Despite coaching double-duty, family wins baseball man's heart

By Bryan Painter

Published: September 5, 2008

Keith Lytle wears a black cap with a blue brim and a white star. He's an assistant baseball coach of the Oklahoma City University Stars.

Lytle also wears another black cap. This one has a capital R that features a hawk's eye and red tail feathers. He's a part-time assistant with the Oklahoma RedHawks, who tonight host Game 3 of the Pacific Coast League's American Conference playoffs at the AT&T Bricktown Ballpark.

But it's the third hat Lytle, 48, wears that is the most important to him, the dual role of husband and father. Lytle and wife Jane, married 20 years as of last week, have a 12-year-old son, Joe Jackson Lytle.

"I enjoy being at his ballgames more than any other place in the world,” Lytle said of Joe, a catcher.

That goes a long way toward explaining why Lytle, highly respected by many in baseball circles, wears the many hats. Because with this combination he can do many things.

Lytle can work year-round as assistant to NAIA Hall of Fame Coach Denny Crabaugh at OCU. The Stars made four consecutive appearances in the NAIA championship game starting in 2002 and won the national championship in 2005.

"I couldn't have asked to be an assistant for a better head coach to work for than Denny Crabaugh,” he said. "He's always treated me as an equal. And I haven't applied for another job since I got here. I love this university.”

Lytle can work home games as part-time assistant to RedHawks Manager Bobby Jones, who has the most wins by a manager in Oklahoma City minor league baseball history.

"The thing I respect about him the most is the respect players have for him,” Lytle said. "They would run through fire for him.”

This season, that part-time job just keeps going as the South Division champion RedHawks are in the playoffs.

"This team has great leadership from Bobby and everyone,” he said. "This team has an attitude about winning that I've noticed in teams I've coached that have a desire to be on top.”

He can be there when Joe refuses to take a break from catching the third game of the day in a tournament when the temperatures are well into the 90s.

"The coach will offer to let him play in the outfield in the third game and that would be great with me, but he wants to catch,” Lytle said. "I love to be there at games to tell him how proud I am of him.”

He can mix the three. Lytle coaches with the Stars through the end of their season, works the home games with the RedHawks, watches Joe play and often gets to take Joe with him to work.

"Joe's had a very good stage to gauge things by,” Lytle said. "By growing up in a college clubhouse at OCU and by being with the RedHawks two years in a row in their clubhouse, he's seen the effort that's put out on a daily basis. He sees how hard those guys work.”

Plus, Joe gets to see another guy work very hard, the guy he calls "Dad”, the guy who proudly wears many hats.

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