Upon graduating from North Miami Senior High School in 1972, Keatley enrolled at Florida State University on a college football scholarship.

However, upon learning that the Seminoles coaches planned to move him from quarterback to linebacker, he transferred to Miami Dade Junior College North while still in his first semester.

[1] As a sophomore at Miami Dade North, he transitioned to catcher and played well enough to be selected in the fifteenth round of the 1974 Major League Baseball draft but, as a New York Yankees fan, could not resist a scholarship offer to continue playing college baseball at the University of South Carolina for former Yankee Bobby Richardson.

[2] Keatley was promoted to the Major Leagues by the Kansas City Royals for the first time on September 7, 1981 along with Onix Concepcion, Billy Paschall, Ken Phelps, Jeff Schattinger and Pat Sheridan.

[10] After his playing career, he lived with his wife, Karen, and children, Brett and Brandon, in the Lexington, South Carolina area while working for more than two decades for Johnson Controls.