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Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Cox learned to manage from shadows
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
So what if Bobby Cox is only a game or so away from getting tossed more times than anybody in baseball history? It is worthy of maybe a yawn while sifting through the record books. The Braves still function in the aftermath of those ejections as if their manager’s fingerprints are over more than just the lineup card.
That’s because they are.
“Yeah. Absolutely,” said Ralph Houk, 87, referring to how Cox and his peers usually operate in the shadows after their early departure from the dugouts.
Houk knows of what he speaks for so many reasons. He is Cox’s role model, and there rarely is a Braves game that he doesn’t catch in his Winter Haven, Fla., home between fishing, golfing and caring for his wife. He also built his fame with the New York Yankees of the 1960s before completing his 20 seasons as a manager with the Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox. In the Bronx, he had Cox for two seasons, and the hitting-challenged infielder spent the time studying each breath of his legendary manager.
Many of those breaths featured sizzling words from Houk to umpires. Although Houk isn’t among the all-time elite for ejections as a player and manager, he ranks with the best ever for throwing a fit whenever he thought an umpire had temporary blindness.
If nothing else, Houk is the undisputed king of cap-kicking.
“Well, I know I must have kicked more than Bobby, because my knees have gone bad on me,” said Houk, the former World War II major, chuckling over the phone. “If you talk to Bobby, you tell him not to kick too much or else he’ll have the same kind of knees that I’ve got.”
Too late. Years ago, Cox had his knees surgically repaired, but not because of his antics before umpires. Earl Weaver was so into his confrontations that he spun his cap around backward to get closer to an umpire’s face. Billy Martin was a kicking and spitting fool. While Lou Piniella and Lloyd McClendon threw bases wildly enough to make the sports bloopers Hall of Fame, Leo Durocher and John McGraw just lost their minds. Cox sort of bounces from the dugout, says his little piece while looking as if he just swallowed a resin bag and leaves with his latest ejection in about the time it takes to find the prize at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box. As a result, not only do Braves players respect Cox (especially since he mostly argues to keep them from getting tossed), but so do umpires. They know he isn’t pulling an Al McGuire, the old Marquette basketball coach who occasionally urged referees to give him a technical to motivate his players.
What about Houk? With Cox watching or otherwise, did Houk ever plan any of his ejections to help Mickey Mantle hit another blast or Mel Stottlemyre throw more strikes? “Not really, no,” said Houk, which means Cox also hasn’t done so.
Just like Houk, Cox was born in the Midwest (Tulsa, Oklahoma for Cox and Lawrence, Kansas for Houk). Just like Houk, Cox was a field manager and then became a general manager and then fired his field manager to become a field manager again. Just like Houk, Cox is considered the ultimate “players” manager. Just like Houk, Cox doesn’t mind doing whatever it takes to save a player from ejection, but he prefers to see his guys in person during games instead of through the alternatives.
“I didn’t like to manage too much from the runways,” Houk said, chuckling. “I’m sure Bobby doesn’t either, although we’d usually have a guy standing there at the head of the runway, and you’d tell him what to do. As long as you’re out of sight, and they can’t see you, you can have a coach or somebody you trust up there, and you can just yell at him. ‘Take him out,’ or ‘Put him in,’ or ‘Go check on him.’ You can run the whole thing.”
Which is what Cox does, no matter where he’s hiding for the moment.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Terence Moore
Writer had ringside seat for Hogan
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Most Americans who can read know Dan Jenkins as a writer. Mainly a writer of golf and football. Of books with such titles as “Semi-Tough” and “Dead Solid Perfect” among others. Those two were made into movies with blushing dialogue. By that time he had surfaced in New York City, after his growing years in Fort Worth and Dallas, and weathered 30 years with Sports Illustrated. After all he could stomach there, he headed south and since has relocated in the old hometown, not too far from the campus of Texas Christian. He still contributes — that’s hardly the word — a regular column to Golf Digest, but on the side has become a football nut and official historian for the National College Football Foundation.
Enough of that. The past weekend Jenkins spent at Biltmore Forest, N.C., indulging in one of the choice missions of his life. The subject: Ben Hogan.
Biltmore Forest Country Club selects somebody of some degree of golfing notoriety to celebrate each Memorial Day weekend and holds a tournament named for Jess Sweetser, a great amateur contemporary of Bobby Jones. In 1940, still in search of winning an individual tournament, Hogan arrived at Pinehurst and won the North and South Open, then on to Greensboro, where he won, then to Biltmore Forest, where he won the Land o’ Sky Open. In three weeks, he swept the Tar Heel tour. Since Hogan is no longer available, Biltmore Forest chose to invite Jenkins to share memories of Hogan, and who better, as you shall see.
Jenkins was a pretty good player in his day. Captain of the Texas Christian golf team, whose home course was Colonial Country Club, also home to Hogan. It fell Jenkins’ good fortune to catch Hogan’s eye and to be invited to play with him several times. Many times, perhaps as many as 50. Jenkins had a smooth swing, and you can tell it to this day. If a fellow has a good golf swing, traces of its stays with him until his hair turns grey or gone.
“Sometimes we never played a full round, maybe just five or six holes,” Jenkins told members and guests at the Sweetser Memorial. “He never really coached me when we played, but you knew he was paying attention.”
Most of this time Jenkins was in school at TCU, but he also had a job at the afternoon newspaper. He was still a collegian when he was dispatched to cover the Masters in 1951. He was well grounded in the Hogan story, and spoke of the rivalry that festered between him and Byron Nelson when the two caddied at a club in Fort Worth.
“The members held an annual caddie tournament, usually played over nine holes. After nine, Hogan had the lead and thought he had won,” Jenkins said. “Then some of the members decided it should go 18 holes, and after the extra nine, Nelson had the lead and was presented the trophy. Ben resented it, and it stuck with him for years. People talk about what close friends they were, but Ben was closer to Sam Snead than he was to Nelson. He and Byron never were really close. It was a long-standing rivalry.”
You read of Nelson’s retirement from the tour because of a stomach condition. “Not so,” Jenkins said. “He quit because his wife didn’t like the tour life and made no bones about it. So he hung it up.”
Now, to the hour of decision for Jenkins. “Ben told me one day that if I’d give him four months, he could make me a tour golfer. I told him, ‘I appreciate that, but I want to be a sports writer.’ ”
Well, that life turned out pretty nicely for Jenkins, but, foolish lad, turning down a chance to become Hogan’s protege? “Don’t regret a day of it,” he said. “I’ve seen more golf than I ever would have seen playing, and I was sure of a check at the end of each week.”
No writer was ever closer to Hogan than Jenkins. He had a ringside seat to Hogan’s life in Fort Worth. “Ben was a very generous man. He made contributions of all sorts, but did it quietly. He and Valerie became prominent in everything from debutante balls to the symphony.”
That is not the picture one got of the Hogans at the time, but it came through clearly at Biltmore Forest from the writer who knew them best.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Furman Bisher, Golf
Could Petrino have second thoughts?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
THE TUESDAY COUNTDOWN…
10: The problem with trying to celebrate Bobby Cox’s record-breaking ejection is that the umpires are going to make him leave the field - and when he gets to the clubhouse, he’s going to be the only one there. Maybe they should leave an ice-cream cake in the fridge?
9: Yankees fans can’t wait for Roger Clemens to start - because then maybe they can catch the Devil Rays.
8: I realize one reason that Bobby Petrino took the Falcons job was because he wanted to see what he could do with Michael Vick for one season. But at what point does he think, “Is this worth it?”
7: No, we don’t know where the DogGate is going. But we know that the Falcons’ entire off-season has been - and will continue to be - disrupted by the investigation. That’s mini-camps, OTAs and meetings when Petrino is trying to implement a new scheme.
6: You, the optimistic Falcon fan, might think: “Training camp isn’t until July. The season isn’t until September.” But this case doesn’t seem close to resolution. Watch how quickly July and September get here.
5: The Evander Holyfield-Lou Savarese fight has been billed, “The Road to the Heavyweight Championship.” I guess, “The Road to Nowhere” would have made the banner too short.
4: Evidence of how far off the radar the Anaheim-Ottawa Stanley Cup final is: NHL officials phoned newspaper beat writers who aren’t traveling to cover the series in hopes of drumming up interest so they would write stories.
3: By the way, for those who poo-poo ESPN’s interview with the dog-fighting insider, saying he’s a bottom feeder and lacks credibility: People - he’s in dog-fighting. Did you think the “insider” would be a nuclear physicist or brain surgeon?
2: But if you really want a reason to turn down the sound on ESPN, here’s one: Keyshawn Johnson.
1: Kobe Bryant is upset that there aren’t any good players around him and the Lakers have a lousy general manager. Gee. Maybe he shouldn’t have chased everybody away.
Permalink | Comments (148) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Quick Hit
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