When Jack McKeon Managed Beer-And-Chicken-Lovin' Josh Beckett In Florida, He Locked The Clubhouse During Games

The Boston Globe story on the Red Sox's September collapse included a lot of semidamning revelations, among them that starters John Lackey, Josh Beckett, and Jon Lester ate fried chicken and drank beer while playing video games in the clubhouse during Sox games. Quelle dommage! Apparently Terry Francona lost control of the team because he was taking pain medication and fretting about his marriage.

But there were no such worries for Jack McKeon, when he ran the world champion 2003 Florida Marlins. No sir, he tells the Palm Beach Post.

If the allegations are true, it wasn't the first time Beckett killed time in the clubhouse during a game. He and Brad Penny did that with the Marlins in 2003, prompting manager Jack McKeon to lock the clubhouse door during games.

Jack even resorted to keeping a stack of bathroom passes in the dugout to give out during games when players had to go.

"In between innings they'd go to the clubhouse to get a drink or hang out,'' McKeon recalled this afternoon from his home in North Carolina.

"I said, ‘Hey, I got no rule against going up if you have to go to the bathroom or something, but get back.' A couple of times I looked down the bench to talk to somebody and they weren't there. They were in the clubhouse. So I went up and got them out and said, ‘OK, boys that's it. We'll lock the door.'"

McKeon also required his players to ask him for hall passes—he calls them "poo-poo and pee-pee cards"—to use the bathroom. Now that's managing. Pick up the phone, Jack, John Henry would like to lure you out of this most recent retirement.

Jack McKeon recalls locking the Marlins clubhouse door to keep Josh Beckett and others in the dugout [Palm Beach Post]

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