
▪ With rosters reportedly expected to expand to 30 if there’s a season, that really helps outfielders Lewis Brinson, Harold Ramirez and Magneuris Sierra; at least two of those three and possibly all three should stick, with Brinson very, very likely. Sierra, who was out of minor league options, would have value as a pinch-runner. Sierra is just 8 for 15 on big league steal attempts but 145 for 205 in the minors.
And Garrett Cooper, Jon Berti, and perhaps Brinson and Matt Joyce (who was likely going to platoon in the outfield anyway) all figure to get more at-bats than they otherwise might have if there’s a designated hitter for National League games, which is a part of the owner’s proposal to the union about starting the season.
Also, Jorge Alfaro could DH on days Francisco Cervelli is catching.
▪ Even if there’s no minor-league season, I would doubt the Marlins keep any of their top young prospects without big league experience on the 30-man roster to start the season (Jazz Chisholm, Jesus Sanchez, Lewin Diaz, Sixto Sanchez, Edward Cabrera), because there’s no point in starting the clock on their service time.
▪ Kudos to Marlins CEO Derek Jeter for his Sunday phone call to Dr. Melissa Leber, a big Jeter fan who works in the emergency room of New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital.
“I want to be one of the first to reach out and say, ‘Happy Mother’s Day,’” Jeter said in a video-conference call recorded by ESPN, which was working on a feature on Leber.
“As an athlete, the word ‘hero’ is thrown around quite a bit, but true heroes are people like you on the front lines, and what you do every day, risking your personal health and the health of those you love the most for the good of others, is something that is pretty remarkable,” Jeter added. “I’m hoping to meet you in person at some point. We can have some time, maybe you can bring the kids down to Miami or we’ll come up to New York.”
“I’ll come anywhere,” Leber said, wiping tears from her eyes.
Also commendable: Marlins infielder Miguel Rojas hopped on a Zoom call on Sunday to thank South Florida mother-of-two Lisandra Sanchez Bourzac, who works the night shift as a phlebotomist at the University of Miami.
▪ Former Marlins president David Samson, who now hosts a weekday podcast and does commentary for CBS Sports HQ, wrote his first piece for CBS’ web site this week, offering ideas of how to re-start the season.
This story was originally published May 12, 2020 at 4:19 PM.
