The Braves had lost eight of nine games before Monday and posted a majors-worst 4-14 record and majors-worst .202 batting average for the month of September.
And so, during the news conference Monday to announce the firing of general manager Frank Wren and the search committee to find his replacement, a reporter asked team officials if Braves players had quit on manager Fredi Gonzalez.
“I don’t think anybody in this room who knows anything about baseball would use the word quit,” said Braves president John Schuerholz, sitting between longtime former Braves manager Bobby Cox and senior advisor John Hart. “And anybody who puts on a major league uniform and goes and plays a major league game — and these two guys as well as myself — think that that would not be an appropriate comment about major league players.
“They have personal pride, professional pride, organizational pride and I don’t think anybody ever quits in a baseball game.”
Cox added, “I concur with John. Watching the team play, they haven’t quit at all. I’m familiar with the clubhouse. It’s high-energy as you can possibly get under the circumstances.”
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