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Monday, May 7, 2007
Cox isn’t proud of ejections
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
He is about to break a baseball record many figured would never be broken — and may never be broken again. Do we celebrate it?
“No!” Bobby Cox said Monday.
Barry Bonds and home runs? No.
Bobby Cox and ejections?
“Yeah — is the commissioner coming?” he wondered.
No. John McGraw, the current record holder, won’t be there, either. Something about Cox’s numbers being artificially enhanced by caffeine and Red Man.
Do we stop the game? Recognize this moment on the scoreboard? Give the man a trophy — of a bronze thumb, perhaps?
“I think all of the umpires should get together and give him something,” John Smoltz said.
“He should get at least a plaque or a certificate,” said the former Brave, Greg Maddux. “Maybe something with his name, the date, the umpire.”
Three more and he ties the record. Four more and he breaks the record.
Twenty-eight more ejections and Bobby Cox will have been thrown out for an entire season. (Liberty Media will figure out some way that affects his retirement benefits.)
Baseball is a game of numbers. We associate so many of the game’s legends with digits: 56, 61, 714, 755, whatever unfortunately, bloated figure will come next.
But the number Cox is linked to today — he’d rather forget. He has been thrown out of 128 games, the most recent coming Sunday when he charged out to debate Chipper Jones’ check-swing third-strike call by umpire Bob Davidson. He is only three behind McGraw, a man nicknamed “Little Napoleon” and “Muggsy,” neither being a term of endearment.
Say this for Cox: He has never been nicknamed for a dictator. But the man needs his own exit music. He has been thrown out 14 more times than Leo Durocher, 30 more times than Earl Weaver, 57 more times than Lou Piniella. We’re not talking guys who sat around with candles and incense and discussed metaphysics.
“It’s kind of embarrassing,” Cox said.
He would prefer this moment in history pass without notice, like a series of unintended oops moments. No ceremony, no handshake, no umpire expressing he’s No. 1 (wrong finger).
Cox’s players will tell you the arguments and ejections illustrate his loyalty, his willingness to back them in arguments and take the heat. Also his fuse. He goes too far at times, and often by design.
Chipper Jones estimates Cox gets thrown out on purpose “30 to 40 percent of the time.”
Cox’s estimate: “Never.” There’s an argument he’ll lose.
Asked how often he leaves the dugout knowing that he’ll probably get thrown out when he reaches his target, he said: “Just about every time.”
He has been thrown out three times this season. At this rate, he’ll need to go to the managerial bullpen 16 times.
“I think Bobby’s one of those guys who sends his fine money in before the season starts,” Jones said. “Then he gets the ejections on credit.”
I Googled “baseball manager ejections” Monday. Cox’s Wikipedia bio was the fourth entry.
He has never been particularly demonstrative. He has never pulled up a base or thrown bats out of the dugout or kicked dirt on an ump. Did kind of spit on one once. In 1980, Cox was arguing with Jerry Dale, who said Braves shortstop Rafael Ramirez missed a forceout at second base, when something wet accompanied an expletive.
“I was chewing tobacco at the time and when I yelled at him it sprayed a little,” Cox said. “Then he spit in my face. He got fired the next year — not over that.”
Generally speaking, however, Cox is not one for theatrics. He’s more of a persistent pain in the posterior.
His self-analysis: “Not really. Well, a little bit.”
The Baseball Almanac has charted all 22 times a player or manager has been thrown out of a World Series game. Cox is the last two entries (1992 and 1996). He is the only player or manager to be thrown out of two Series games.
He’ll tell you he’s not proud of this. He’ll tell you it’s the only record that actually costs you money. And he’ll tell you to change the subject.
Where to put this record?
“Don’t put it anywhere,” he said.
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Street Sense’s ascent slow, steady
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
There is no art to handicapping a Kentucky Derby. It’s sort of like throwing darts - in a darkened room. Who in heaven’s name would ever have picked Giacomo two years ago? The truth is, Smarty Jones was not picked as much for his racing record as for his fetching name. And what horse had an uglier name than Grindstone?
Most average American sports fans are racing fans only once a year - when the Derby is run. Few are impressed that Street Sense was sired by an Irish daddy named Street Cry, and to a mama named Bedazzle on a farm in Kentucky. Irish horses have a history of being able to run until sundown. Bedazzle is a mare by Dixieland Band, of the Northern Dancer family, and whose name frequently pops up in the bloodline of stakes winners. Dixieland Band’s star is fading now, for he is 27 years old and his interest in mares is fading as well.
Street Cry raced internationally, but not until Street Sense has he crashed the headlines as a producer. He now has become the star of Darley Stable, just outside Lexington, Ky., and his $50,000 stud fee will probably go up a few notches.
Everything about Street Sense indicated a horse who could go a distance, but in the early stages of the Derby indicated he was out for a stroll. Calvin Borel, his jockey, let him drift toward the rail after about the first furlong, and there he loitered until he was out of sight of most of the thousands - and the queen.
When you see your choice hanging behind 18 others on the backstretch, you begin to get a choking feeling. That’s when Street Sense began to make an impression. Borel clung to the rail and began surging through the field, then caught an opening, swung wide into the clear and turned it on. The race was his, 2 1/2 lengths over Hard Spun, who gave way unwillingly.
He had run only two prep races, and lost one of those by a nose, but it was another step in his education. On the synthetic surface at Keeneland, Street Sense had ducked in and out and didn’t appear to be enjoying his day. Carl Nafzger, his trainer, was disturbed. After the Derby, he told USA Today, “If you make mistakes like that in the Preakness, you’ll get beat.” Offhand, it might be surmised that his colt earned another degree in Louisville.
D. Wayne Lukas, who was in Louisville without a Derby horse, a rare occasion, said the Preakness might be “his stumbling block.” Pimlico is a shorter, tighter track than Churchill Downs, and lurks with trouble. The Belmont, well, if he gets that far unbeaten, with his Irish breeding, he should make the Triple Crown his, first since Affirmed in 1978.
Now, history will show that another favorite won the Derby, third since Spectacular Bid in 1979. Fusaichi Pegasus was first to break the drought, followed by Smarty Jones, and now Street Sense. Between him and Curlin, the margin was no more than a hairline fracture, but by a margin of 10 cents he went off the favorite, any way you want to slice it, $5 to $4.90.
Borel was as much a sentimental favorite as his horse, probably more. He was born in Cajun country, St. Martin Parish in Louisiana. He “retired” from education after the eighth grade and never looked back. One publication suggested that he is illiterate, but his fiancée angrily told a Lexington reporter, “he may not read at the college level, but he can read.”
Borel raced in the backwoods country of Louisiana and kept moving up until he welded his future at Oaklawn Park. He is 40 years old, tough as a walnut, but still able to cry, as he did after he and his horse crossed the finish line.
As you may have read, the queen of England got almost as much attention as the race. Princess Margaret had been Churchill Downs’ guest years before, and she watched from above the pagoda in the infield. The queen remained out of public eye most of the day, thus she and I were never able to make connection. (I spoof you not.) Actually, at the Montreal Olympics in 1976, two dozen journalists were invited aboard the royal yacht for a chat and a visit, then a libation with Prince Phillip, a charming fellow with a taste for excellent beverage.
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