How Keith Johnson became Salt Lake Bees' all-time winningest manager


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SALT LAKE CITY — Keith Johnson's journey to becoming the Salt Lake Bees' all-time winningest manager unofficially began a little more than two decades ago about 25 feet from where he's sitting on a Saturday afternoon before a doubleheader at Smith's Ballpark.

He points to the far end of the bench to a corner in the dugout, the spot players usually sit as they chat about the game and other things, as he recalls his final few years as a minor league player, suiting up for what was then the Salt Lake Stingers. Johnson had never considered coaching up until the 2002 season, telling himself that there was no way he could ask others to have the same work regime and mindset he had as a long-time baseball player.

But then Johnson found himself in that corner of the dugout, talking to Los Angeles Angels' up-and-comers like Chone Figgins, Alfredo Amezaga and Rob Quinlan, helping them as they began to crack the big leagues.

"For me to kind of mentor them a little bit and kind of give them the baseball side of what (then-Stingers manager) Mike Brumley's thought process was," Johnson said. "Talking to those guys it was like, huh, there's a way to get through to people without setting unfair expectations."

Johnson's playing career ended one season later, and the Angels hired him as a minor league manager a few years after that. He started with its Single-A clubs in Cedar Rapids and Rancho Cucamonga before he was promoted to manage in Salt Lake City in 2011, winning 273 games in three seasons at the helm of the Bees, and overseeing the team's run to the Pacific Coast League finals in 2013.

He came back to the Bees in 2016 after serving as a roving instructor for the Angels for one season, winning another 195 games over the next three seasons — though his run in 2018 was cut short when he was promoted to be an assistant on the big league staff in Los Angeles. He left with 468 total wins, three shy of the club's all-time record set by Phil Roof, who managed the team when it was known as the Buzz.

Johnson then moved on to the Miami Marlins organization after the 2018 campaign ended, spending the last four seasons between the minor league and big league coaching staffs before coming back to where it all began this year. It was a welcomed move for experts like Bees radio announcer Steve Klauke, who has known Johnson as a player and a manager.

"He certainly runs a tight ship," said Klauke, before the season began. "He's enthusiastic about the game of baseball. He's a great teacher of the game, and I think this is the group of guys who needs that push to get them over the top."

With the Bees' 4-2 win over Albuquerque on April 6, Johnson surpassed Roof on the all-time list. He jokes that the accolade means he's been in the minor leagues "a long time," but it's an honor he's proud to share with all the players he has coached over the past few years.

"It's a tribute to a lot of the players and the staff that I've had over the years more so for me," he said.

Entering Sunday, Johnson only needs 23 victories to become the team's first manager to reach 500 wins; however, Johnson insists the sweetest win of all is when he's able to call players into his clubhouse office and inform them that they're going to Los Angeles.

And while the tale-end of his playing career motivated him for a career in coaching, he adds that his family prepared him for the job he has now. Being a minor league coach is more than wins or losses, it's developing people so they are ready for greater things. It's also advising them through rough patches, a responsibility not unlike the role he's had as a father of four children — just with different stakes.

That role, he contends, has helped him become a better manager, guiding players to Los Angeles as he did about two decades ago.

"It all goes hand-in-hand — parenting, coaching or being in charge of anyone," he said. "You have to get (your children) to understand 'this is what I'm doing, this is why I'm doing it.' With players, it's the same way. If they know where you're trying to get as a team or as an organization or whatever, they know what the end goal is."

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Carter Williams is an award-winning reporter who covers general news, outdoors, history and sports for KSL.com.

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