The High Point Rockers’ Jamie Keefe enters his fifth year as manager, having led the club to three playoff appearances in his first four seasons.

Also on the horizon is Keefe’s 2,000th career game as a professional manager.

Entering his 22nd year as a manager, Keefe starts the season with a 1,059-910 career record along with a .538 winning percentage.

Through his first four seasons in the Atlantic League, Keefe’s Rockers teams have posted a 287-228 record. That .557 winning percentage places Keefe eighth all-time in league history. And High Point’s 78-46 record in 2023 is the 10th-best record ever posted in the 25 year history of the Atlantic League.

With 1,969 career games under his belt, Keefe will surpass the 2,000 mark for career games in Game 32 of the 2024 season.

Keefe’s clubs have reached the playoffs in 10 of his previous 21 seasons and he led the Rockland Boulders to the 2014 Can-Am Association championship.

The Rockers were able to entice Keefe to High Point to manage their inaugural season in 2019.  He promptly led the Rockers to a 74-66 record and a spot in the playoffs, marking the first time an Atlantic League expansion team had reached the postseason in its first year.

And Keefe worked his magic again in 2021, assembling a team that remained in contention for the playoffs throughout the season.

In 2022, Keefe kept the Rockers in contention for both the first and second half South Division pennants and their year-long dominance earned a wild card spot into the playoffs. High Point needed five games to subdue Gastonia in the South Division Championship Series. In the League Championship Series, Lancaster took the title, three games to none.

The 2023 High Point season produced the best regular season in franchise history. The Rockers locked up a playoff spot early by winning the South Division’s first half title and then sharing the second half championship.

The Rockers selected Keefe as their very first manager after a very successful run with the Rockland Boulders. Keefe spent six seasons in Rockland, leading the Boulders to 344 wins and two Manager of the Year awards as well as a Can-Am League championship in 2014.

Prior to joining Rockland, Keefe spent the 2011 season as the head coach of the Pittsfield Colonials of the Can-Am Association, earning Manager of the Year honors by posting a 53-39 record and taking the club to the playoffs.

A native of Rochester, N.H., Keefe was a third round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates aftger being named the Boston Globe’s New Hampshire Scholastic Player of the Year in 1992. he signed with the Pirates as a shortstop just hours after finishing his prep career in which he led Spaulding High School to the state semifinals by hitting .378 and succeeding in all 16 stolen base attempts.

Keefe’s journey in professional baseball commenced when he reported to the Bradenton Pirates just days after his high school graduation.

In 1993, the Pirates moved Keefe to second base and assigned him to Lethbridge after having spent the spring in extended spring training. He played the 1994 season at Augusta, Ga. in the South Atlantic League where he hit .266 in 50 games, and in Welland, Ontario.

In 1995, Keefe was with the San Diego Padres and advanced through their system, reaching Class AAA Las Vegas in 1997.  Shortly thereafter began his relationship with independent baseball.

Keefe signed with the Bend Bandits of the Western League in 1998 and also spent time with the Massachusetts Mad Dogs in the Northeast League. His independent journey brought him to Chillicothe, Ohio where he spent the 1999 and 2000 seasons.  In August 2000, he transitioned from player to coach and then became the manager of the Paints for the 2001 season.

Keefe led Chillicothe to a 51-33 record that first season as the Paints won their division in the Frontier League and reached the championship series. Jamie took Chillicothe to 188 wins in his four seasons before moving to Florence, Ky. He spent the 2010 season managing in Kalamazoo before joining the Pittsfield Colonials as an assistant coach. He was named Pittsfield’s manager for 2011 and earned his first Manager of the Year award in taking the Colonials to the championship round.

As a player, Keefe had few peers.

His high school coach, Hugo Bolin, described him to the Bangor Daily News as having “great running speed, he’s tremendous in the hole and he has a real strong arm.  Once he gets on base, he gives teams fits.”

There were as many as 14 scouts from nine major league organizations when Spaulding High would take the field behind their senior captain in Keefe.

“He’s got the ingredients of being a pro ballplayer,” continued Bolin.  “He’s got the arm. He’s got the speed. He’s got the fielding ability.”

Bolin would describe Keefe to the Boston Globe as “I think he is definitely the best player I’ve had.  I’ve had some good ones.  I’ve had none better than him at shortstop.”

A shortstop his entire life, Jamie was forced to play first base as a junior following a shoulder injury suffered while playing hockey, a sport he had to abandon in order to further his baseball career.

A starter for Spaulding High since his freshman year, Keefe had signed to attend the University of Maine and play for head coach John Winkin at a time when the Black Bears were among the very best in college baseball nationally and the top team in all of New England.

“He’s the best infield prospect I’ve seen in five years, without question,” said Winkin who took the Black Bears to six College World Series appearances before passing away in 2014.

But the MLB Draft altered Keefe’s plans and he spent the summer of ’92 with the Bradenton Pirates of the Gulf Coast League.  That was until he suffered a broken left wrist when he was covering second base on an attempted steal and the ball, his wrist, and the base runner’s helmet arrived simultaneously.

While in Chillicothe, Keefe played for Roger Hanners, one of the first people that he thanked following his 900th win.  Hanners coached the Paints for eight seasons and worked with Jamie not only as a player but as an assistant coach.

“Roger Hanners was my mentor and he taught me the ropes, especially about independent baseball, when I first took over in Chillicothe.  I know Roger’s gone now but my hat’s off to him,” said Keefe.

Keefe led Chillicothe to a 51-33 record that first season as the Paints won their division in the Frontier League and reached the championship series.  Jamie led Chillicothe to 188 wins in his four seasons before moving to the Florence, Ky. Freedom.  He spent part of the 2010 season managing in Kalamazoo before joining the Pittsfield Colonial as an assistant coach. He was named Pittsfield’s manager for 2011 and earned his first Manager of the Year award in taking the Colonials to the championship round.

In 2012, Keefe managed the Pittsfield Suns of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League before returning to pro baseball as the manager of the Rockland Boulders in the Can-Am League in 2013.

Keefe spent six seasons with the Boulders, leading them to 344 wins and two more Manager of the Year awards as well as a Can-Am League championship in 2014.

Boulders president Shawn Reilly told the White Plains, N.Y. Journal News in 2018 what it was that made Keefe successful in independent baseball.

“I’ve seen new managers come in this league and, if they have a player that has had a bad week, they overreact and release him or trade him,” Reilly said.  “Jamie doesn’t do that and that is why his players love playing for him.  He knows when to be patient and when to move a player.”