Bobby Cox: Heart of the Braves

Robert Joe Cox began his career in baseball quietly enough. In 1960, his minor league career began and he played until 1971 – mostly in the minors except for a brief stint in ’68-’69 when he played for the Yankees.

Cox never really distinguished himself as a player; his career minor league batting average was .275, and he never did that well in the upper minors. He even threw ten innings in the majors one year, but he soon realized that he didn’t have the stuff to become a legitimate major leaguer. Maybe hitting .229 and .215 at the major league level told him that, or perhaps it was a front office executive that realized Cox’s baseball talents belonged in the dugout, rather than on the field.

So, Cox embarked on what would become a great managerial career. In 1978 he took over the floundering Atlanta Braves and had them at a .500 record within three years. The Toronto Blue Jays hired Cox to be a GM in 1982 and he did well there, too. The team never had a winning season before his arrival. In the second year, the Blue Jays won 89 games and two years later won 99 games. He then moved back to Atlanta taking over the general manger position with the Braves.

In the year 1990, he faced an impossible decision. The team had the number one pick overall, and there was much debate on whom to choose. Todd Van Poppel was a high schooler throwing triple digits, which caused scouts to salivate. However, Cox went with a shortstop named Chipper Jones. The team took a lot of guff for taking the Bolles School product, but Cox didn’t care. He thought that he made the right decision and time told him he did.

The Braves, during the late 1980’s and even into 1990, were a horrible franchise. Soon manager Russ Nixon, now the manager of the Astros’ rookie level entry, was fired and Cox decided to move into the dugout, allowing former Kansas City Royal GM John Schuerholz take over the GM the position for the Braves. The graying Cox wanted to manage one more time. His time in baseball was soon reaching an end.

"What I wonder," asks Braves right hander John Smoltz, "is why does everybody know everything about Joe Torre and Tony La Russa -- but not Bobby Cox?"

Smoltz then answers his own question. "Actually, I think I know the reason. Bobby is so unassuming and humble, he'd much rather have no credit whatsoever. So with each passing year, we have to do what we can to make people notice."

Many people should be taking notice of what has transpired in Atlanta over the past fifteen years. The skipper has 2,091 career wins, sixth on the all-time list. He stands third on the all-time list for most games over .500, with a +492 mark. Joe Torre, +188, and Tony LaRussa, +308, get much more press, despite not ranking in the top ten career-wise.

Critics spend time writing about Cox’s lack of postseason success. If he’s such a master, they ask, why does he only have one World Series ring? Tony LaRussa, a man labeled by some as a genius has the exact same number of rings. Joe Torre, revered by many in mainstream media as the best manager of contemporary times, is a good strategist, but his financial backing is well known.

No matter what, Bobby wins. And wins. And wins. He has skippered clubs with a no pitching / much hitting formula. However, he has shown that all pitch / no hitting can work, too. The Braves have won with closers like Mark Wohlers, Kerry Ligtenberg, and John Rocker. They have had Russ Ortiz and Jaret Wright as staff aces. This team has given Damian Moss and Bruce Chen time in the starting rotation. Heck, Raul Mondesi spent time with this club last year! No matter who is on the field, he wins.

"It happens with a lot of them [players]," GM Schuerholz says. "And that's a direct reflection of the environment Bobby creates in the clubhouse, on the bench, out on the field and during a game.

"Players know and understand the respect Bobby has before they ever get here. And that environment enables that player to produce to his potential, no matter how well he's done the year before or how well he was expected to do. There's just a great, constant flow of positivism that comes out of him and goes to the players. And the players who have been here before tell other players. So when a player comes here, he knows it's real. It's not phony. It's not hollow. It's real."

What is one of the biggest keys to his success? No matter what, Cox takes care of his players.

"I don't think anybody in this room would tell you anything bad about Bobby," says Eddie Perez, a veteran catcher. "How could they? He never puts you down. He never talks bad about you. He never makes you feel like you're the one who loses the game, even if you just made an error to let in the winning run. He'll try to make it seem like it was a fluke. He'll say, 'Did you see that ball hit that rock?'

"I played here for eight years the first time," Perez adds. "And until I moved to another team, I never had another manager. But I saw a lot of guys come here who said, 'He's the best manager ever.' Fred McGriff was one of them. I said, 'Why?' And he said, 'Just try to stay here, because he's the best.' And you know what? Fred was right."

He may not be the best (if there could be a measure for such a thing), but Bobby Cox is the heart of an Atlanta Braves club that has done some impressive things. Apparently I am not the only one that believes this since just this week it was announced that Cox took home his fourth Manager of the Year award - tying La Russa for the most ever. Maybe he is the best after all.

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