I felt like I lost an old friend over the weekend.
The death of Bobby Cox, perhaps the greatest manager the Atlanta Braves have ever had, passed away Saturday in Marietta. He was 84.
I never had the privilege of meeting him in person, but I felt like I knew him.
His passing has brought back a flood of memories as I’ve watched the countless tributes and reflections to “the skipper”.
I go back to that magical “worst-to-first” season when I was in high school in 1991.
I and my family followed baseball in passing— but that year made us fans.
For all the years before then, we had a vague knowledge of the Atlanta Braves, known as “America’s team” and accessible nationwide through the superstation, WTBS. The team was owned by another notable Atlanta citizen, the late Ted Turner, who also died last week.
Back in those days, though, few people ever showed up at the ball park and the Braves teams of that era were, shall we say, mediocre at best. Most of those years, the Braves were out of contention for the pennant by the national anthem of the second game of the season.
That all changed in that Miracle Season of 1991. National League Cy Young winner Tom Glavine, MVP third baseman Terry Pendleton, and young pitchers John Smoltz and Steve Avery all became household names, along with outfielders Ron Gant, David Justice, speedster Otis Nixon and clutch performer Mark Lemke.
But, number 6 was the leader. Having served in the front office and working hard to put the pieces in place, Bobby traded the front office for the field, donned his metal cleats and went to work.
We knew then, Bobby Cox, our manager, our skipper, was someone special.
We were on a firstname basis with him, even if we never met him. Everybody knew who Bobby was.
Known as a “players’ manager,” my Daddy often pointed out how much he respected Bobby for mentoring, encouraging, looking after and always standing up for his guys.
You could hear him from the dug out as the network microphones would pick up him cheering on his players.
He proved that he was dedicated to his guys, most notably by holding the major league record for most ejections from ball games.
But, Bobby Cox was the best in so many other categories. He had played third baseman during his professional career, but it was as the long-tenured manager of the Braves that he made his mark and entered the history books.
He led the Braves to an unprecedented 14 straight division championships.
His Braves won the 1995 World Series with the Atlanta Braves.
He was named National League Manager of the Year four times and he was unanimously elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013. The Atlanta Braves retired his jersey #6 in 2011.
He finished his career with 2,504 wins, which ranks fourth in Major League Baseball history.
He also drafted Chipper Jones and managed a stellar rotation that included Glavine, Smoltz and Greg Maddux among others.
We got spoiled by all that success during those years. It was something amazing and the likes of which we may never see again.
Thank you skipper for all the memories.
You were always a class act.
Jason Deal is News Editor for The Blackshear Times. Reach him at [email protected] ews.
