Bobby Cox, Hall of Fame manager and Braves icon, passes away at 84

Bobby Cox played with Mickey Mantle, managed Chipper Jones and established his own legend as he spent more than a half-century devoting himself to the game he loved and to a distinguished career that will be forever honored within Baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Sadly, the baseball world lost another of its legends on Saturday when Cox passed away at the age of 84. The Hall of Fame manager will always be recognized as one of the most iconic and influential figures in Braves history. But his contributions to the game were distributed far and wide.

The Braves released the following statement on the passing of Cox:

“We are overcome with emotion on the passing of Bobby Cox, our treasured skipper. Bobby was the best manager to ever wear a Braves uniform. He led our team to 14 straight division titles, five National League pennants, and the unforgettable World Series title in 1995. His Braves managerial legacy will never be matched.

“Bobby was a favorite among all in the baseball community, especially those who played for him. His wealth of knowledge on player development and the intricacies of managing the game were rewarded with the sport’s ultimate prize in 2014 - enshrinement into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“And while Bobby's passion for the game was unparalleled, his love of baseball was exceeded only by his love for his family. It is with the heaviest of hearts that we send our sincerest condolences to his beloved wife, Pam, and their loving children and grandchildren.”

Cox’s 2014 induction into the Cooperstown shrine occurred four years after the completion of a managerial career that resulted in the fourth-most victories -- 2,504 -- in Major League history. His teams captured 15 division titles, five pennants and one World Series championship.

While spending time with the Dodgers, Yankees, Blue Jays and Braves, he befriended executives, coaches, players, clubhouse employees and even many of the umpires who played a part in him setting a potentially unbreakable record of 162 career ejections.

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Robert Joe Cox was born in Tulsa, Okla., on May 21, 1941. At the age of 3, his family moved to Selma, Calif., in the San Joaquin Valley near Fresno. As he authored his path toward baseball's highest honor, Cox never forgot people like legendary Dodgers scout Red Adams, who lived just a few miles away from the Cox family and signed the young infielder out of Selma High School in 1959. Adams’ willingness to take a chance on an 18-year-old recovering from elbow surgery marked the start of a career that would take an influential turn a little more than a decade later.

A third baseman, Cox toiled in the Minors for the Dodgers, Cubs and Braves before playing in the Majors for the Yankees during the 1968 and ’69 seasons. His first Major League season was Mickey Mantle’s last. Cox hit nine homers and produced a .619 OPS over two seasons with New York. He returned to the Minors in 1970 and was preparing to possibly become a high school football coach before Yankees general manager Lee MacPhail offered him a chance to manage New York's Class A team in Ft. Lauderdale.

Over the six seasons that followed, Cox made enough of an impression to be added to manager Billy Martin’s Yankees coaching staff in 1977. His title was first-base coach, but his responsibilities included keeping Martin out of trouble at night and making sure the newly acquired Reggie Jackson stayed happy.

Along with winning the World Series, one of Cox’s favorite memories of that summer in the Bronx occurred when he fielded a call in the middle of the Yankee Stadium clubhouse and replied to a friend’s ticket request by saying, “I’ll see what I can do, but this guy [George Steinbrenner] is pretty tight with the tickets.” As he uttered those words, he felt a tap on his shoulder and saw Steinbrenner standing behind him.

Cox garnered the respect of powerful personalities like Steinbrenner and former Braves owner Ted Turner, who gave Cox his first big league managerial job in 1978 and then famously fired him after four seasons while saying that the perfect successor would be somebody who was much like Cox. He was replaced by Joe Torre. Thirty-three years later, the two managers would go into the Hall of Fame together.

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Five seasons into their existence in 1982, the Blue Jays immediately scooped up Cox and then celebrated when he guided them to their first division title in 1985. His time with Toronto allowed him to be with one of his closest friends, Pat Gillick, who at the time was the Blue Jays’ GM.

Staying in Toronto seemed inevitable until a few weeks after that division title was won, when the Braves called to offer the job of GM and a chance to return to Atlanta to be with his wife, Pam, and his family, who had maintained residence in Georgia during his four-season stint as the Blue Jays’ manager.

Cox had never held a front-office job, but while serving as the Braves’ GM from 1985-90, he understood the need to place an emphasis on pitching while overhauling the farm system. He oversaw Tom Glavine’s development, traded for a Tigers Minor Leaguer named John Smoltz, drafted Steve Avery and famously took Jones with the first pick in the 1990 Draft.

Suddenly Atlanta was primed to make the transition from cellar dweller to annual contender. Cox moved back into the managerial role midway through the 1990 season, replacing Russ Nixon, and then formed a partnership with the club’s new GM, John Schuerholz, a year later.

If asked to describe Cox and Schuerholz, one could accurately say the former liked his country music while the latter has always had more of an affinity for country clubs. But the two immediately meshed and became arguably the best manager/general manager duo in baseball history.

Cox’s first full year back on the bench was 1991, when the Braves captured the first of 14 consecutive division titles and won the first of the five National League pennants captured during the 1990s. The 1995 World Series title provided the city of Atlanta its first major professional sports championship.

The 2010 Braves earned the NL’s Wild Card entry and fittingly allowed Cox to experience the playoffs during his final year as a big league manager. Upon his retirement, he remained a fixture around the ballpark, serving as a top advisor within Atlanta’s front office.

While the Yankees and Blue Jays benefited from Cox’s presence, the Braves will forever recognize him as the most influential figure during the franchise’s greatest era. But he was always quick to point out that his success was a product of the greatness that surrounded him.

During the final years of his life, Cox found tranquility with every trip he took to Cooperstown, where he had become an immortalized citizen with two of his prized pitchers -- Glavine and Greg Maddux. Smoltz would enter a year later and within the three years that followed, both Schuerholz and Jones would gain baseball’s greatest honor.

“Bobby had an uncanny ability to put guys in position to succeed and then lean on them and show that he trusted them,” Smoltz said. “He learned to trust the foundation that he put out on the field and he gave us a lot of respect. We rode a man's instinctive ability to instill confidence in everybody.”