Johnny Keane

John Joseph Keane (November 3, 1911 – January 6, 1967) was an American professional baseball manager and coach. He managed in Major League Baseball (MLB) for four complete seasons and parts of two others. Keane is perhaps best remembered for his change of teams following the 1964 MLB season—after the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the New York Yankees in the World Series, he unexpectedly resigned as manager of the Cardinals and was subsequently hired to manage the Yankees.

Playing and managing career Keane never played in the major leagues; beginning in 1930, he was a shortstop in the Cardinals' minor league system but suffered a head injury in 1935 after being hit by a pitch and lay in a coma for weeks. that only a thorough housecleaning of Cardinal management would bring him the pennant he had craved since he bought the team in 1953. On August 17, he fired (or accepted the resignations of) almost every senior St. Louis front office executive. which dropped them into a tie with Cincinnati, one ahead of Philadelphia. On the final day of the regular season on Sunday, October 4, the Phillies blanked the Reds 10–0 and the Cardinals took the Mets 11–5 to avoid a three-way playoff and clinched their first NL pennant since 1946; they then defeated the New York Yankees in a seven-game World Series. who reassigned first-year manager Yogi Berra on October 16, the day after the World Series. It was later revealed that the Yankees had made an informal inquiry about Keane's interest in the job during the 1964 season.

The Keane-Yankees pairing was not a good match; while the Yankees were coming off five straight American League pennants and 15 league championships in 18 years, the 1965 team was on a downhill slide. The circumstances of Keane's hiring caused a significant credibility gap with the players, and his aloof, distant manner did little to help. His style was better suited to young players, rather than a veteran-laden roster like the Yankees. His first team finished in sixth place at , their first losing season in forty years, and 25 games behind the Minnesota Twins. Keane and Yogi Berra, whom he replaced, were invited to attend the 1965 Major League Baseball All-Star Game as guests of Twins owner Calvin Griffith.

When the 1966 version won only four of their first 20 games, Keane became the first Yankee manager to be fired in midseason since 1910. Prior to their game at California on Saturday, May 7, he was replaced by Ralph Houk, the team's general manager, who had managed the team from 1961 to 1963. The Yankees did not respond to Houk either and finished in tenth (last) place, the first time in the cellar since 1912. Keane's record with New York gave him a career managerial mark of over six seasons.

Managerial record Team Year Regular season PostseasonGamesWonLostWin %Finish Won Lost Win % ResultSTL 80 5th in NL – – – –STL 162 6th in NL – – – –STL 162 2nd in NL – – – –STL 162 1st in NL Won World Series (NYY)STL total 566 NYY 162 6th in AL – – – –NYY 20 fired – – – –NYY total 182 Total 748

Post-managerial career Keane is described in Jim Bouton's Ball Four as being prone to panic, and someone who was "willing to sacrifice a season to win a game" by putting injured stars into the lineup before their injuries had fully healed. Bouton tells a humorous anecdote of Keane pressuring Mickey Mantle to play on a bad leg. But in Keane's defense, Bouton also noted that general manager Houk and the team unfairly used Keane as the excuse for their losing records in 1965 and 1966, which were actually the result of an aging team with a depleted farm system.

Death In December 1966, Keane accepted a scouting post with the California Angels. He suffered a fatal heart attack one month later at age 55 at his home in Houston, Texas.

In Bouton's book I Managed Good, But Boy Did They Play Bad, a collection of essays and stories about past Major League managers, he wrote that Keane seemed to be in awe of the Yankees, and that he underestimated the problems the team faced. Bouton felt that the immense pressure and stress of managing the Yankees through their inevitable collapse likely led to his death.