Jack McKeon opted to give up his job in 2005 at the age of 75. He had managed the Florida Marlins to the World Series championship only two years earlier, but now he was ready to let someone else do the job. Did he regret his decision?

“Not until about two years later,” McKeon said. “I figured I needed a break and needed to get re-energized,” McKeon said. “I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve been successful. But I was getting bored. I was sitting watching three, four games each day on TV. You manage every game. I figured maybe there’ll be another chance, but people look at my age and I figured it was probably the end of the line.”

But then Edwin Rodriguez became so frustrated with the Marlins’ losing that he walked away from his job.

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This is a catch-up column, addressing issues I have not been able to in recent days and weeks, and No. 1 on the list is really a catch-up because for some inexplicable reason I completely missed it.

I was not aware of the remarkably misguided article The New York Times ran about Roberto Clemente on June 12 until a week later when I read three letters to the sports editor about it.

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This is the sixth season Prince Fielder has been a regular sight in the Milwaukee Brewers’ lineup, and the Brewers and their fans would like to see him remain there. “There’s no question the fans would like to see us keep a player we drafted and has been with us for his entire career,” Doug Melvin, the Brewers’ general manager, said.

The problem is the Brewers have to figure out how to make that happen. Fielder can be a free agent after the season, and it will take a ton of money to keep him in the Milwaukee lineup as its first baseman.

Help may be on the way, but it will arrive too late for the Brewers.

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