Meyerhoff Chairman Mike Colodny noted the Meyerhoff Center in the news today, June 23, 2011, in Sun Sentinel columnist Mike Mayo’s feature article on Jack McKeon’s return to the Florida Marlins.  The article is reprinted below, along with a New York Times blog that provides additional statistics on McKeon and his career.

 

From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Jack McKeon too old to manage Marlins? No way, say South Florida seniors

80-year-old baseball manager an inspiration to elderly

By Michael Mayo, Sun Sentinel Columnist
5:52 PM EDT, June 22, 2011

 

Jack McKeon, 80, squeezed into his big-league uniform and returned to the Marlins dugout as manager this week.

For the regulars at the Joseph Meyerhoff Senior Center in Hollywood, that’s kid’s play.

“You want me to get up and dance?” Abe Klein, 98, asked.

This was at the 12:15 p.m. belly-dancing class Wednesday. A group of 14 seniors swayed their hips and shimmied to the music.

Another 20 people sat along the walls and watched. Klein tapped his cane in a chair.

“I think McKeon will do very well,” Klein, a former department store manager who has been retired nearly 30 years. “By the way, did they win [Tuesday] night? I didn’t make it ’til the end of the game.”

Yes, McKeon and the Marlins won.

Go ahead, joke all you want about McKeon’s hiring, how the Marlins will have to start stocking Geritol at the concession stands and replace the seventh-inning stretch with the fifth-inning nap.

At the Meyerhoff center on Taft Street, where about 100 South Florida seniors gather daily for activities, $2 lunches and companionship, McKeon’s baseball rebirth was a definite hit.

“As long as he’s got his faculties, why not?” said Emelio Biamonte, 91, a former New York construction worker. “I think it’s great. It shows you’re never too old to do anything.”

Said Phyllis Friedman, 68, an AARP volunteer: “It’s not like they expect him to run the bases. I think it’s awesome. It’s all about your mindset. We have people here who are 80 who act like they’re 50.”

Said Beth Allen, the center’s executive director: “We tell everyone here that age is mind over matter: If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.”

That attitude explains why Allen runs a full slate of activities for the seniors, including Tai chi, yoga and advanced fitness.

Over in the bingo room, retired seamstress Pauline Kalogeras was rooting for McKeon.

“When I heard about it, I said, ‘Boy this guy’s lucky – he’s got a job,’ ” said Kalogeras, 94. “He must be sharp.”

“He is sharp – that brain is still working,” said Jean Galasyn, of Dania Beach, a baseball fan who wouldn’t divulge her age, except to say that she’s closer to 70 than McKeon’s 80. “I think he looks terrific.”

But Marlins fan Maria Chisefsky, 89, had her doubts about McKeon, who last managed eight years ago, guiding the Marlins to a World Series championship.

“He’s too old,” said Chisefsky, of Hallandale Beach. “The team needs younger blood. When we get to a certain age, our energy is gone, our reflexes are gone, we’re not as fast as we used to be.”

Chisefsky used to catch Dodgers double-headers at Ebbets Field when she lived in Brooklyn. She still watches Marlins games, although she said she’s been “broken-hearted” since the team traded her favorite player, Cody Ross, last year.

She said she hasn’t been to the ballpark in years, pointing to the cane she now depends on. I asked her if she was more active at 80.

“I was still bowling, still playing bocce,” Chisefsky said.

She doesn’t know how an octogenarian could have the vitality to manage a group of young ballplayers through a grueling schedule in summer heat.

McKeon becomes the second oldest manager in Major League history. Connie Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics until he was 87 in 1950.

McKeon might be old for sports, but he’s a relative pup compared to other elders.

Actor/comedian George Burns told jokes until his death at age 100. Pianist Eubie Blake performed until his death at age 96 (he said he was 100, but documents revealed he was four years younger). Pablo Picasso painted prolifically up until a few years before his death at age 91.

“Everyone is different,” said Biamonte, of Dania Beach, who still takes daily walks along Hollywood’s Broadwalk but gave up his daily golf game a few years ago.

Friedman, the AARP volunteer, called McKeon “an inspiration.”

She’s a social worker looking for full-time work, and she said she had a recent job interview at a technical college where she was asked, “Do you think the kids could relate to you?”

“I said, ‘Why not? I’ve never had problems relating with people my whole life,’ ” Friedman said. “Older people are more reliable, more experienced, more stable. I wish I could bring Jack McKeon with me to my next interview to show people what’s possible.”

Perhaps McKeon’s hiring could spark a trend. Not to give the Dolphins any ideas, but Don Shula is 81. Just sayin’.

mmayo@tribune.com or 954-356-4508

Copyright © 2011, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

 

June 20, 2011, 9:40 am

How Old Is Jack McKeon?

By BENJAMIN HOFFMAN

1:55 p.m. | Updated The Miami Herald has reported that Jack McKeon will return to the Marlins dugout Monday night as interim manager.

Associated Press—Jack McKeon managed the Oakland A’s in 1978, one of two stints he had with the team.

With the resignation of Marlins Manager Edwin Rodriguez, the team is expected to announce Monday that he will be replaced by Jack McKeon, a former Marlins skipper.

While McKeon led the 2003 Florida club to a World Series victory and would be one of six active managers with more than 1,000 wins, the fact that he is 80 would make him truly stand out.

Consider the following:

• He was born on Nov. 23, 1930, before Whitey Herzog and Sparky Anderson, who retired in 1990 and 1995.
• He is three months younger than Earl Weaver, the legendary Orioles manager who retired in 1986 and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1996.
• He once lost his job as manager of the Oakland A’s possibly due to the interference of Stanley Burrell, a k a M.C. Hammer. At the time McKeon was 47 and Hammer was 16.
• His 1,011 wins in 15 seasons are impressive, but he is 1,667 short of the active leader, Tony La Russa, who is nearly 14 years his junior.
• During his World Series-winning stint with the Marlins, he became notorious for not being fully aware of all of his players’ names. That was eight years ago.
• No members of the Marlins’ active roster were alive when McKeon made his managerial debut, for the Royals in 1973.

The Marlins will be hoping that McKeon can light the same fire under the team that he did when he took over in 2003. Losers of 10 consecutive games, the Marlins are 12.5 games behind the division-leading Phillies.