McKeon Out of Dugout but Keeps Head in Game

Jack McKeon arrived here Thursday on a scouting mission about an hour before the Riverside Red Wave, a Padre Class A minor league affiliate, was to play San Jose.

The day after he resigned as Padre manager, he wasn’t in a very talkative mood. He was relaxed all right, just a little distracted. He was wearing a radio headset and trying to tune in the Padre-Pittsburgh game.

At first, he could only get the Dodgers-Cubs.

“Dodgers are ahead, 5-2,” he said.

He fiddled with the dial a bit more. He turned his head to the left.

“I got it,” he said.

Kind of.

“But I’ve got to turn my head this way.”

He stared blankly into space for a minute. Two minutes. . . .

“Tony Gwynn hit a home run,” he finally said. “It’s 3-1 in the fourth.”

By 7:30 p.m., two innings into the Red Wave’s game, McKeon had moved to a seat high up along the first-base line at the Riverside Sports Center. The crowd was sparse, and there was McKeon, alone with his headset, head cocked for better reception of a game the Padres would eventually lose, 4-3, in 15 innings.

You can take the man out of the Padre dugout, but you can’t take the Padre out of the man. . . .

It has been quite a week for McKeon. He fell asleep Wednesday evening at 9, out on the back porch of his home.

His wife, Carol, screened a couple of calls, including one from Tom Romenesko, the Padre minor league director. Let Jack sleep, she figured. He needs rest.

Rest? McKeon arrived in his office at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium Thursday at 6 a.m. and by 8:15 had completed the Mark Grant-for-Derek Lilliquist trade.

“I knew they were going to call me early,” he said. “Any time you deal with the East Coast, you’ve got to be in early.”

And 12 hours after his work day started Thursday, he was shaking hands in Riverside. He was dressed comfortably in light blue cotton slacks, a white shirt, casual shoes and no socks.

Two fat cigars were in his shirt pocket, and his 5-year-old grandson, Zachary, was at his side.

“He likes baseball,” McKeon said. “We’re going to break him into scouting right now.”

That’s the McKeon way. It’s never too early. The guy has been working two jobs all summer--general manager and manager--and now, a day after he shed one of them, he was checking out minor league schedules, planning scouting trips.

Let’s see, Las Vegas (triple-A), Wichita (double-A), Spokane (Class A) and Riverside are on the agenda for the next two weeks. He can get that in before the Padres come home. After the next Padre home stand, he figures he can see Waterloo (Class A), Charleston (Class A) and Scottsdale, the Padres’ rookie team.

“That takes care of them all,” he said.

He pretty much has his schedule mapped out, but he is keeping the dates to himself. When his itinerary is made public, he said, everybody in the ballpark wants to talk to him.

“They want interviews, and I can’t watch the game,” he said.

A wry look crossed his face.

“(Sometimes) I smoke my cigar so nobody bothers me,” he said, smiling. “Of course, I crank up the cigar so no one really bothers me.”

McKeon visited the Riverside clubhouse before the game and met several players, but it was all informal. Red Wave Manager Bruce Bochy asked if he wanted to address the team, but McKeon declined. He didn’t want to distract them.

It was his first trip to Riverside in two years.

“What you really want to do is drive up here and hope you can see something in somebody,” he said. “I’ll look at our kids and show them I care about them.”

His mood was good, and he said he felt OK, too.

“I feel good except for being a little tired,” he said. “As far as being relieved, yeah, I’m glad to be doing one job. I’m glad I don’t have to go down to the clubhouse every day.”

Instead, he can sit in his office upstairs and run up the Padres’ phone bills.

“Definitely,” he said. “I’ve got more time. I just need a couple of more days, that’s all. I’m still traveling a lot, but I’ll try to relax Friday and then take Sunday off and just relax. Then, I’ll be back on the road on Monday.”

He excused himself long enough to take Zachary to the concession stand. He came back carrying a soda, a bag of popcorn and a box of Cracker Jack.

He sat down, grabbed the popcorn and started to eat.