My Love Hate Relationship With Bobby Cox

Since its too painful to discuss the end of the Rebel sports calendar year after the Massacre in Tempe I focus on another painful subject. The Atlanta Braves.

I've been putting off this topic because Bobby Cox is easily my favorite current manager or coach currently and possibly of all time. John Vaught is a legend but quit coaching essentially 9 years before I was born unless you count the half season he coached in '73. I love Bill Parcells ant think he's one of the greatest football minds and love watching him insult the media but seeing him coach for the Cowboys kind of tarnishes the luster just a bit.

Bobby has been the manager or general manager for the Braves all but four years of my life. And since he returned to managing in 1990 they've all been pretty good years. Only two of those years did the Braves fail to win the National League East. He even captured the 1995 World Series which is pretty much the only one of my teams to win championship since I've been an avid follower. (The Giants won two superbowls in my life but I wasn't a huge Giants fan at the time and was too young to really appreciate it.)

I also think Cox is a masterful manager that gets the absolute most out of his players. He's won in completely different ways with completely different teams. In the early nineties the team did not have the bats but had great pitching. He built the team around this pitching and had some of the best defensive players to play behind those pitchers so they could win low scoring games. Early in the 2000's after Smoltz became a reliever and Maddux and Glavine left the Braves had to out hit everyone and he changed the offensive philosophy of the team to maximize what he had. And still won. In 2005 the team was decimated by injuries and payroll cuts. The team was forced to play a record number of rookies many of whom one starting jobs. The team still won.

The biggest reason that the team's always win: they love to play for Bobby Cox. I've never read an interview with a single player who said he did not enjoy playing for him. Or seen stories citing locker roomer rumors. Even players who do not get along with anyone and were traded to the Braves because they were viewed as bad locker room guys like Gary Sheffield spoke of the respect he had for Cox. And they credit it to the respect he gives them. Its why he's one ejection away from the all time Major League Baseball ejection list because he always defends his players. He does a good job of developing the young guys and staying loose with the veterans.

But all that said he does somethings that absolutely blow my mind. I can not for the life of me understand why he would keep two career backup middle infielders who can't hit .200 on the roster at the expense of either quality pinch hitters that he would use, another back up catcher so he could use Saltalamachia regularly, or more pitchers that he would use. The Braves have to be the only team with three back up middle infielders. Four if you count the fact that the man currently playing left field came up as a second baseman. It doesn't make sense because nearly once a game one of the twin automatic outs of Pete Orr and Chris Woodward comes up late in the game as a necessity to pinch hit with runners in scoring position and the chance for the Braves to take the lead and Orr grounds out or Woodward strikes out. I can understand why he would have one of them for defensive reason but both?

Before Chipper came off the DL he had McCann nursing a sore ankle yet played him in the field and had his backup serving as the designated hitter thanks to interleague play.

Then there's the I'm giving everybody the day off day games. I understand giving the regulars a day off here in there to keep them fresh but why have them all take the same off day? Earlier this year he sent out a line up with Woodward at First Base, Orr for Chipper, Pena for McCann, Martin Prado at second and another with Woodward replacing Renterria. The only one who starts constantly everyday is Jeff Francouer. Some of these line ups just look like Bobby says, "Screw it we play 162 games I'm forfeiting this one to give the guys the day off physically and mentally."

For a while I thought he did these things just to torment me. But I've come to realize that as fans we over critize our coaches because of the ability to look back on it with 20/20 vision. Even the greats like Bobby Cox are not free of critisim. And never will be. So while you try to figure out a method to the maddness you have to understand that even the best have there faults and make mistakes. What makes them great is that they have such few mistakes is even more pronounced when it happens. But when you compare them to the dregs like the Ogerzook you wonder why you ever questioned them to begin with.