Atlanta Braves manager announces retirement

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Atlanta Braves manager announces retirement
October 6, 2010
by Josh Robbinson
The Blue Banner

Major League Baseball will never see a greater manager than longtime Atlanta Braves skipper Bobby Cox.

Before Saturday's game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Cox was honored in a ceremony to celebrate his Cooperstown-bound career, as he will step down from his role as manager at the end of the season.

Many Braves greats were in attendance, such as Hank Aaron, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz.

Well-known and longtime Braves third baseman Chipper Jones, who has never played for another team nor another manager, gave a speech to show his appreciation for Cox. "I've been trying to make you proud for 20 years," he said.

This is an example of the kind of respect Cox commands. He's always been known as a players' manager, standing up for them when he believed they had been wronged. In fact, Cox holds the record for most career managerial ejections at 158.

But it's not a manager's ejection record that counts – it's his team's win-loss record. During his 29 years of managing MLB teams, Cox accumulated 15 seasons of 90 wins or more – six of which were beyond 100.

One of those 15 came in 1985, his last of four seasons managing the Toronto Blue Jays, when he recorded 99 wins. This was after his first stint with the Braves, from 1978 to 1981, when he never won more than 80 games.

Add four Manager of the Year awards, five National League Pennants, one World Series Championship and 14 consecutive division titles and it's easy to see why he is so highly praised.

He's fourth on the list of all-time career managerial wins with 2,504. His chance to add more begins Thursday, when the Braves head to San Francisco to take on the Giants in the 2010 National League Division Series.

Jeff Blauser, who was drafted as a shortstop by the Braves in '87 and played the first 10 of his 12 Major League seasons with the Braves, said Cox is the reason for Atlanta's unmatched success during the past 20 years.

"The one constant of all the runs has been Bobby Cox," he said in an interview with the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "And it's the way he treats his players as an equal, as a peer. No doubt he's a great manager; his record proves that. But he's also a teammate. And that's how we viewed him."

Pete Van Wieren, the beloved Braves announcer nicknamed "The Professor," said, "I have often been asked, ‘What makes Bobby such a successful manager?' My answer is always his dedication to the job. I have never known anyone who loves the game of baseball more than Bobby. I have never known anyone who respects the game of baseball more than Bobby. And I have never known any who wants to win as much as Bobby."

Cox is not only loved and respected within the Atlanta Braves organization, but he is also heralded as the very best, even among opponents.

Joe Torre, who is also retiring at the end of the season, said of Cox, "Players love playing for him because he's very honest. He knows his baseball. He's had about every job connected with the game. He's been great."

Torre should know. He met Cox and the Braves in the World Series twice, both in 1996 and in 1999. Unfortunately, Torre and the Bronx Bombers got the better of Cox both times.

Most players will tell you they'd like to play for Cox, even if only for one season in their career. Jones is lucky, as Cox is the one and only manager he's ever played for. That's 16 years on the Major League level.

Jones told Jayson Stark of ESPN, "The people who come here for a little bit of time and have aspirations of going somewhere else or the guys who come up and have only known Bobby Cox and are about to become a free agent – I always tell them, ‘The grass is not greener.' And they find that out."

He added, "It took Gary Sheffield literally three weeks of spring training. After he left here and went to the Yankees, we played them in spring training. And he walked up to me in batting practice and said, ‘Man, did I screw up. I didn't know how good I had it.'"

The few who refuse to acknowledge Cox's living legacy have said the Braves should have won more than one World Series.

Cox's naysayers have a seemingly fair point, except for the fact baseball is a game grounded in failure. A batter who gets a hit three out of 10 times is considered great.

To fathom one single manager could cause such a ridiculous amount of success goes far beyond the typical rule of prosperity in baseball.

"It's not about how many World Series you've won, it's about how often you compete," Torre said.

Pitching legend Tom Glavine said people always wanted to give the team credit when the Braves won and lay all the blame on Cox when they lost.

"They didn't give him credit when we won during the season, but somehow it was his fault when we didn't win in the postseason. At the end of the day, you want to judge what kind of manager Bobby is, you listen to people in the game talk about Bobby," Glavine said.

So the truth and fact of the matter is, Cox is one of a kind. He is the greatest manager there has ever been and ever will be. That's in terms of the success he's achieved and the respect and love fans gave him.

So in a couple of years, when the ballot of eligible candidates goes out and living members of the Hall of Fame put it to a vote, Cox should be put through to Cooperstown, unanimously.