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Sunday, February 10, 2008
No successor-in-waiting planned for Braves, Cox
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Since the incomparable Bobby Cox is entering his 27th year as a manager in the major leagues, including more than two decades with the Braves, it’s logical to wonder if his bosses are tempted to lose their minds.
They’d do so by contributing to this epidemic of naming a successor-in-waiting for an incumbent, mostly because everybody else is doing it.
Few sports executives match Braves Chairman Terry McGuirk when it comes to solid thinking. Even so, we held our breath after asking McGuirk the question of the moment: Are Braves officials ever planning to announce that this poor soul or that one is going to follow in Cox’s Hall of Fame cleat steps — you know, long before Cox stops making them?
Without hesitation, McGuirk said, “It never crossed our minds. We’ll have to deal with replacing Bobby someday. It’s incomprehensible to think about dealing with that right now.”
Good. If anybody should manage forever, it is Cox, still sharp and enthusiastic as ever at nearly 67. I mean, what planet are those other executives visiting regarding this kooky trend for hiring future coaches or managers? Supporters say it gives players and potential ones for these teams a sense of stability. Well, such only is the case if those players actually like that successor-in-waiting. And what if you’re Florida State, and you’re locked into Jimbo Fisher to follow Bobby Bowden, which is the case, and then Mark Richt decides a few years from now that he really would bolt Georgia for Florida State?
Fisher or Richt.
That’s a tough one.
“It really does seem odd when hierarchies in sports are set up so transitions are already in place before they actually occur,” McGuirk said. “Then again, that does seem to be a new phenomena, and it’s one that we’re not familiar with.”
Instead, the Braves are among the shrinking majority when it comes to that trend. It’s worse among college teams, especially in basketball. Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim has anointed the legendary Mike Hopkins as his successor, and Arizona’s Lute Olson has appointed Kevin O’Neill, already on the job until Olson returns next season after an emotional divorce. Plus, you had a bunch of sons who were designated to replace their fathers, and those sons eventually did so, with Pat Knight for Bobby and Tony Bennett for Dick and Sean Sutton for Eddie.
In college football, Rich Brooks is warming his Kentucky seat for Joker Phillips, and Joe Tiller has somebody named Danny Hope standing by as Purdue’s future head guy.
Even NFL executives are embarrassing themselves, with Jim Caldwell, whose Wake Forest teams finished a combined 37 games below .500, slated to follow Tony Dungy with the Indianapolis Colts. Then there is Jim Mora, a bust with the Falcons, named as the heir apparent to Seattle’s Mike Holmgren, owner of three Super Bowl trips with the Green Bay Packers and the Seahawks.
Just guessing, but Cox won’t manage forever. Which means he will need a successor at some point through conventional means.
Who? Terry Pendleton, the former Braves standout turned batting coach? How about one of Cox’s former coaches who became a manager elsewhere, such as Ned Yost, Jimy Williams or Fredi Gonzalez? Maybe John Smoltz or Tom Glavine would consider the job after retirement.
“Well, I think it’s gotta be somebody, hopefully from within the organization and a type of guy who would try to emulate Bobby, who would try to be like him, but nobody actually can be Bobby Cox,” Tom Lasorda said over the phone from his Los Angeles home. He was a long-time manager in the minors for the Dodgers, plus a coach in the majors for four seasons, before he replaced Hall of Famer Walter Alston with the big boys in 1977.
In fact, many figured during the early 1970s that Lasorda was a successor-in-waiting for Alston, but Lasorda shouted long distance, “Nobody in the organization ever said that to me. I wanted that job real bad, because I paid the price to get it by managing eight years in the minors and six years in the Dominican League. I thought my contributions and my feelings would grant me that job, but I didn’t have any guarantees.”
That’s opposed to now, when guarantees are everywhere. Lasorda added boldly for those among the enlightened, “I don’t like this trend at all.”
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