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DEL.ICIO.USCox says he’ll retire after next season
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Lake Buena Vista, Fla. — After a 47-year career that has taken him from player to the front office and eventually back to his true home, the dugout, Bobby Cox can finally see something coming: the end.
When asked jokingly Saturday if he would manage for 10 more seasons, Cox laughed and told the Journal-Constitution, “Not many more. This year and next year, and that’s it.”
It was as emphatic a statement as Cox has ever made about his future. Retirement is a topic he generally keeps blurry, by design.
Cox maintained he could change his mind, but it almost came off as an obligatory qualifier — and ran counter to comments in an otherwise remarkably candid interview.
“I’d like to start doing the things I need to do instead of the things I want to do — like manage,” Cox said. “I don’t need to manage — I want to manage.
“I still love it. I feel great. I want to do this year and next year, and then probably hang it up.
“I haven’t really told anybody this. But it’s what I’m thinking. We might win the World Series this year and next year. But I’m pretty much convinced, that’s it.”
This will be Cox’s 26th season as manager, including 22 with the Braves. He has become as much a staple of spring training in Florida as retirees. But it has taken this long for Cox, who will turn 66 in May, to relate to them. For the first time in his life, he wants to test the calendar without the structure of a baseball season.
When asked what he wants to do, Cox’s answer paralleled that of anybody who would be looking at the next chapter of their life.
“Life things, family things — all of those types of things that for 48 years, I haven’t done because I’ve been doing what I want to do,” he said. “I want to travel. I never have traveled anywhere, really.”
Does any city in particular intrigue him?
“I’ve heard a lot about Prague,” he said.
You had to remind yourself: This is Bobby Cox, “baseball lifer,” as Chipper Jones calls him. He is the only manager Jones has ever had in the majors. There have been times when Jones had to wonder if Cox would outlast him. So it’s understandable that he was taken aback Saturday.
“It’s very surprising — I didn’t think he would ever retire,” Jones said.
“Everybody in this organization is pretty close to the vest with their future intentions. For Bobby to have come out and offered that to you tells you he must be pretty serious about it.”
Even general manager John Schuerholz, who elevates looking unfazed to an art form, was surprised. Schuerholz said he has “friendly conversations” with Cox every winter about his future. But the discussion generally doesn’t advance beyond the GM asking, “How are you feeling?” and Cox responding, “Great.”
“He knows how I feel: He can have this job as long as he wants,” Schuerholz said.
“I know he’s driven to do this and is a success at it because he loves it. When he got here the first day, he was dressing for practice even before the players were here. He was putting on his baseball pants and he said, ‘I love putting these things on.’ And [Friday], we were playing Pittsburgh in the second spring training game, and we won because we had a number of minor-leaguers playing hard. Bobby reached out and shook my hand about the win. He loves this stuff.”
In many ways, this spring is like any other for Cox. He loves his team. He can’t wait for the season. His enthusiasm hasn’t diminished. But it turns out, even he eventually thinks about what comes next.
How will he live without the real seasons — winter, spring, summer, fall — not being mere a time frame for a baseball season.
“I don’t know how I’m going to react,” he said.
He talks about his farm in Adairsville. “We’re going to put some cows there eventually when I retire,” he said. “[Wife] Pam wants her horses. We used to have horses and chickens and goats and all that stuff.”
With a laugh, he says she has been pushing him to retire “for the last 10 years.”
“I’d just like in a couple of years to just say, ‘Hey, get in the car, we’re going to up to Maine,’ or wherever. Not having to be somewhere all the time.”
Would he take a drive to a major league city?
“I’ll still be watching,” he said. “But, no, I’m not going to say, ‘You want to go to a game tonight?’ “
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