I have to defend myself on McKeon a bit. He was fired after winning 85 games in 2000, for no really good reason. With a very similar team in 2001, Boone won 66 games. Now, that's not completely his fault, but it does matter. Jack could take a team, like the '99 team, and help them play well over thier heads. The Marlins are a team that just came together, but it seems more than coincidental that it happened more or less when Jack came on. They were 19-29 at one point. I saw this happen in 1999, and it was electric.

They hired Boone, who was just too smart and cute for his own good, doing things like putting in Jason LaRue as a pinch runner while pinch batting Deon Sanders. That obviously needed to be reversed. And this happened all of the time. There was a constant annoyance with the fans and the players with certain selections, and I think that hurt as much as anything. Such things matter.

I'd like more scientific evidence, but it's hard to find. Outside of wins and losses. Wonder if Bill James is working on that one (which reminds me - Moneyball is a GREAT book, and he and Billy Beane should go to the HOF). Here's as good of a clincher as I can get. Rob Neyer agrees with me, and this columns is well worth a read if you're so inclined: http://espn.go.com/mlb/columns/neyer_rob/1594623.html. Money statement: "McKeon's managing his fifth team, and every team he's managed has improved under his guidance." He defends him well.

BTW, have any of you heard of http://www.baseballlibrary.com/? It's a great place to read about the history of baseball on specific dates. And to see the emotions behind some moves. Turns out Jack once traded his son-in-law. One of the reasons he became Trader Jack.