What already has been a seamless transition from Bobby Cox to Fredi Gonzalez as Braves manager got a little more specific Friday night. How about a four-seam?
That’s the grip the future Hall of Fame manager went with on his ceremonial first pitch at the Braves home opener, throwing to his protégé crouching behind home plate.
“I threw a four-seamer that sunk,” said Cox, decked in his familiar No. 6 jersey, albeit untucked and thrown on over a black golf shirt and a pair of khakis.
Had there been a right-handed batter in the box, the pitch would have been low and in, and had an umpire been behind the plate, he might have been hearing it from baseball’s all-time ejections leader.
But it was all in good fun in the signature surprise moment of the Braves’ home-opener festivities.
Cox stepped from the same home dugout steps where he tipped his cap for one final good-bye last year after the Braves were eliminated by the Giants in the National League Division Series, in Cox's final game before retiring.
Emotions were a lot different this time.
“Nervous,” Cox described. “I got nervous last night in Gwinnett, same thing tonight. Opening Day is a thrill. I’ve only thrown it out twice now in my life, last night and tonight.”
Cox threw out the first pitch for Triple-A Gwinnett on Thursday night, then Friday night got the warmest and loudest ovation of the pregame ceremony from a Turner Field crowd of 50,000-plus.
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