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Robert Joe "Bobby" Cox (born May 21 1941 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA), is the current and longtime manager of the Atlanta Braves, and a former third baseman in Major League Baseball. He first led the Braves from 1978 to 1981, and then managed the Toronto Blue Jays from 1982 to 1985. He later rejoined the Braves in 1985 as a general manager. He moved back to the manager's role during the 1990 season, and as of the 2007, Cox is the manager with the longest current tenure in Major League Baseball, but he didn't manage in 1986-1989 while Tony La Russa has managed continuously since 1979. He also has the distinction of being the most-ejected manager in major league history.

Accomplishments

Bobby Cox has been named Manager of the Year four times (1985, 1991, 2004, and 2005) and is one of only three managers to have won the award in both the American and National League. He is also the only person to have won the award in consecutive years. Cox has also been named Manager of the Year by The Sporting News eight times (1985, 1991, 1993, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005).

On May 12, 2007, Cox passed Sparky Anderson to become the fourth-winningest manager in major league history, with a record of 2,195 wins and 1,698 losses. He led the Braves to win their division every season from 1991 to 2005, excluding the strike-shortened 1994 season; the Braves have competed in the National League East Division since 1994 and competed in the NL West prior to that. He has won a World Series Championship in 1995. In 2001, he became the most successful manager in Braves history. Cox's .561 winning percentage is fourteenth in all-time among managers with at least 1,000 games managed, and is the second highest among those who managed the majority of their career after the creation of divisions within each league in 1969.

On September 21, 2007, Bobby Cox was ejected from a game for the 133rd time during the eighth inning in a Braves' game against the Milwaukee Brewers; he currently holds the all-time record for most ejections, previously held by John McGraw. Cox is also the only person among all players and managers to be ejected from two World Series games (1992 and 1996). He was ejected in the ninth inning of game three of the 1992 World Series for throwing a batting helmet onto the field at the Toronto Skydome. Cox was trying to slam the helmet against the lip of the dugout and missed, throwing it onto the field. He was ejected for his action. Cox was tossed again in the final game of the 1996 World Series after protesting an out call of Marquis Grissom attempting to take second base on a passed ball. Although video replays clearly showed Grissom was safe, umpire Terry Tata called him out, and Cox was tossed in an ensuing argument, though not actually by Tata. The ejection appeared to stem from something he said to third base umpire Tim Welke on his way back to the dugout. Cox already felt that Welke was partly to blame for the Braves' Game 4 loss when he failed to get out of the way of Braves outfielder Jermaine Dye on an otherwise catchable pop-fly -an incident which later led to at least one of the Yankees' runs.

Playing career

As a player, Cox played two seasons, mostly at third base, for the New York Yankees. Traded from the Braves on December 7, 1967, Bobby was plugged in right away as the starting third baseman for the Yankees. Because of bad knees, Cox became the second in a string of four stop-gap players between Clete Boyer and Graig Nettles. He played with Mickey Mantle during "The Mick's" final season in 1968 and saw the Major League debut of Thurman Munson in 1969.

Managerial career

Cox began his managerial career in the Yankees farm system. In 1976, he led the Syracuse Chiefs to the Governor's Cup title, (the top team honor in AAA baseball). This team featured such future major leaguers as Ron Guidry, Mickey Klutts, Terry Whitfield and Juan Bernhardt. Cox replaced Dave Bristol as the manager of the Atlanta Braves prior to the 1978 season, inheriting a team that had finished last the previous two seasons and had compiled a worse record than the two expansion teams, Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners, in 1977. Building from the ground up, the Braves finished last in both 1978 and 1979. Entering 1980, Cox made one of the unusual moves for which he is known, moving power-hitting first baseman-catcher Dale Murphy, who had developed a throwing block as a catcher that hindered his ability to play, to center field. It led to Murphy winning two Most Valuable Player Awards and five Gold Gloves, becoming one of the premier players of the 1980s. That first year, 1980, the Braves finished fourth with their first record above .500 since 1972. However, Cox was undone by the 1981 baseball strike when the Braves finished fifth and owner Ted Turner fired him. Asked at a press conference who was on his short list for manager, Turner replied, "It would be Bobby Cox if I hadn't just fired him. We need someone like him around here." Cox had built the team that would pay great dividends for Joe Torre, his replacement as manager. The Braves won the NL West division title in 1982, and finished second in both 1983 and 1984.

Cox joined the Toronto Blue Jays in 1982, who improved over the four years of his management. In 1985, Cox's fourth season with the club, the Blue Jays finished first place in the American League Eastern Division. That season, the American League Championship Series was expanded to a best-of-seven format after sixteen seasons of a best-of-five format. That difference ultimately made the difference when Cox's Blue Jays became only the fifth team to lose a playoff series after leading 3 games to 1 to the Kansas City Royals. After their stunning elimination, Cox returned to the Atlanta Braves as a General Manager. After going through two managers over the course of less than five years with disastrous results in attendance and outlook, Cox fired Russ Nixon in June, 1990, and appointed himself the manager. Cox had spent the prior four seasons accumulating talent players, including Ron Gant, Tom Glavine, Steve Avery, Pete Smith, and David Justice. He was also responsible for drafting Chipper Jones with the first overall pick in the 1990 draft.

In 1991, the Braves, along with the Minnesota Twins, became the first team to go from last place in one season to first place the next. The two teams met in the 1991 World Series. Although the Braves lost, they continued to win division titles for a total of fourteen consecutive seasons. Cox's 15 division titles is a Major League record for a manager. On five separate occasions, the Braves have won the National League pennant and played in the World Series, including four in a six-season stretch (1991, 1992, 1995, and 1996).

In 1992, Cox's Braves held a 3-1 lead in the National League Championship Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates before losing games 5 and 6, although they did win Game 7 on Francisco Cabrera's ninth-inning, two-out, pinch-hit, two-run single. In 1993, the Braves had the best record in baseball after a pennant race where the Braves overcame a ten-game deficit in August to beat the San Francisco Giants by going 51-17 over the last two and a half months of the season to win the division by one game. However, they lost the National League Championship Series in six games to the Philadelphia Phillies.

In 1995, the Atlanta Braves won Cox's only World Series Championship to date, defeating the Cleveland Indians.

In 1996, the Braves were the defending World Champions and they again won the division title. After sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers in the division series, the Braves' pitching fell behind the St. Louis Cardinals, three games to one. Facing elimination, the Braves offense outscored the Cardinals 33-1 over the final three games and won the pennant. Bobby Cox became the only manager in history to lose a series leading three games to one and win a series trailing three games to one. The scoring continued into the first two games against the Yankees as the Braves took a two games to none lead by winning with scores of 12-1 and 4-0. In game four, the Braves led 6-0 in the fourth inning, but the Yankees managed to come from behind. Jim Leyritz homered to tie the game, and the Yankees tied the series with a win in eleven innings, 8-6. Following the loss, the Braves lost to the Florida Marlins in 1997 and the San Diego Padres in 1998 in the NLCS. The Braves made it back to the 1999 World Series, but their injury-riddled roster was no match for the defending World Series Champion New York Yankees, losing in four straight games.

Cox was commended for his 2001 team that surprisingly won the division title and upset the favored Houston Astros in three straight games in the division series. However, the Arizona Diamondbacks would defeat the Braves in five games in the NLCS.

Cox's Braves have not advanced past the first round of the playoffs each of the last four seasons. In 2002, the Braves won over 100 games and led the wild card San Francisco Giants two games to one before dropping the last two. In 2003, the Braves pushed the Cubs to the fifth game before falling. The following year, the Braves lost in the best-of-five Division Series for the third straight year. In 2005, the Braves lost to the Astros, with the finale taking eighteen innings to decide.

Legacy

Cox is one of the most successful managers in baseball history, see (managerial wins-loss list), having won fifteen division titles, five pennants, and a World Series. He was officially named the Manager of the Year four times in three different decades and eight times by the Sporting News. He is one of only six managers in baseball history to manage as many as 4,000 games. His 4,000th game was on September 5th, 2007 with a 9-8 win over the Philadelphia Phillies, in Atlanta (1,887-1,463-2 with Atlanta 1978-1981, 1990-Sept. 5, 2007; and 355-292-1 with Toronto, 1982-1985). He has won in both the National and American Leagues, in both the pre- and post-1994 Strike eras, and with different players (his early teams were young, his middle era teams were filled with veterans, and his later teams went back to being youth dominated) and emphasis (His early teams were dominated by great starting pitching, while his later teams were driven by offense and a solid bullpen).

Spousal Abuse

In May of 1995, police were called to the home of Bobby and Pamela Cox in northwest of Atlanta. Pamela Cox told the police that her husband struck her. In a settlement, Pamela Cox was instructed by the court to attend a battered women's program and Bobby Cox was told to complete violence counseling and an alcohol evaluation.

This incident of domestic violence is a signifcant part of Bobby Cox's legacy, and has cast a dark shadow over his career.. Even 5 years later, it continued to be described as a black eye for the entire MLB.

When John Rocker was suspended by the MLB for making inflammatory remarks to the media, it again brought attention to the issue of Bobby Cox's wife battery.

Bobby Cox never receiced any punishment from the MLB or the Atlanta Braves. This lack of punishment is frequently noted by the sports media as a hypocritical lack of consistency in the way it deals with criminal behavior and spousal abuse. .

Managerial record

(updated thru April 2, 2008)

See also

• List of Major League Baseball managers in 2006
• List of Major League Baseball managers in 2007
• List of Major League Baseball managers in 2008

References

1. "Manager of the Year Award by The Sporting News". Baseball Almanac. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
2. Newberry, Paul, Cox sets ejection record, getting tossed for 132nd time, retrieved 2007-09-26
3. ^ "Atlanta Braves Managers". Baseball Almanac. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
4. "Baseball Managers". Baseball Almanac. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
5. ^ "World Series Ejections". Baseball Almanac. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
6. Sports Reference, Inc. "Dale Murphy". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
7. Sports Reference, Inc. "Chipper Jones". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
8. "World Series History: Recaps and Results". MLB Advanced Media, L.P. Retrieved 2007-04-06.
9. Sports Reference, Inc. "Atlanta Braves". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2007-04-06.
10. "Battery Charges Against Cox Dismissed". New York Times.
11. "Bobby Cox, arguably baseball's finest regular season manager; wife beater". Baseball Savvy.
12. "America's pastime suffers black eye". Colorado Springs Gazette.
13. "Punch Like a Man: "And in Atlanta, there's John Rocker's manager, Bobby Cox, who in 1995 was charged with battery for punching his wife, Pamela."". The Village Voice.
14. "Bobby Cox is still coaching after similar charges surfaced about him and his wife two years ago". South Coast Today.
15. "I guess it is ok to overlook spousal abuse". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
16. Standings as of the end of the shortened season.

External links

• Career statistics from Baseball Reference
• Bobby Cox managerial career statistics at Baseball-Reference.com

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• Domestic violence
• Violence against women
• Major league players from Oklahoma
• 1941 births
• Living people
• Manager of the Year Award
• Baseball managers
• New York Yankees players
• Atlanta Braves managers
• Toronto Blue Jays managers
• People from Tulsa, Oklahoma
• Baseball executives