Live from the ballyard: For Bobby Cox, the end really is nigh
He announced his plans to retire more than a year ago, and he and I have talked about it a half-dozen times since. But it didn’t really hit me until after the third game in Philadelphia last week, when the Philly and national writers stopped to shake his hand as they were leaving. Bobby Cox really is going away.
Love him or lampoon him, he has become part of our lives. He has managed the Braves since June 22, 1990, and we pause here to note that Georgia’s football coach on that distant date was Ray Goff, that Georgia’s basketball coach was Hugh Durham and that Juan Antonio Samaranch had not yet announced that the 1996 Summer Olympics were coming to “the city of Atlanta.”
Twenty years in the same job. Fourteen first-place finishes. One World Series title. (And only one, as his critics constantly remind us.) That’s a Hall of Fame resume, but sometimes I wonder if anyone around here can cut through the blather to see it.
It has become locally convenient to credit Bobby Cox for none of the games the Braves win while debiting him for every single loss. Anyone could have managed Glavine and Maddux and Smoltz, goes the line of thinking, except that no team in the history of sports has ever managed itself. (The Cubs had Mark Prior and Kerry Wood a few years ago — how’d those prized young arms turn out?)
And now we hear that Cox is culpable for his final club’s September slide, which again makes me wonder if I’m seeing the same doings as everyone else. With Chipper Jones hurt and Troy Glaus used up and Jair Jurrjens and Kris Medlen hurt and essentially an empty chair playing center field, does this look like a first-place team?
It isn’t Cox who has dragged the Braves down, I submit, but Cox who propped them up — 99 days in first place — so long. A lesser manager wouldn’t have kept this team buoyant after a poor April, but this manager kept believing in guys and tinkering with his lineup until something finally worked, and suddenly it was Memorial Day and the Braves were in first place.
We can and will quibble over his in-game decisions. That’s part of baseball. (As the famous baseball man Rocky Bridges had it: “There are three things the average American male thinks he can do better than anyone else: Build a fire, run a hotel and manage a big-league baseball club.”) I wouldn’t suggest that Cox never errs when it comes to tactics. Every manager does.
But I would suggest a team of such modest means that has conjured up 24 victories in its final at-bat has overcome both credulity and its modest means. I would suggest that these Braves rose so high for so long — and could well make the playoffs even now — because they were managed by a true believer. Who else would have stuck with Glaus into May?
Maybe Cox shouldn’t have bunted with Martin Prado against the Nationals last month. (He got mad at me for asking.) Maybe he should have redone his rotation to match Philly’s Big Three last week. (Although a long post by Eric Seidman on the pay site Baseball Prospectus examined the decision after the fact and reached no conclusion.) Maybe he should have given up on Rick Ankiel sooner. (But didn’t Ankiel drive in both runs in Washington on Sunday?)
OK, enough. The point here isn’t to try to persuade any of the bashers. If the space that awaits Cox in Cooperstown isn’t evidence enough for those folks, nothing will be. Today’s intent is to say that we soon we will be taking our last look at the greatest manager we’ll ever see. And if you’re too busy griping to give him his due, you have my condolences.
With that, I’ll open the floor for questions, comments and the usual Cox counterarguments. It’s overcast at Turner Field at the moment, but I wouldn’t take that as an omen. I have a positive feeling about the Braves this week, and I’ll be obliged if you join me in keeping the good vibrations happenin’, as it were.
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1,048 comments Add your comment
pete
September 27th, 2010
11:42 pm
Great win guys. Go to bed. We have to work tomorrow. Obama voters depend on us.
ugadawg2005
September 27th, 2010
11:43 pm
In case anyone doesn’t know, the Padres game is on WGN with the Cubs announcers. If you have any form of cable (Comcast, DirecTv, etc) you should get this game.
Christopher Chance
September 27th, 2010
11:44 pm
pete……..Obama voters depend on you? Kind of like how white racists depended on slave labor in the southern states?
rugburn
September 27th, 2010
11:46 pm
they have been bragging on the braves patience at the plate all season, now they are saying that we are not aggressive enough. isay that you wait on a good pitch to swing at. but for heaven’s sake, swing!
Bobby Colton
September 27th, 2010
11:46 pm
Did Mark Bradley go to bed?
kwajbraves
September 27th, 2010
11:48 pm
Zambrano is running out gas… men on 1 and second and 1 out.
Christopher Chance
September 27th, 2010
11:49 pm
Zambrano tiring. Runners on 1st and 2nd, 1 out. Both runners were walked on 4 pitches.
Manager leaving him in.
rugburn
September 27th, 2010
11:49 pm
count….nice reference for python fans
pete
September 27th, 2010
11:50 pm
christopher. Nice, always bringing up race and slavery. Instead od debating someone just call them a racist. True or false, people that receive welfare tend to vote democrat by a large margin?
Christopher Chance
September 27th, 2010
11:51 pm
We win tonight and our ESPN “percentage to make the play-offs” went up from 58.8% to 59.0%.
I wonder what it will be after the San Diego game.
2 outs, still runners on 1st and 2nd.
rugburn
September 27th, 2010
11:52 pm
ooh, ooh, i know!
Christopher Chance
September 27th, 2010
11:52 pm
pete……..not all Democrats are on welfare.
kwajbraves
September 27th, 2010
11:53 pm
Big zero for Z… Go Cubs!
Christopher Chance
September 27th, 2010
11:53 pm
The Braves ESPN “percentage to make the play-offs” went up from 58.8% to 59.0%.
I wonder what it will be after the San Diego game.
End of 7. 1-0 Cubs.
pete
September 27th, 2010
11:55 pm
I never said that. I said the majority of people on welfare vote democrat
rugburn
September 27th, 2010
11:57 pm
wow chris, the way you tried to turn that around or take it out of context, you should try politics
Mark Bradley
September 27th, 2010
11:57 pm
Here’s the final column, if you’re inclined. And the news on Martin Prado isn’t good.
Headley Lamar
September 27th, 2010
11:59 pm
Padres cant hit either.
rugburn
September 28th, 2010
12:02 am
the padres and the braves in a one game playoff could last for days 0-0
Truth
September 28th, 2010
12:06 am
CC – Obama voters are also into class warfare and taxing the crap out of anyone making more than themselves. Most of the 40% of the population paying no taxes also votes overwhelmingly for Obama.
Seriously, this is new information for you?
count_schemula
September 28th, 2010
12:07 am
Which 40% of the population pays no taxes? Huge corporations and people with accountants in Bermuda?
GP
September 28th, 2010
12:08 am
Where would the 1 game playoff for wild card contenders of identical records be held?
I live in SD so I’m hoping it’s at Petco
Truth
September 28th, 2010
12:09 am
No count those in the top 1% of earners pay 40% of all taxes.
Corporations don’t pay taxes-the customers of the corporations pay taxes.
Didn’t know that? You probably won’t pick that up on MSNBC
Christopher Chance
September 28th, 2010
12:15 am
pete AND truth……………which group benefits more from the taxes that are paid? People on welfare who dont pay taxes OR the richest 1%?
Think about that really hard. Think about what services out there benefit the rich more and how much they cost.
Truth
September 28th, 2010
12:18 am
C
count_schemula
September 28th, 2010
12:20 am
I know that pay my 40% of my income (fed state and sales, so prolly more) or whatever it works out to, but then again, I don’t earn enough to pay, say $1 million dollars in taxes this year. If I had a lot of money, I know I’d have my team of accountants staying up late hiding it for me, and I’d still pay a lot but, then I’d have a lot and I would have a lot hidden. See, this is really the story of fair hard working people who earn $30-$100 or whatever and go to H&R block and are getting squeezed year over year. That’s fine, nowhere in the constitution does it say we have a right to a middle class. I know what stickler for the constitution you are. So, to sum up, you are telling me that the wealth disparity is so large in this country that the top 1% pay 40% of all taxes? While we poor working class stiffs also pay our taxes but it is hardly a drop in the bucket since we are so poor that it just barely even matters. Wait what are you saying, it just sounds like so many talking points, and those are always great ways to look at complex issues.
Christopher Chance
September 28th, 2010
12:21 am
Something conservatives forget to mention is that the military DOES NOT protect the average American. It protects the trade interests of corporate America.
When America was formed, no one wanted to pay taxes or fund the federal government. However, because the Barbary Coast pirates were hijacking American cargo ships….all of a sudden TEA BAGGERS back then were BIG FANS of paying taxes to form a strong military.
Nothing has changed today. The Trillion dollar military budget that pays for the military and finance the wars we have going on help fatten the coffers of defense contractors and private security corporation that provide a variety of services in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Corporate America has gotten FAT during the war. What has happened to the average Joe who’s “defending” the financial interests of corporate America? He either gets killed, physically or mentally maimed, or charged with a crime that was committed because of orders given from above.
count_schemula
September 28th, 2010
12:22 am
Denny McClain? Now there is someone who does not pay his income taxes, to get this back on baseball.
Christopher Chance
September 28th, 2010
12:28 am
Leonna Hemsley once said “only the little people pay taxes”.
That sums up the attitude of rich folks.
count_schemula
September 28th, 2010
12:29 am
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_072108/content/01125110.guest.html
So everyone pays more or less the same amount, percentage wise, but it’s just that the top 10% pay more in aggregate. If I pay $100, it would take 100 poor suckers paying $1 to equal my $100?
I did learn something though, I’m in the top 10%. lol This is just numbers witchcraft. There’s nothing surprising about rich people having more money and then duh! paying more $$$ in taxes.
count_schemula
September 28th, 2010
12:30 am
I think this point more to wealth disparity and a disappearing middle class than it does to the “plight” of the rich.
Mitchell
September 28th, 2010
12:33 am
And now we hear that Cox is culpable for his final club’s September slide, which again makes me wonder if I’m seeing the same doings as everyone else. With Chipper Jones hurt and Troy Glaus used up and Jair Jurrjens and Kris Medlen hurt and essentially an empty chair playing center field, does this look like a first-place team?
Bradley, it’s about finishing what you start.
If you’re up five games in the division at the All Star break with the best record in the National League and end up a half game back in the wild card with five to play at the end of September, you failed.
Doesn’t matter who’s on your team (I mean, guess six All Stars is chump change, huh?) or who’s on the DL, any individual with an ounce of objectivity would have to conclude that this season is ending in a resoundingly disappointing fashion.
Just like when you come out of nowhere and have back-to-back 90 win seasons after decades of futility, people are going to expect you to live up to that promise.
Bobby is, if anything, a victim of his own success. He had what it took to get his teams to the playoffs but not what it took to win. He should have been fired after the ‘96 World Series.
He wasn’t.
He should have been fired in ‘99.
He wasn’t.
If you’re going to keep disappointing people after getting their hopes up, eventually they’re not going to show up.
String it out over twenty years and it’s a miracle anybody in this town has anything positive to say about him.
count_schemula
September 28th, 2010
12:33 am
http://blogs.reuters.com/james-pethokoukis/2009/07/30/americas-top-1-percent-pay-40-percent-of-all-taxes/
Here is a less inflammatory link. The comments seem to get this point as well.
kwajbraves
September 28th, 2010
12:34 am
Torrealba reach on infield hit. Marmol is in. He is like a box of chocolate, you never know what are you going to get.
kwajbraves
September 28th, 2010
12:35 am
Marmol just hit a batter…This is getting better and better.
Christopher Chance
September 28th, 2010
12:36 am
Padres just got a break. Headley just got “hit by a pitch” that didnt hit him. Runners on 1st and 2nd with 2 outs, Cubs up 1-0.
Christopher Chance
September 28th, 2010
12:38 am
count_schemula…….the top 1% has 50% of the wealth of our country, YET only pay 40% of the taxes?
How is that “fair”?
kwajbraves
September 28th, 2010
12:38 am
Marmol just walked Gwynn… Bases loaded
Christopher Chance
September 28th, 2010
12:39 am
Now, bases loaded, 2 outs, bottom of the 9th. Cubs up 1-0. Marmol struggling with his control.
count_schemula
September 28th, 2010
12:39 am
Bobby Cox has been a tremendous regular season manager. Even with the big 3 and the Jones boys. He gave me some of the best baseball I’ve ever seen, and I’ve paid to see Biff Pocoroba, Glen Hubbard Mike Lum and Larvell Blanks. Yeah, some of the post-season stuff rubs me wrong, but at the end of the day, this current team has a great record with marginal talent and with all these injuries, it’s just getting to be too much maybe for this year. Overall it’s hard to take all this crying over Bobby Cox. Thank you Bobby Cox for giving me so much great baseball year in and year out. Not even the mighty Yankee have 14 divisions in a row. Would I like more WS wins? Sure, everyone would, but to act like this man is crap, is just nonsense.
count_schemula
September 28th, 2010
12:40 am
C Chance I don’t think I’m arguing that.
Christopher Chance
September 28th, 2010
12:41 am
Like I said, Braves up 1/2 game over the Padres. Cubs win 1-0.
kwajbraves
September 28th, 2010
12:41 am
Game over.. Cubs win!!!
count_schemula
September 28th, 2010
12:41 am
Read the reuters link comments. Everyone jumps on the cooked numbers right away as hogwash.
Christopher Chance
September 28th, 2010
12:45 am
Before tonight began, our play-off percentage was 58.8%. When we won earlier, it “jumped” to 59.0%.
However after San Diego lost, it really JUMPED to 69.1%.
I would love to see how the math on this stuff works.
Braves, The Real Class of the NL
September 28th, 2010
7:30 am
Great piece on Bobby Cox. Thanks for writing it. Atlanta is a real sports town and I’m glad your writing here. They may take the division, but we’ll take the LEAGUE! Time to restore order.
Go Bravos!
bascogcjs
September 28th, 2010
10:55 am
Told you before the game Nate would screw up in LF.
Poor Diaz shafted again, career .300 hitter who gets
about 7 AB’s a game.
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September 28th, 2010
5:32 pm
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