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WEST PALM BEACH Kyle Freeland Jersey , Fla. (AP) — “Trader Jack” is back at spring training and couldn’t be happier. Back in baseball, where he belongs, after a season away.Now a special adviser to the Washington Nationals‘ general manager, Jack McKeon feels refreshed after a bit of a break from the place that’s been his world for most of his 88 years. He managed more than 1,000 wins in the majors, another 1,000-plus in the minors and was a GM, too.“This is in your blood. It’s your love. When I used to manage the Marlins, I’d get up at 7, go to church at 8:30, then turn around and go right to the ballpark. People said: How come you went to the ballpark alone at 9 o’clock, 9:30? I’d say that it was like my living room. My home,” McKeon said during an interview at the Nationals’ spring training facility. “I’d go out and jog. Read the papers. Smoke a few cigars and wait ’til the game started.”Those Padron cigars are still around, but only to gnaw on; he stopped lighting them up more than a half-dozen years ago after double-bypass heart surgery.“When I see people, first thing they ask is, ‘Can I get a picture? Where’s your cigar?’ So I always keep one on hand,” said McKeon http://www.rockiesfanproshop.com/authentic-chad-bettis-jersey , whose son, Kasey, is Washington’s director of player procurement. “I cut ’em in half, chew ’em. Just stick ’em in, like a prop.”So much else is the same as it ever was when it comes to the manager of the 2003 World Series champion Florida Marlins — today, they’re the Miami Marlins — along with the Kansas City Royals, Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres and Cincinnati Reds.His nickname — earned because, as he says, “I kept wheelin’ and dealin’, and so it stuck” while running the Padres in the 1980s — is so ingrained that the license plate on one of his cars reads “Trader J.” Friends call him “Trader Jack,” and he signs text messages simply with “Trader.”Also unchanged: His knowledge of the game. His sense of humor. And, of course, his penchant for telling stories.Oh, those stories.Get McKeon started, and he’ll regale you for 10, 20 Ryan McMahon Jersey , 30 minutes, each tale leading to another, a wink and a smile punctuating his promise of, “I’ll tell ya one more.”There are common threads. Every character is truly a character, depicted in detail — how tall or slender, how voices sounded, how smart (or not). There’s usually an element of self-deprecation. There’s always a punchline.On this particular morning, as birds chirped around in the breeze, McKeon got on a roll. He recalled setting up an electronic “wire” that allowed for direct communication with his pitcher in the early 1960s at Triple-A Vancouver, predating by a half-century the watches Major League Baseball tested this spring to evade sign-stealing. Or the time he wanted rope tied around a player’s feet when he reached first base so the guy wouldn’t take off when he shouldn’t. Or when he went to a pawn shop and bought a $3.95 gun that shot blanks to scare a runner ignoring “Stop!” signs at third base.“You try to absorb as much as you can,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “He’s definitely a teacher. And I try to be a student.”Washington GM Mike Rizzo wanted McKeon for precisely that purpose: passing along what he knows.“He’s a mentor to me. He’s a person that you can bounce things off of. I can. Davey can,” Rizzo said. “He checks just about every box that you need as an experienced baseball person.”McKeon was available because he was among four Marlins executives — along with Andre Dawson, Tony Perez and Jeff Conine — let go after a group led by Derek Jeter bought that team in 2017.That scuttled a plan to let McKeon run Miami for one game in September 2018 so he could break Connie Mack’s record for oldest manager in the majors.“I’m not worried about it. I’m not politicking. It would have been nice. I just didn’t want it to seem like a PR thing,” McKeon said. “If it ever happens, fine. If it doesn’t, so be it.”McKeon will be based in Washington during the season, which begins Thursday B.J. Upton Jersey , and will travel to help minor league managers and coaches and evaluate prospects.In sum, Rizzo vowed to keep McKeon busy.Trader Jack is just fine with that after his brief respite, even if it afforded him time to go to the beach or Las Vegas or spend time with a family that includes 10 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.“I got a chance to see what the other side lives like. As the season wore on, especially near the end, it got boring hanging around. I needed to go back to work,” McKeon said, then added with a chuckle: “Plus, my wife kept saying, ‘Why don’t you go? Go. Go. Go.'” PHOENIX — After his second start for Philadelphia in April 2016, Clay Buchholz knew it was finally time to tend to the right arm that had been bothering him off and on since 2015.The results have been spectacular.Buchholz has become a mainstay in the Diamondbacks‘ starting rotation after being promoted from the minors in early May, and he will try to lift Arizona to a two-game minisweep of the Los Angeles Angels in an interleague series that concludes Wednesday at Chase Field.Article continues below ...Right-hander Odrisamer Despaigne (2-1, 6.29 ERA) is scheduled to make his second start for the Angels since being acquired from Miami last week.Buchholz (6-2) is coming off his best start in almost four seasons, a complete-game 5-1 victory at San Diego on Thursday in which he gave up five hits, including a solo homer. He struck out six, did not walk a batter and used 112 pitches — 76 for strikes.“It felt good,” Buchholz told reporters after his most recent start. “I didn’t have my changeup, so to do that when you only have a couple of pitches to go to was pretty special.”Buchholz retired 13 in a row after giving up a hit to the first batter of the game and finished with his 10th career complete game http://www.indiansfanproshop.com/authentic-b.j.-upton-jersey , his first since July 4, 2015, when he beat Houston 6-1 in Fenway Park.“I think he had a little extra gear and a little extra momentum,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said.“I know it is very gratifying for him. I’ve seen him for a long time. For him to do what he’s done and come back from the injury and come out the other side is very special. He deserves so much of the credit for attacking the game plan and doing exactly what he is supposed to do. He deserved the night.”Arizona’s current regime has a long history with Buchholz, who threw a no-hitter with Boston in his second major league start in September 2007.General manager Mike Hazen and Lovullo were in the Red Sox organization when Buchholz was there, and Hazen snapped up Buchholz and signed him to a major league contract after he was released by Kansas City.Buchholz has been more than a reliable addition to a rotation headlined by Patrick Corbin, Zack Greinke and Zack Godley. Corbin and Greinke rank in the top 10 in NL ERA, and all three have double-digit victories.Buchholz, who has a 2.47 ERA in 12 starts, has given up more than three runs only once this season, and opponents have scored one or zero runs in seven of his appearances.“I had hoped it would be something like this,” Lovullo said. “I know that Clay, when he is healthy, is a very special pitcher. He’s very talented. We were looking for that person to step up, and we knew the name. Everything fit. We needed to see what he looked like, and from the first bullpen on, we knew that something was in there. He has shown us that every day.”Buchholz uses two fastballs and tops out at about 90 mph these days Jason Kipnis Jersey , down from his earlier years, and commands a cutter, a curve and a change. He has walked only 16 in 73 innings.“I knew him when he was a little younger and things were probably harder with his fastball. And maybe more pitches that he could throw,” Lovullo said.“But he’s simplified things. He’s matured to the point where he knows where all of his pitches are going. He knows how to attack a game plan. I can’t say that he knew how to do that as well when I first met him. The command was there. He had a lot of pitches that he liked to throw and maybe took away from a few of the really good strengths that he had. I think he has simplified it and is really staying with his strengths right now.”Buchholz is 7-5 with a 4.73 ERA in 14 career appearances (13 starts) against the Angels, the last two in 2016. He is 2-0 with a 3.57 ERA in four home starts this season.Rotation placeholder Despaigne, 31, broke camp with the Miami Marlins this season and made 11 appearances (10 in relief) before being optioned to Triple-A New Orleans in June. He was 2-3 with a 4.47 ERA in 14 appearances (five starts) in the minors.The Angels purchased Despaigne from the Marlins last week, and he gave up seven hits and five runs in four innings in his first start for the Angels, a 6-4 loss at Texas on Friday. He threw 78 pitches (47 strikes).Despaigne spent his first two seasons in 2014-15 with San Diego and is quite familiar with the NL West. He is 2-4 with a 4.40 ERA in eight games (seven starts) against the Diamondbacks, and has his most career starts and innings (43) against them.He has had trouble at Chase Field, however, going 0-3 with an 8.04 ERA in three starts, having given up 14 earned runs in 15 2/3 innings.