The End Of An Era

Pathetically, it has been over a month since I’ve written anything here (I’ve been busy, I swear!), but I thought it was worth coming out of retirement to briefly mention something about the retirement of long-time Braves manager Bobby Cox.

Cox announced before the season started that this would be his last, but his career officially came to an end last night when the Braves lost another excruciating one-run game to the Giants in the NLDS.

A lot of good articles have been written in tribute to Cox, so I won’t spend a lot of time doing that here, but I just wanted to note a couple of things.

First, Cox is one of the greatest managers of all time, and his run of 14 consecutive playoff appearances will likely never be equaled. He’s also one of only two managers with 6 100-win seasons, and that is impressive as well. Certainly he didn’t win as often in the postseason as I (or he, or anyone) would have liked, and near the end of his career he began to make a lot of pitching moves that I didn’t understand, but none of that takes away from a remarkable managerial career.

Secondly, people always emphasize how Cox was a “player’s manager”—he’s the kind of manager that players love to play for because he is upfront about his expectations and always supports his players. Many of his players have looked up to him as a father figure, and the fact that he inspires his players to give their best probably has a lot to do with the fact that the 2010 Braves, a team that had absolutely no business playing in the postseason, managed to come away with the NL Wildcard. You could probably even argue that of all his seasons at the helm of the Braves, 2010 was his best managerial performance.

Anyway, one way or another it’s the end of an era in Atlanta, and despite certain things that I disliked about him, I’ll miss seeing Bobby sitting in the dugout with his arms folded, muttering to himself and contemplating whether or not he should go out and get tossed from a game in order to back up one of his guys.

Why Do I Put Myself Through This?

So one of the interesting things about being at camp (by the way, I had a very good, if very tiring week) is that while I’m there, I’m pretty much out of touch with civilization.

Since camp is in late June, that means that I basically go for an entire week without hearing an Atlanta Braves update, which always makes me extremely nervous.

I got to see a newspaper early in the week and discovered that Atlanta beat up on the BoSox 9-4, but hadn’t heard anything since. Then I got home yesterday, and apparently, over the last five days, everything has fallen apart. Consider the following:

• The Braves have lost five games in a row.
• Over that five game span, they’ve been outscored 27-1; that’s right, they’ve scored 1 run in five games.
• We’ve now fallen to third place in the NL East, behind the Mets and the Phillies.
• Andruw Jones’ batting average has fallen below .200, and his on-base percentage is below .300 (this explains his facial expression in the picture above: Andruw is somewhat bemused because while he can remember a time when Major League pitches weren’t so absolutely baffling to him, he certainly has no clue how to handle them now).
• Bobby Cox got thrown out of another game to tie the all-time record for most ejections.
  
• John Smoltz and Chipper Jones, Atlanta’s longest tenured veterans and the collective bedrock of the team, are both somewhat injured and are apparently feuding with each other.

Things are bad. Atlanta is still only 4.5 games out of first place, but if they don’t make some adjustments soon, I’m afraid they’ll find themselves in serious trouble.

Still, it could be worse—we could still be trotting Mark Redmond out to the mound every five days.

If You’re Going To Get Ejected…

With 130, Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox is second on the all-time list for most ejections.

He needs only two more to pass John McGraw, the infamously combustible hater of umpires who managed the New York Giants in the early part of the 20th century, for first place.

Interestingly enough, Cox is generally pretty even-keeled, and even when he gets ejected, doesn’t blow up like some other guys like Earl Weaver or Lou Piniella.

But the Braves’ players like it. It’s a sign that their manager has their back, and will stick up for them. Chipper Jones actually surmised that Cox intentionally gets thrown out 30-40% of the time.

I say all this as introduction to AA Greenville (MI) Braves manager Phillip Wellman’s ejection from Friday night. Maybe he’s trying to follow Cox’s example or is trying to show his parent club that he’s not afraid to get ejected either.

Either way, the video of Wellman is a must-see even for non-baseball fans (cough, Angela, cough) and one of the most ridiculous and humorous things I’ve ever seen.

I think the high point is when he crawls to the mound and throws the rosin bag at the home plate umpire like a grenade. 10 out of 10 for originality.

• • •

In other news, I survived the 5K today. The course was really hilly and I was pretty tired, but I actually did slightly better than I thought I would.

I’m not telling you my time though; those records are sealed.