Managing to Endure : McKeon Finds Strength in Taft Team After Loss of Father During Season

The hot sun was beginning to toast the face of Taft High baseball Coach Rich McKeon as he sat in the third base dugout awaiting afternoon practice. Suddenly, with all the advance warning of a suicide-squeeze play, a bird swooped in from center field and dropped a bomb that narrowly missed McKeon.

McKeon, mild-mannered and soft-spoken, responded philosophically. “Well,” he said, “it’s Friday the 13th.”

Yet it was one of the few times this season misfortune did not score a direct hit. McKeon, 31, describes the season as “a cruel year.” Perhaps a bit overstated in some respects, it is a bull’s-eye assessment in others.

After beginning the season with a record of 7-3, Taft has skidded horrendously. The Toreadors, (9-14) have lost nine of their past 11 games, all by three runs or less and four after holding a lead in the late innings. “He doesn’t know where to turn,” shortstop Jason Shapiro said. “We’re working on fundamentals right now because that’s what’s killing us. It’s been tough.”

For McKeon, however, another loss has been even more difficult to endure. He has spent much of the season mourning the April 9 death of his father and twice was forced to leave the team to tend to family matters in Connecticut. The personal loss has made coaching difficult for McKeon, but somehow he’s managed to keep managing.

“We’re all hanging in there,” he said. “I like our nine out there. We can play with anybody and I think we’ve proved that.”

Despite the blown leads and bad breaks, Taft (5-9) is in a three-way tie for third with Cleveland and El Camino Real in the West Valley League. The Toreadors, with a win today over visiting Canoga Park, will qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 1980.

But the clincher has been elusive. In each of the past three games, the Toreadors needed a win to qualify for the playoffs. Each time, they botched the job by blowing a lead.

“I don’t know if cruel is really a good word,” McKeon said. “It’s just that we’ve gone through some rough periods.”

Some examples of the turbulence through which Taft has traveled:

The team won its first two games in the Redondo-Palos Verdes tournament but lost to Leuzinger, 7-6, after surrendering five runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. “That put us out of contention for the championship,” McKeon said. “And it kind of hurt us mentally.” The Toreadors dropped their next two tournament games by a total of three runs. The Leuzinger loss, McKeon says, was the most devastating of the season. But there would be more.

Twice the Toreadors held sixth-inning leads against league champion Chatsworth, which has handled most opponents like so much cannon fodder. Twice Taft lost, the second time in eight innings when the Toreadors needed a win to qualify for the playoffs. “Those were the toughest losses,” catcher Mike Borzello said. “We were about to beat the best team and then everything fell apart.”

Said senior left-hander Travis Arsenault: “There’s no doubt in my mind that we outplayed them except for a couple of plays. We should have beat them two out of three.”

Last week against Cleveland, the Toreadors blew their biggest lead of the season. Again needing a win to reach the playoffs, Taft led, 6-0, after one inning but lost, 8-7. Said Arsenault: “It was devastating. I just hope we can come back.”

If Taft is to rebound, a lot will depend on Arsenault (6-5), who is credited with all of Taft’s league wins and is scheduled to start against Canoga Park.

“We have Travis going and I’m ready for a good ballgame,” McKeon said. “And I know my kids will be, too.”

McKeon willingly plays predominantly juniors, hoping they will evolve into seasoned seniors. For the most part, it is a completely different team than the ones Taft fielded the past two years, when the team revolted against Coach Art Martinez. Some players quit, others petitioned for the firing of Martinez, whom they accused of unnecessary disciplinary measures and verbal abuse. Martinez resigned after a 1-14 season.

“I had heard rumors that it was a tough place to come,” said McKeon, who was the junior varsity coach at Hamilton High for two years. “But I was more enthusiastic about it than worried. This was my first varsity job and I was excited about having it. It hasn’t been perfect, but I’m not fighting with them, they’re not fighting with me. The kids have done just about everything I’ve asked them to do.”

It is difficult not to like McKeon. He is friendly, polite and apologetic for everything from the inadequate air conditioning in his office to his team’s disappointing performance. “Rich is real low-key and a very nice guy,” Taft basketball Coach Jim Woodard said. “It’s good to see them winning this year.”

No amount of wins, however, will enable McKeon to forget the unexpected loss of his father.

In March, while McKeon was relishing his team’s early success, Richard McKeon Sr., 71, was suddenly stricken by a heart and lung illness just days before he was scheduled to fly to California to visit his son.

Instead of welcoming his parents and showing off his team, McKeon suddenly was jetting across the country. He returned after nearly two weeks, but he flew home again two days later--this time for his father’s funeral.

The day McKeon’s father died, the Toreadors defeated Palos Verdes, 5-4, to improve to 7-3. The players later sent roses to the wake.

“The team helped me,” McKeon said. “Not so much that they extended themselves, but the fact that we were doing well really helped me take my mind off of it. If I didn’t have anything back here that I cared about, I think it would have been a lot harder. But I was so involved and pleased with the way things were going that it really helped me keep my mind off of it as much as possible.

“I was thinking, maybe, if God was intervening, he intervened in a positive way. He made all this happen at a time when we were doing well and it was easier for me. It’s not that it didn’t hurt then and it doesn’t hurt now. It does.”

Shortly after McKeon’s return, however, Taft began to tumble.

“You could see it was really rough for him,” Shapiro said. “He was down for awhile, but he started to mold himself back together. He’s a real good guy.”

Said Arsenault: “I’m impressed with how he handled it. I know if my father passed away I wouldn’t be able to do much of anything. But he came back and tried to help the team. He was strong.”

McKeon admits that he and his team are in need of a collective shot in the arm and they’ve rolled up their sleeves for today’s game with the defending 4-A City champion.

“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to handle school on Wednesday,” Arsenault said. “This is the whole can of beans.”

Not exactly. Should the Toreadors lose, they will have one more crack at a playoff berth. Taft would play a tiebreaker against either Cleveland or El Camino Real for the league’s final berth. The loser of that game is finished.

“I just think it will be disappointing if we don’t make it,” McKeon said. “The only thing that’s made this a bad season is that we started out well and kind of tailed off. I think it’s been a very positive year.

“I’m looking forward to next year, no matter what.”