In my baseball and statistics class today, we had the chance to hear former MLB manager Jack McKeon have a discussion with our class about anything baseball. Topics discussed were owners Charlie Finley and Marge Schott, statistics, the 2003 World Series (McKeon was the manager of the champion Marlins), the steroid era and just about everything else related to baseball today.
Yes, this is a blog about college baseball. But I wanted a chance to talk about McKeon, as he really is a character. If you think you know baseball, listening to McKeon talk about the game for just 10 minutes will put you to shame.
At 80 years old, I can honestly say that the famously nicknamed “Trader Jack” has forgotten more baseball than I know. And it starts with talent evaluation. This is the guy who signed Roberto Alomar and Tony Gwynn, two of the best players of the past 30 years in baseball.
We heard his story about Miguel Cabrera, who was a rookie in 2003, and how McKeon was in the minority opinion among Marlins staff who thought Cabrera would be able to handle the major leagues at that point. For the record, Cabrera was the starting left fielder in that World Series.
The entire class was laughing when the discussion made its way to how McKeon feels about baseball statistics. The savvy manager narrowed his eyes and mocked WHIP and OPS, calling the creators and defenders of statistics nerds and questioning their actual baseball knowledge. Because of this, I came away thinking of McKeon as the ultimate traditionalist.
When it came down to the last few minutes of class, I decided to ask what I thought would be a rather tricky question. My query was how can baseball put the finishing touches on the steroid era? The game is progressing forward, but I wanted to know if he thought there would ever be a time when players could be completely clear of suspicion.
McKeon’s take on the matter was that baseball has done pretty much everything it can do to this point. He said that in today’s testing, they will catch anything that shouldn’t be in a player’s body. Obviously, Manny Ramirez was used as an example. But it was, in a few words, greatly encouraging, to hear somebody who has been so close to baseball for so long talk about a bright future for the game.
"Trader Jack" is known for his ability to wheel and deal along with his love for cigars. Courtesy of nova.edu.
