Bobby Cox, Hall of Fame Braves manager and ex-Yankee, dies at 84

In 1978, Cox got his first major league manager’s job, with the last-place Braves. He managed them for four seasons before being fired by mercurial Braves owner Ted Turner. When asked who he had in mind for a new manager, Turner said: “Well, it would Bobby Cox if I hadn’t just fired him. We need someone like him around here.”

In 1982, Toronto GM Pat Gillick, who had previously been scouting and player development chief for the Yankees, hired Cox to manage the Blue Jays. Under Cox, the Blue Jays made steady improvement, rising to AL East champions in 1985, before losing to the Dick Howser-managed Royals in the ALCS. Cox quit as Jays manager after ’77 to go back to work for Turner as general manager of the Braves. During his time as Braves GM, he oversaw the drafts that brought core players of their multiple championship teams of the ‘90s, pitchers Tom Glavine and Steve Avery, outfielder David Justice and future Hall of Famer Chipper Jones, and he also executed one of the best trades in their club history, swapping pitcher Doyle Alexander to the Tigers, Aug. 12, 1987, for then-prospect John Smoltz, who also went on to a Hall of Fame career with 213 wins and 154 saves.

In June 1990, following three straight last-place finishes by the Braves, combined with attendances of under one million, Cox fired Russ Nixon as manager and took over himself. The following season he led the Braves from last to first and met the Minnesota Twins, who did likewise, in one of the most memorable World Series ever — not decided until Game 7 when Jack Morris out-dueled Smoltz in a 10-inning, 1-0 classic.

In the process of winning 14 straight division championships from 1991-2005, Cox appeared in four other World Series, losing to Gillick’s Blue Jays in 1992 and the Yankees in 1996 and ’99 but defeating the Indians in 1995.

In September 2009, Cox announced that 2010 would be his final season as Braves manager. It was said by many that Cox saved one of his best managing jobs until last, leading the Braves to the NL wild card and their first postseason appearance since 2005 despite numerous injuries, including the loss of Jones for the season, April 10, with a torn ACL. On Oct. 2, 2010, the Braves honored Cox with a “day” in which they announced they would be retiring his No. 6, before a sellout crowd at Turner Field. And before and after his final game, Oct. 11, 2010, in which the Braves were eliminated by the eventual world champion Giants in Game 4 of the NLCS, he was greeted by standing ovations.

At the July 2014 Hall of Fame inductions, following his unanimous induction election (along with La Russa and Joe Torre), Cox was celebrated by fellow Braves Hall of Famer, Glavine, who said of him: “I can’t tell you how many times I would pitch a bad game and I’d read Bobby’s comments in the newspaper the next day and think: ‘What game were you watching?’ And how did I not win? That was Bobby. That’s why players loved playing for him.”

Behind closed doors, however, Cox had strict rules (respecting the game being No. 1), and expected all his players to abide by them — as Mark DeRosa, who spent the first seven years of his career with Atlanta, confirmed in a 2004 interview in the Braves’ spring training clubhouse in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. “Look around this clubhouse,” DeRosa confided. “You don’t see any [bleep] holes in here. That’s because of him [pointing to the manager’s office]. And if you do see any, you can be sure they won’t be here for long.”

Eternally humble, quick to shun praise while always crediting his players for his success, Cox’s self-effacing nature could be summed up in the story he chose to tell at the top of his Hall of Fame induction speech.

“Glavine’s pitching this game which, as usual, is tight and late. I’m not looking at the situation. Runners on second and third and two outs — at least that’s what I’m seeing. I go out to the mound, Chipper comes in with the other infielders, and I say to Glav: ‘What do you think, Tommy? Why don’t we just walk this guy instead of pitching around him? He said: ‘Skip, that’s one of the better ideas you’ve had in the last month, but where are we going to put him?’ So I looked at third and I looked at second and there’s runners there, and then I glance over to first and there’s a runner there too. So I said: ‘Look if this gets out to the press tomorrow, each one of you is gonna get fined $1,000!’ ”

Cox is survived by his wife, Pam, six daughters and two sons.