This video titled, “Jack McKeon Interview (Former Executive and Manager, 2003 World Series Champion Florida Marlins)” was conducted by Mitch Pittman, Class of 2009, for John Burbridge’s business baseball class at Elon University in 2008. The interview was conducted in Latham Park (2001) and Newsome Field (1977) with Elon Television producing the video and audio shoot. John Aloysius McKeon was born on November 23, 1930. He was nicknamed "Trader Jack," and was an American former Major League Baseball manager and front-office executive. The McKeon interview was conducted into three video files. This is the video file about winning the World Series. Pittman asked McKeon what changes he had to make in 2003 with the Marlins players in order to win the World Series? “I had an advantage because I managed the Cincinnati Reds (Ohio) in 2000 and had an opportunity and see the young talent on the Florida Marlins. I recall a situation when I said to my pitching coach, ‘God, wouldn’t I like to manage that club over there,’ because they were struggling and they had so much young talent.” Video of a Florida Marlins cap. “I followed the Marlins for a year or two after that and I saw these players that were good talented players. But they were staying in neutral. They were not moving up to the next level. Who knows when I got the opportunity, I had to put a good background on what I had to do. I saw these guys that were not prepared and they did not have good work ethic. And when I happened to get the job, I tell ya, the first meeting that I had with my players, ‘boys I don’t need this job. But I am here to show you how to win. If you want to pay the price, we can play in October. It is all up to you. How bad do you want it? But if you want it bad enough, we are going to have to change a few things. Change your attitude. Change your work habits. We are going to have to focus a little bit better. And you are going to have to leave your egos at the door.’ It took us about two or three weeks and they brought it into the program. Part of being a leader is getting someone to buy into your program. I kept preaching to them, saying, ‘Hey, we get the 500 and we are going to roll. We have 22 weeks left in the season and all we want to do is pick a game a week.’ That meant we played seven games and be four and three. We started winning and steam rolled. As it turned out on those 22 weeks, we won, 20 of the 22 weeks. I kept telling them if we win a game a week, we will end up 20 games over 500. Basically, that is what we did.” So you saw the Marlins players’ talent? “Yes, I saw the God given talent. They came to the big leagues as youngsters and pushed into the big leagues and felt ‘Hey, I am here. Auh – I do not have to work, prepare, and it is going to happen.’ It doesn’t happen this way. I am so proud of the players today (2008) because I rode those kids. I told those kids, I did not care if they liked me or did not, I was going to make them 20 game winners. I am going to stay on you on the whole year. And I did. And from time to time, I get a call from those guys, ‘Thanks a lot for putting me on the right track.’ That is the rewarding part of it. You just have to stay on these guys. You have to push. The thought process was: when you are winning that is when you push them. When you are losing, use a little compassion and be patient. But when you are winning – DRIVE them.” Down to the World Series, Marlins had to beat the Chicago Cubs, what was the real turning point in the World Series? “The turning point was that we had a bunch of players who were dedicated to winning. And we went into Chicago down 3 to 1 facing the two best pitchers in the National League, Kerry Lee Wood and Mark William Prior. Our guys went in there full of confidence that these guys were not going to beat us. When we go back to that game 6, and we were down to 3 to 1, and we were four outs away from getting eliminated, and all of a sudden, things turned to gold. We scored 8 runs and ended up winning the game. Then in the final game when we jumped out early with 3 runs in the first inning, it was a case of a determined group of players that were not going to be beat. We just did not think we could get beat.” In addition, McKeon’s comments included: specific World Series plays by the Marlins players; statistics of playing the game; spoke of the Yankees; pre-game press television statistics of 4 and 20 with pitchers; media made a big deal of “pitchers rest” between games; new trend in the game of baseball of the protection of the player; pitch every fifth game vs. fourth game; new guys’ pitching trends; McKeon’s decisions in his career; 40 years of good and bad career decisions; and experiences of being a baseball manager and the mistakes McKeon learned from them. Some names included: Jeff James, Linda Lashendock, and Drake Springer.