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Home > Jeff Schultz > Archives > 2008 > March > 28 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USCox deserves farewell tour, but doesn’t want one
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There will be no rocking chair tour. Rocking chair tours lead to ceremonies. Ceremonies need honorees. Honorees require attention. Attention is so not Bobby Cox. It’s like his own personal attention deficit disorder.
But take a good look Sunday night. The Braves play the first of 162, and it’s likely to be the final opener and the final 162 that we’ll see Bobby Cox in a uniform. It will be at least six months before he says much on the matter. He made that mistake one day last spring and, well, attention had him cornered.
“This year and next year and that’s it,” Cox had said.
Some now believe he was only hinting at the possibility of maybe someday thinking that the end might not be far away. (Feel free to add a few more qualifiers.)
“I’d like to start doing the things I need to do instead of the things I want to do — like manage,” he continued.
We have learned in sports that there’s an open-door nature to retirement announcements. But those were strong words from a man not known for off-the-cuff remarks, particularly about himself. They are words he will never repeat because he came to understand the firestorm they caused in the organization last time. But they were words he meant.
Just a hunch: Get the chair ready.
Take a good look Sunday night. The Braves play their first of 162 under Cox, and we’re never going to see another one like him.
Rare is the athlete so dedicated to his sport that when he hurts his right arm, he goes outside and tries to learn how to throw left-handed. Rare is the manager who knows the game so well that he can take off the uniform, put on a suit, step into the front office, turn a farm system right side up and help build one of the strongest organizations sports has ever seen. Rare is when that same man can take off the suit, put back on the uniform, go back down to the dugout and win more games than anybody else during his tenure.
Cox has been all of those things.
Now he is telling all, “I’m leaving everything open.” Responses have been programmed. It’s an achievement merely when you can get him to bite on a hypothetical.
Question: Hypothetically, if this was your final season, you don’t seem like the type who would want a retirement tour.
Answer: “No, I don’t want that. And that’s part of it. If I do [retire], it’ll just be over.”
There will be enough to keep him busy. He’ll turn 67 in May (the Mets are in town). How busy does a 67-year-old need to be? He has a wife, three daughters, grandkids, a farm. He wants to travel. What must it be like on the road without the airport-hotel-stadium triangle?
The Dodgers signed him in 1959 and baseball has been his life ever since. He showed up at Dodgertown in Vero Beach and was overwhelmed by the number of players. “They didn’t have a draft in those days — they just found you and signed you,” he said. “There must have been 700 players there. We had three Triple-A teams with the Dodgers, two Double-As, four Cs, four Ds, a couple of Bs. I didn’t know anybody.”
Cox’s signing bonus was $40,000. At the time, he was driving a 1949 Ford he had bought in high school for $75. He thought about his newfound wealth.
“I wanted to buy a Corvette,” he said. “But I thought I shouldn’t.”
So he kept the Ford two more years.
Then he bought another used car.
Players hear these stories all the time. It’s one reason they struggle so much with thoughts of his retirement. When asked about playing for Cox, Chipper Jones said, “You don’t really have to see him. But you know how you feel when your dad’s watching you, peeking out the window to see what you’re doing in the front yard? That’s the way Bobby is. He doesn’t have to be overly verbal or hands on. You know who’s in charge.”
And then: “I think I’m going to have to negotiate a deal with him that he can’t retire until I retire.”
Jones doesn’t believe this is Cox’s last season, for the same reason many can’t believe it: He can’t imagine him doing anything else.
“They’ll have to cut his uniform off when they put him in the coffin,” Jones said. “Bobby’s happiest when he’s at the ballpark — sitting in the dugout with his spikes on, in full uniform and with a stogie at noon time for a 7 o’clock game. He’s just taking in the sights and sounds and smells of a big-league ballpark. It’s been in his blood. You can’t take that out of somebody.”
Baseball will always be in Bobby Cox. But before long, Bobby Cox is going to be in a rocking chair, farewell tour or not.
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By Chief Noc-a-homa
March 28, 2008 11:03 PM | Link to this
Viva la Bobby. Long live, long manage Bobby. Don’t know what the Braves would do without you. You are a living legend.
By old fart
March 29, 2008 11:32 AM | Link to this
We will never fully appreciate Bobby until he’s gone. What a career! What a manager!
By Gran Jen 1
March 29, 2008 6:45 PM | Link to this
Thoughts of the Braves without Bobby just gives me chills! He IS the Bravos as far as I’m concerned. Just keep on keeping on, Bobby!
By Mike
March 29, 2008 6:59 PM | Link to this
Blasphemy!
Cox has two more title runs in him at a minimum.
I like your work Schultz, but Cox will be managing the Braves when you retire, neither of which I am in a hurry to see happen.
Go Bravos!
By Connie
March 29, 2008 7:08 PM | Link to this
You’re breaking my heart, Jeff. I can’t even fathom the idea of not having Bobby Cox around. I know it will come one day…I just hope not this year. The man is a legend and my Bravos will not be the same without him. Ok, enough of sadness…..GOOO Braves!
By BRAVES~NATION!
March 29, 2008 7:08 PM | Link to this
We love you Bobby- Now go beat Washington on Sunday!
By TPM
March 29, 2008 7:12 PM | Link to this
I have lived in Atlanta for 11 years and have grown to appreciate him. I always make a point to listen to his radio segment before the games.
I really wish he could go out on top, but I do not see them doing it with a bunch of 5 or 6 inning starters and a suspect bullpen. I don’t think you will see very many complete games pitched by any Brave and that will tax their relievers by August.
They are great on defense at catcher, first base, right field and shortstop. They are average at best in the other positions.
This is about an 80 win team
By mark
March 29, 2008 7:22 PM | Link to this
I think its Great that Glavine Smoltz Chipper and I was hoping Lopez with Cox this being what could be last his last Brave season…now if only theses and the rest could somehow mangle a World Series Championship..and perhaps then all the anti critics of Cox would be hushed.Thanks Bobby for all you have done for this Atlanta Braves Team o9ver the years
By Mitch
March 29, 2008 7:40 PM | Link to this
I’ve heard for several years that Bobby is going to retire, and yet he comes back with one year contracts. My bet: It’s more likely that this is Glavine’s last season than Cox’s. If the Braves have at least a respectable 2008, and especially if they make the playoffs, I think Bobby comes back for 2009. The only way I think he might retire, would be if the Braves win it all, to go out on top, which isnt out of the question, if all our personnel stays healthy.
Mitch
By Connie
March 29, 2008 8:34 PM | Link to this
Thank you TPM. The Sporting News, ESPN and SI are calling your phone 100 times a day, right? If you’re a Braves fan, go get some sun or oxygen. You are smothering us TRUE Braves Fans.
By Tamika
March 29, 2008 8:59 PM | Link to this
Booby you poopy pants!! dont leave us!!
By Donnie Lasorda
March 29, 2008 9:32 PM | Link to this
So what is it exactly that you Braves fans find so endearing about Bobby Cox?
—his one world championship, despite wonderful talent year after year?
—his foul language every time the camera is on him? —(great example for the kids watching)
—his non-stop, nonsensical babbling every time a Brave is at the plate?
—his insultingly simple, mostly untruthful post game quotes?
—those tirades at the drop of a hat that have made him baseball’s all time ejection leader?
I realize sports fans have a deep-rooted need to have a “hero.”
Grouchy old Bobby is a strange choice.
By clh
March 29, 2008 9:34 PM | Link to this
we need to savor every game this just in case it is the end. there will never be another like bobby.
By JERRY
March 29, 2008 9:41 PM | Link to this
GOOD LUCK BOBBY WITH THE BRAVES THIS YEAR. AND YOUR FUTURE HOPE YOUR WITH THE BRAVES A MORE YEAR.GO BRAVES
By JERRY
March 29, 2008 10:04 PM | Link to this
GOOD LUCK BOBBY WITH THE BRAVES THIS YEAR. AND HOPE YOU STAY A FEW MORE YEARS.I FOR ONE DON’T WANT TO THINK ABOUT YOU’R RETIREMENT GO BOBBY.GO BRAVES
By JERRY
March 29, 2008 10:04 PM | Link to this
GOOD LUCK BOBBY WITH THE BRAVES THIS YEAR. AND HOPE YOU STAY A FEW MORE YEARS.I FOR ONE DON’T WANT TO THINK ABOUT YOU’R RETIREMENT GO BOBBY.GO BRAVES
By Bill Candler
March 29, 2008 10:13 PM | Link to this
Bobby Cox [and this is an opinion I would fight about] IS a nice guy who is a good boss that understands people and also the aspects of business. It is that and that is not simple IT IS WHAT makes him THE BEST !
By Connie
March 30, 2008 1:53 AM | Link to this
Donnie Lasorda is that the same as sorta a Braves Fan or a loser Mets fan? don’t come in here w/ hate filled ugliness about my Bobby Cox. Get a real life!
By DirtyDawg
March 30, 2008 3:25 AM | Link to this
Hey Donnie L…if you don’t like Bobby Cox you don’t like baseball, because he is baseball. The fact that the Braves have only won it all one time under him is more a testament to the crap shoot the playoffs can be - guarantee you that if we’d been under the old system where the Braves won the pennant each year then the WS wins would have been there. His language - that too is baseball - just like spittin and digging at your protective cup and chewing tobacco or dipping snuff. You and I might not like it but it’s in the genes. And what kid growing up playing Little League, Pony League, High School, American Legion, didn’t ‘chatter’ - you da’ baby, you do’ boy, come baby come boy, swing batter, swing - that’s Bobby Cox in the dugout watching his guys at the plate. He’s a throwback to what we all grew up with and appreciate about the game. His comments following a game are always meant to make his guys feel as good as they can about themselves - regardless of how crappy they may have played…his responses are no more simple than the questions he’s being asked. And finally the tirades…he’s a players manager. He’s there for his players. His ‘tirades’ are in every case a show of support for his guys - they’re busting their butts and an ump has just made a call that has, in essence, said to that player that his effort was for nothing, that it didn’t matter that you made a good play, I took it away from you - you don’t like it? Tough-s**. Bobby doesn’t let those things go without letting his player know that he knows that they got it right. And if it means he gets thrown out, that’s ok too, because that’s baseball as much as the chatter, the spittin’, the hittin’, the runnin’ and the throwin’…and thank you Bobby for being our ‘Mr. Baseball’.
By Larry
March 30, 2008 6:44 AM | Link to this
1-14!
This is Bobby’s record in the last game of the postseason—you know the must win games that if you lose you get to watch the other team celebrate!
Bobby is a good guy, good judge of talent, gets the most out of players, and is the best regular season manager over 162 games in baseball. Trouble is, however, he’s also manages the postseason just like he manages in April, by not making the smart, strategic decisions that win a short series or a must win game, thus the 1-14 record (including the playoffs one year in Toronto).
An example of what I’m talking about? Take Terry Francona of the Red Sox for example. In the playoffs last season his regular season center fielder, Coco Crisp, went cold in the playoffs so Francona replaced him in the lineup. Result? His replacement was hot and helped the Sox win the World Series for the second time in 4 seasons.
Had this been Cox he would have allowed the player to continue to play at the expense of the other players and the fans. You name it, he’s too stubborn, too loyal or dumb as a box of rocks; neither is acceptable and this is why at 1-14 in the last game of the playoffs Bobby Cox is indisputably the worst postseason manager in major league history!
By Larry
March 30, 2008 8:18 AM | Link to this
DirtyDawg,
If the playoffs are nothing more than a “crap shoot” (all luck) then what is the purpose of a manager? Are you saying that a manager’s only purpose is to fill out a lineup card and then bark out silly little nicknames from the dugout and just hope for the best?
Wrong! It is the little in-game, strategic moves that can make a difference in a closely contested game or series and clearly Bobby Cox is the all-time worst at this. Disagree? Okay! Then name me ANY strategic moves Bobby has made with a player or pitcher that clearly made a difference in a critical game? On the other hand, I can name numerous blatant, unabashed pitching and non-decisions of an underperforming position player in key moments that have cost the Braves dearly. Actually, I don’t need to, as anyone who has followed the Braves closely is fully aware of these disastrous choices by Cox.
I try to be fair, however, so I will give Bobby credit for getting us to so many playoffs—coupled with the best GM and player development personnel in the game—but he derserves equal scrutiny for his only one World Series title in 15 chances! Who knows, had Tom Glavine not pitched a one-hitter in game 6 in 1995 Bobby could be sporting a perfect 0-15 record despite a payroll and talent from 1991 - about 2002 second perhaps only to the Yankees.
Also, have you ever heard of a paragraph break?
By Supes
March 30, 2008 8:26 AM | Link to this
The Braves should have won more than 1 WS title in the 90’s but that is NOT all on Bobby Cox. Lay off, at the end of the day, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.
So while I’ve been critical of Bobby for some questionable decisions, at the end of the day he and John while he was GM put the Braves on the map.
We should be thankful for what Bobby has done, inspite of our desire to see change (which is inevitable)
By Workinlkeadawg
March 30, 2008 10:26 AM | Link to this
I just want to clear one thing up. I suggested Thorman should be sent to Richmond. I was jumped by a couple of bloggers includung DOB. I believe I was called an idiot among other things. So my question is, and I know you all have the answers. How did Thorman end up in Richmond? According to all the rocket scientists he was out of options.
By richbrave
March 30, 2008 12:34 PM | Link to this
Workinlikeadawg:
O disaffected one. The regulars, or know-it-alls on DOB’s blog are pretty sold on themselves. As is O’Brien, they are pretty agrandizing as well. The old sell,sell,sell myself syndrome. Forget it. Don’t mean nothin’.
Thorman arrived (lucky us) via waivers. I’m sure he can now clearly see his future in the organization. Hopefully, he will not be as dispirited as Blaine Boyer was last year upon being sent down. If he is ever recalled to Atlanta and they wish to divest themselves of his services, he can obtain free agency or report to the minors a second time. I would say his tenure with the Braves is near an end. He just didn’t produce when given the chance. Unfortunate. He can however build some stock here if he has the mental flexibility to stay in baseball. Richmond’s is a notorious pitcher’s park. If he hits here, he can build some equity for a change of teams.
By Bob Sacamano
March 30, 2008 1:29 PM | Link to this
I’ll say one nice thing about Bobby Cox:
The man can pick his nose with the best of them.
Other than that, he’s the single most OVERRATED manager in baseball’s history. Some joker said he had two more title runs in him. I hope you weren’t referring to the majority of the worthless flags that hang in left field reminding everyone of the huge amount of postseason FAILURE that Cox has rendered with his idiotic decisions regarding his bench and pitching staffs in October. You people do realize that you want to canonize a man who’s been out-managed by the likes of baseball titans like Jim Fregosi, Bruce Bochey, and Phil Garner in the playoffs? Bobby Cox is a joke. If this were any other city who actually cared about winning in October and wasn’t just satisfied with winning a bunch of worthless divisions, then Cox would have, and should have been fired after the 1996 fiasco. You couple that with what happened in 1993 and 1991, and Cox deserved to be fired then. But no, we got to see him let his club melt down in the 1997 and 1998 playoffs to far more inferior teams due to his poor management skills with the lineup and with the pitching staff. I concur with Larry. Bobby Cox gets too much love for what happens in the regular season and he get no blame for what happens in October, and the Atlanta media fuel this idiotic line of thinking with their retarded worship of him.
Bobby Cox is the single worst postseason manager in the history of baseball. At least Leo Doroucher has an excuse for his failures. He was running up against DiMaggio and the Yankees every year. Cox faced no similar giant except in 1999, the only year he should have lost the World Series. But this team should have won at least FIVE World Series titles in 1990’s. 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997. You can safely say that before the postseason, those were some of the greatests teams in baseball history. But because of Cox’s bungling, they’re just goats, and he gets non of the blame.
How convenient. I’m sure all the times that Bobby Cox left a cold bat in the lineup because he was a trusted veteran, it wasn’t Cox’s fault for not making a change that any manager who knows how to manage in October would, right?. I guess all the times he left a pitcher in one inning too long, or brought in the wrong reliever, or took out a reliever who was KILLING the Yankees and brought in his closer in the 8th frakking inning, I guess that wasn’t Cox’s fault, either, right? It MUST be all the fault of the players, right? Because they get all of the blame for what happens in October and non of the praise for what happens in May and June, right?
You people are so bass ackward, it’s not even funny. Players deserve MORE praise for the regular season runs the team has had over the years than Cox does, because his managerial bungling is not nearly as heightened, and can be hid by great play by the players. But in the postseason, when his beloved veterans need to be sat for going cold or his pitchers need to be taken out because it’s win or go home, then the bungling of Bobby Cox comes to light and his magnified to the nth degree. You people who worship this man amaze me because you’re all allowing yourself to be blinded to common sense, logic, and reason.
Good frakking riddance to Bobby Cox. As far as I’m concerned, he can’t leave fast enough. This team needs fresh blood. No Bobby Cox disciples. Milwaukee is already tired of their’s. No Terry Pendleton here, no Ned Yost if he’s fired by Milwaukee.
We need new blood who will hold players accountable, and not let a frakking .200 hitter bat cleanup because he’s a beloved veteran. You geniuses realize that letting Fat Albert hit cleanup last year for all of those games instead of Francouer basically doomed any chance the Braves had to win one of your beloved division titles. How can you people forget this kind of stuff so quickly? Amazing. Truly amazing, the amount of blindness that exists here.
By Michael
March 30, 2008 5:37 PM | Link to this
Jeff Schultz hits on something that SOOOOO many people don’t know, outside of those die-hard Braves fans who’ve followed the team through the early 80s.
The person we should recognize as the savior of this franchise isn’t John Schuerholz, it’s Bobby Cox. As great a GM as Schuerholz has been, it was actually Bobby Cox the GM who convined Ted Turner to invest money in the farm system. Cox is the guy who brought in players like John Smoltz, David Justice, Steve Avery, Tom Glavine, Ron Gant and Chipper Jone.
And let’s not forget: Joe Torre led the Braves to a division title in 1982 using a team that Cox built.
Not only is Cox a great manager, he is, plain and simple, an amazing Baseball mind.
By Bob Sacamano
March 30, 2008 5:44 PM | Link to this
Such an amazing baseball mind that he’s been outmanaged by the likes of Phil Garner, Jim Fregosi, and Bruce Bochey. Bobby Cox, like most who grow up with and live in baseball, is a high school graduate, who honestly, doesn’t really come off as all that smart. I mean, you ever hear most ballplayers speak, including a few players on this team? Dumb as rocks.
Bobby’s tremendous failures in October reveal his weakness as a baseball mind when it comes to tactics, and he’s a man who lets his personal feelings for certain favored players get in the way of actually trying to win ball games. He may have a decent mind for talent, but he’s a dunce in the dugout.
By UGA75
March 30, 2008 7:12 PM | Link to this
Those jerks who persist in criticizing Bobby Cox are suffering from severe cases of crainial-anal disorder. Bobby Cox is clearly based on everything he has done in baseball one of the all time best. The jerks question his decision making in short series, how is it Bobby’s fault that Lonnie Smith bit on a fake in 91? What about having his best reliever in the game and New York’s backup catcher hits a hanging slider for a HR, sure that was Bobby’s fault too. Bobby isn’t perfect, he’s human, and not every decision he has made has been correct. The problem all you jerks have is that when you screw up at work it isn’t on national television where other jerks can second guess you.
I know Bobby Cox, and he is among the classiest humans I’ve ever met. In years past when some of his family was playing softball at Al Bishop in Marietta, Bobby would sign autographs for the whole time he was in the park trying to watch the game. He was never short with anyone, and was especially kind to children.
Feel free to rip a man whose jock strap you couldn’t carry, but know this. Bobby Cox is a Hall of Fame Manager, and if there were such a institution as a parental hall of fame he’d be there too. I seriously doubt you JackA$$e$ will ever earn any notoriety unless you wind up on post office posters.
By Bob Sacamano
March 30, 2008 8:47 PM | Link to this
Hey, don’t cast stones at me, UGA75. It’s not like I beat me wife, right?
By Bob Sacamano
March 30, 2008 8:48 PM | Link to this
Hey, don’t cast stones at me, UGA75. It’s not like I beat my wife, right?