Major League Baseball

Trace the six degrees of Jack McKeon

Published Jun. 21, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

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Jack McKeon is not quite old enough to have known Abner Doubleday personally. But you can trace the entire history of baseball through the Florida Marlins' 80-year-old interim manager in six easy steps.

McKeon was awarded a second stint with the Marlins after Edwin Rodriguez stepped down on Sunday. McKeon's World Series win with Florida in 2003 made him the oldest manager to win a championship, and now he becomes the second-oldest manager in major league history -- trailing Connie Mack, who wrote his last lineup card in 1950 at age 87.

McKeon's surprising return prompted the Wall Street Journal to give him the Kevin Bacon treatment.

McKeon began his baseball career in 1949 as an 18-year-old catcher for the minor-league Greenville Pirates. His manager there, former major league pitcher Walt Tauscher, appeared in just 23 games in the bigs, but a few of them were with the 1931 Washington Senators, which had a 41-year-old future Hall of Fame outfielder named Sam Rice.

In 1915, Rice's first big-league manager was Clark Griffith, another eventual Hall of Famer. Griffith spent his best years as a player with what is now the Chicago Cubs franchise, whose legendary player-manager was Cap Anson.

And Anson, in turn, hit .356 for pennant-winning Chicago in 1876, the first season of the National League.

Read more here.

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