Bobby Cox

At 82 years old, Bobby Cox has this physical status:

Robert Joe Cox (born May 21, 1941) is an American former professional baseball third baseman and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB).

He first led the Atlanta Braves from 1978 to 1981, and then managed the Toronto Blue Jays from 1982 to 1985.

He later rejoined the Braves in 1986 as a general manager.

He moved back to the manager's role during the 1990 season and stayed there until his retirement following the 2010 season.

The Atlanta Braves have since retired the number 6 in commemoration of Bobby Cox.

He led the Atlanta Braves to the World Series championship in 1995.

He holds the all-time record for ejections in Major League Baseball with 158 (plus an additional three post-season ejections), a record previously held by John McGraw.Cox ranks fourth on the baseball all-time managerial wins list.

Personal life

Bobby Cox is married to Pamela and has eight children.

One day after participating in the Braves home opening day (April 1, 2019) festivities Cox was hospitalized after suffering a stroke. Five months after his stroke, Cox made a visit to SunTrust Park on September 2, 2019 to watch the Braves play the Toronto Blue Jays, a game which the Braves won 6–3. As a result of the stroke Cox suffers from paralysis in his right arm which requires it to be in a sling.

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Playing career

Cox was a major league player as a youth but he was unable to make the Dodgers' major league team. He was eventually signed by the Braves but he never appeared in a MLB game for them. Rather, he was traded to the New York Yankees on December 7, 1967. For the Yankees, Cox spent two seasons, mainly at third base.

Managerial career

Cox played for the Cardenales de Lara and Leones del Caracas clubs of the Venezuelan Winter League from 1967 to 1970. He continued to lead the Cardenales for three seasons, 1974-76. He coached and played in the Yankees' minor league system between 1981 and 1995.

In 1971, Cox began his career as a manager in the Yankee farm system. In 1976, he led the Syracuse Chiefs to the International League's Governors' Cup Championship. Ron Guidry, Mickey Klutts, Terry Whitfield, and Juan Bernhardt were among the future major leaguers on the team. Cox had a fruitful six-year tenure as an amateur league boss, winning a record of 459 victories and 387 losses (.543) over two league championships. Before beginning his MLB managerial career, he spent the 1977 season as Billy Martin's first base coach on Billy Martin's staff with the World Series-winning Yankees.

Dave Bristol was fired as the head of the Atlanta Braves prior to the 1978 season, inheriting a team that had finished last in the National League West for the second time in 1977, and in 1977, the Seattle Mariners of the American League had a worse record than the first-year Seattle Mariners. Both 1978 and 1979, the Braves finished last, built from the ground up. Dale Murphy, a power-hitting first baseman who suffered from physical activity, made one of the few moves for which he is well-known, moving from center field to center field. Murphy later won two National League Most Valuable Player Awards and five Gold Gloves, making him one of the best players of the 1980s. The Braves placed fourth in 1980 with their first record over.500 since 1974. However, Cox was outlawed by the 1981 baseball championships, and Braves owner Ted Turner fired him. "It would be Bobby Cox if I hadn't just fired him," Turner said at a press conference that was on his short list for manager. We need someone like him around here." In 1982 and 1984, the Braves captured the National League West division championship and finished second, first under Cox's replacement Joe Torre. In the regular season, Cox defeated 366 wins and 323 losses.

Cox joined the Toronto Blue Jays in 1982 and has steadily improved over the past four years of his tenure. Cito Gaston was brought on as a mentor for the team as a result of Cox's dismissal, and Gaston was named as the Jays' manager years later. In 1985, Cox's fourth season with the club, the Blue Jays finished in first place in the American League East. After 16 seasons of a best-of-five style in an eight-season run-up, the American League Championship Series was redesigned to a best-of-seven format for the first time this season. This change made the difference between Cox's Blue Jays and the Kansas City Royals losing only the fifth team to lose a playoff series after leading three games to one before starting with a right-handed pitcher before going with left-handed relievers in the middle innings. For his regular season record, he ended his tenure as manager with a record of 355 victories and 292 losses. Cox was brought back to Atlanta as a general manager, but Jimy Williams had him replaced in Toronto.

Cox was named general manager of the Braves after the Blue Jays' dismissal. Cox fired Russ Nixon in June 1990 after going through two bosses over the course of less than five years with disappointing attendance and outlook, despite less than five years of poor performance, Cox fired him as the field manager. Tom Glavine, Steve Avery, John Smoltz, Ron Gant, and David Justice had spent the previous four seasons amassing gifted talent, including Tom Glavine, Steve Avery, John Smoltz, Ron Gant, and David Justice. He was also responsible for drafting Chipper Jones with the first overall pick in the 1990 draft. He gave the general manager's job to Kansas City Royals general manager John Schuerholz after the season.

The Braves and the Minnesota Twins were the first teams to move from last place to first place from one year to the next in 1991. In the 1991 World Series, the two teams met, with the Twins winning in seven games. It was the second World Series in which the home team had every game. The first game was 1987, when the Twins defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.

Cox's Braves had a 3–1 lead in the National League Championship Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1992, but they did win Game 7 on Francisco Cabrera's ninth-inning, two-run single. He then lost the World Series to his former team, the Toronto Blue Jays. The Braves had the best record in baseball in 1993 after winning the San Francisco Giants after overcoming a ten-game deficit in August. They won the division by a game after going 51-17 over the last two and a half months of the season. However, the Philadelphia Phillies lost in six games to the National League Championship Series.

The Atlanta Braves won Cox's first World Series championship as a boss over the Cleveland Indians in 1995. The 1995 National League East champions were the first time since 1989 that no Pennsylvania team had triumphed in the National League East.

After his wife called police and said Cox assaulted her, Cox was arrested on simple battery charge in May 1995. The woman retracted the testimony the following day, and the charges were dropped after the couple received court-ordered counseling.

The Braves also won the division championship in 1996. The Braves' pitching in the division series fell behind the St. Louis Cardinals, three games to none in 1996. The Braves offense defeated the Cardinals 33-1 in the final three games and won the pennant, despite being drafted into elimination. Cox was the first manager to lose a series of three games to one and win a tournament deriving three games to one. The Braves took a two games against the New York Yankees in the first two games, with scores of 12–1 and 4–0 in the World Series. In game four, the Braves led 6–0 in the fourth inning, but the Yankees came from behind. Jim Leyritz homered to tie the game, and the Yankees tied the series with a victory in 11 innings, 8–6. In six games, the Yankees would triumph. In Game 6, Cox was ejected; he was the first person to be ejected in a World Series game until Dave Martinez in 2019 against the Houston Astros.

In the 1998 NLCS, the Braves lost to the Florida Marlins in the 1997 NLCS and the San Diego Padres. In 1999, the Braves made it back to the World Series, but they lost in four straight games to the defending World Series Champions, the New York Yankees. In three straight games in the division series, Cox's 2001 team captured the division title and shocked the favored Houston Astros. In the NLCS, the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Braves in five games.

On September 21, 2001, one of Cox's memorable games as manager of the Braves during this period came as they defeated the New York Mets in their first big professional sporting tournament played in New York City since the 9/11 attacks.

He tied for the first time by John McGraw, Bill Dahlen, and Paul Richards by being banned from eleven games in a single season in 2001.

In any of their previous five appearances, Cox's Braves did not progress past the first round of the playoffs. The Braves won 101 games and led the San Francisco Giants 2 games to 0 before losing two games in 2002. The Chicago Cubs thrashed the Chicago Cubs in 2003, defeating them in their fifth game. For the third year in a row, the Braves lost in the best-of-five Division Series for the third year in a row. In 2005, the Braves lost to the Houston Astros, with the final taking 18 innings to determine in the 2005 NLDS. On September 23, 2009, Cox signed a one-year deal extension through 2010, and the same day announced that 2010 would be his last year as boss. He also revealed that after he retired, he decided to continue as an advisor for team baseball operations for the next five years. In a sold-out game on October 2, 2010, the Atlanta Braves honored Bobby Cox at Turner Field. Cox steered the Braves to an 8–7 victory over the Phillies on October 3, 2010, clinching both his and the Braves' first wild card. In Game 4 of the National League Division Series, the Braves were eliminated by the San Francisco Giants on October 11, 2010. He was given a standing ovation by the audience and both teams cheering immediately after the game. He ended with a record of 1,883 victories and 1,386 losses in the regular season as well as 64 victories and 65 losses in the playoffs. He has a winning percentage in 3,858 games in his two stints as coach, with 2,149 wins and 1,709 losses. He has a 2,504 wins and 2,001 losses in the regular season, as well as 67 victories and 69 losses in the playoffs.

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