Bobby Cox

I rember Bobby Cox as the guy who took over for Charlie Smith at 3B for the '67 Yankees

 

Does not say much for Charlie Smith then.

 

One of my favorite baseball quotes ever came from Ted Turner.

When asked who was on his list to take the vacant Braves managerial job in 1981, he said, "It would be Bobby Cox if I hadn't just fired him. We need someone like him around here."

He hired Joe Torre instead. Then rehired Cox as GM in 1986.

 

He'll be remembered for giving me that BJ back in Reno. At least, that's how I'll remember him.

Really, though, I had the opportunity to interview the guy at spring training, and I didn't lose sight of the fact that he's a baseball legend.

 

Apparently you're too young to remember Gene Mauch.

 

Gene Mauch was a nice guy. He was just unwilling to change and that's why he could never get over the hump.

 

Yeah, people get on Cox for losing those World Series, but how many of those should the Braves have won? Leibrandt to face Puckett was a bad move in '91, but it was amazing that team even got that far. Toronto was definitely the better team in '92. The Braves blew the '96 Series, without question, but the Yankees were the better team in '99 (even though the Braves won 103 games).

The year they won, they took out a team that won 100 games in a short season. Not too shabby.

 

jones --

Cox was rightly pilloried for bringing a junker in to face a junkball hitter, but I tend to subscribe to Steve Rushin's theory of that move:

It didn't matter who was pitching, the man was going to hit a home run.

 

It was bad matchup with Leibrandt and Puckett- who was a junk ballhitter.

 

I'm a life-long Bravo, but there was nothing funnier than seeing Bobby get the hook at Candlestick.

It was a long. Cold. Waddle back to the visitors' clubhouse. Generally about a twenty-minute stroll.

 

Dude, I think you just supplied the first line for the SportsJournalists.com summer novel ...