Hall of Famer Bobby Cox, the longtime manager of the Atlanta Braves, has passed away at age 84. Cox’s 2,504 managerial wins are the 4th most in the history of Major League Baseball. He piloted the Braves to 14 straight division titles from 1991 to 2005, while winning five National League pennants and the 1995 World Series.
This has been a tough week for fans of the Atlanta Braves. Cox passed away just days after the death of longtime Braves owner (and CNN founder) Ted Turner.
Today, the Braves released a statement on their longtime skipper.
“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…. 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 legacy in the dugout will always be tied to two of his managerial peers, Joe Torre and Tony La Russa. The three men were all unanimous selections to the Hall of Fame by the Expansion Era Committee in December 2013. He also shared the Cooperstown stage in the summer of 2014 with two of the Hall of Fame players he managed, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine.
Besides having the fourth most regular-season wins in MLB history, behind Connie Mack, La Russa, and John McGraw, Cox has also won the 4th most postseason games in MLB history, behind Torre, La Russa, and Dave Roberts. Cox also has the “distinction” of being the manager with the most ejections. He got the thumb 162 times, a full season’s worth of games in which he was not in the dugout at the game’s end. On X, Ryan Spaeder noted that Cox “was ejected from 0.63% of all games in Braves franchise history, dating back to April 22, 1876.”
“He had passion for his players, his coaching staff, the fans. And believe it or not, he had passion for the umpires. People just saw him go crazy when he went out there to argue and get all over them. But he was always great to them if we saw them in the tunnel after a game or at a restaurant after a day game. We were in Cincinnati one time and Bobby walked up and bought all of the umpires drinks. He was just an awesome man. You hear a lot of players say he was like another father to them, or an uncle. He was that to all of us.”
— Terry Pendleton (played for Cox from 1991-94 and 1996), May 9, 2026, mlb.com
Cox’s run of greatness with the Braves (from 1990 to 2010) was actually his second stint in Atlanta. He also managed the team from 1978 to 1981, hired by Turner after serving as the first base coach in 1977 for the World Series Champion New York Yankees.
After getting fired after the ’81 season, he was hired to manage the Toronto Blue Jays. In his fourth season north of the border, he skippered the Jays to their first A.L. East title in 1985.
He returned to Atlanta in 1986 when Turner hired him to be the team’s General Manager. Then, in the middle of the 1990 season, GM Cox re-hired himself to manage the team, with John Schuerholz (also a Hall of Famer) taking over as the team’s GM in 1991, the season that the Braves went “worst to first” in the N.L. West, and then won the franchise’s first pennant in the city of Atlanta.
The rest, of course, is what makes Bobby Cox a Hall of Famer. Another pennant in 1992 (the Braves lost in the World Series in both years), the World Championship in 1995, and the record-setting 14 straight division titles (that streak excludes the 1994 season, which ended in August due to the player strike).
Cox’s second stint in Atlanta is what makes him a Hall of Famer and is well-known to most readers. So, in this tribute, I’ll spend a bit of extra time chronicling Cox’s baseball life before taking over the Braves in 1990.
Cooperstown Cred: Bobby Cox (25 seasons as MLB Manager)
Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014
- Braves (1978-1981), Blue Jays (1982-85), Braves (1990-2010)
- 2,504-2,001 (.556) regular-season record
- Career: 503 games above .500; 3rd best in MLB history (behind John McGraw & Joe McCarthy)
- Led his teams to 16 playoff appearances, the most in MLB history
- Won 90 or more games in 15 of his 25 seasons
- Won 95 or more games in 11 of his 25 seasons
- Won 100 or more games six times, tied for the most in MLB history (with McCarthy)
- 4-time manager of the year (1985, 1991, 2004, and 2005)
- As a player (1968 & 1969 with the New York Yankees): .225 BA, 9 HR, 58 RBI, 0.9 WAR
(cover photo: Stephen Dunn, Getty Images)
Bobby Cox: Early Life and Playing Career
Robert Joe Cox was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on May 21, 1941. When he was three years old, the family moved to Selma, California, a small town near Fresno in the Central Valley. The St. Louis Cardinals had a Class-C minor league team in Fresno, and Cox’s idol growing up was Stan Musial.
After briefly attending Reedley Junior College in 1959, Cox signed a contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers for $40,000. In 1960, at age 19, the right-handed Cox played for the Reno Silver Sox in Reno, Nevada, in the Class C California League. Playing second base, he hit .255 with a .389 on-base percentage and a .411 slugging percentage, hitting 13 HR, with 75 RBI and 28 SB, helping lead Reno to the league championship.
Cox split the 1961 season between Salem, Oregon (in the Northwest League, Class B), and Panama City, FL (the Alabama-Florida League, Class D). He slashed .293/.376/.525, hitting 17 HR with 75 RBI. In 1962, he spent the full season in Salem (.278 BA, 16 HR, 82 RBI). Cox spent most of the 1963 campaign in Great Falls, Montana (in the Pioneer League, Class A), splitting time between second base and third base; he also spent a little time in Albuquerque, New Mexico (the Texas League, Class AA). Overall, he slashed .330/.424/.557 with 21 HR, 90 RBI, and 108 Runs.
Cox played a full season in Albuquerque in 1964, his age-23 season, slashing .291/.351/.488 with 16 HR and 91 RBI. It was a solid season, but, at second base, Cox was behind future Rookie of the Year Jim Lefebvre on the Dodgers organizational chart, with veteran Jim Gilliam manning the hot corner in Los Angeles. Cox was left unprotected in the offseason and was claimed in the minor-league draft by the Chicago Cubs.
Cox mostly played third base in 1965 with the Salt Lake City Bees (in the Pacific Coast League, Class AAA), hitting .264 with 12 HR and 55 RBI.
In 1966, after 10 games in Tacoma, Washington (also in the PCL), Cox was traded to the Atlanta Braves. He spent the balance of the campaign in Austin, Texas (in the Texas League, Class AA). Overall, he had the worst offensive season of his minor league career, slashing just .217/.286/.311 with 7 HR and 34 RBI.
Cox rebounded in 1967 (for the Richmond Braves), slashing .297/.361/.489 with 14 HR and 51 RBI. The Braves (a AAA team) were the International League champions.
He was traded again, in December, this time to the New York Yankees. And, on April 14, 1968, just over a month before his 27th birthday, Cox finally made his Major League Baseball debut.
Playing for manager Ralph Houk, Cox spent most of the ’68 campaign as the starting third baseman for the Yankees. He slashed .229/.300/.316 with 7 HR and 41 RBI. While those numbers seem rather meager, 1968 was the year of the pitcher. The league slash line was .230/.297/.339. Defensively, he was fifth in assists and fifth in double plays turned in the American League.
Cox’s teammates in the Bronx included future Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle, in his final campaign, and future Yankees managers and General Managers Dick Howser and Gene Michael.
“1968, that was Mickey Mantle’s last year. I couldn’t wait to meet him. First year in the big leagues, get to play alongside Mickey — that was a big thrill. Mantle was from Oklahoma, and I was born in Oklahoma. So he tried to help me as much as he could. … Even then, he was still the fastest guy on the team.”
— Bobby Cox (2010, Atlanta Magazine, reported in Cox’s SABR Bio)
Battling knee injuries, Cox was relegated to backup status in the 1969 campaign. In 229 plate appearances, he slashed .215/.300/.316 with 2 HR and 17 RBI.
For the 1970 campaign, Cox was sent back to the minors. In 90 games, he hit .219 for the Syracuse Chiefs (AAA), and he decided that he was going to retire.
Bobby Cox: Early Managing and Coaching Career
While he was winding down the 1970 season in Syracuse, preparing to walk away from the game of baseball, Bobby Cox got an offer from the Yankees director of player personnel, Lee MacPhail, who thought he would make a good manager. The Yankees had a managerial opening in Fort Lauderdale, and MacPhail offered Cox the job.
Cox spent the 1971 season with the Fort Lauderdale Yankees in the Florida State League (Class A), leading the team to a 71-70 record. He also logged the final nine plate appearances of his career. Cox was promoted to the Class AA West Haven (Connecticut) Yankees in 1972 and won the Eastern League American Division championship, leading the team to a 84-56 record.
Cox was promoted again for the 1973 season to the Yankees’ top affiliate in Syracuse, where he had finished his playing career. Cox spent four seasons in the dugout in Syracuse, winning the International League Championship in 1976.
Cox returned to the Bronx in 1977 as the first-base coach for manager Billy Martin. As a part of a star-studded coaching staff that included Yogi Berra, Elston Howard, and Dick Howser, Cox got his first taste of Major League Championship bubbly as the Yankees won their first World Series title since 1962.
In the offseason, Ted Turner, the owner of the Atlanta Braves, hired Cox to be the team’s new manager, replacing Dave Bristol. Cox’s first managerial gig was a true reclamation project; the Braves had lost 101 games in 1977. As Tim Deale notes in his SABR bio about Cox, the Braves’ new skipper would set the tone every spring training with six rules: no beards, no uniform pants covering the shoe tops, a dress code, minding the curfew, being on time, and, most importantly, playing hard at all times.
With the notable exception of future Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro, the ’77 Braves were a young team, featuring two prominent rookies: 22-year-old first baseman Dale Murphy (a converted catcher) and 20-year-old third baseman Bob Horner, the N.L. Rookie of the Year. The Braves improved to 69-93 but still finished last in the N.L. West.
The Braves went 66-96 in 1979 (finishing last again in the N.L. West) before improving to 81-80 in 1980 to finish fourth. The key driver behind that improvement was moving Murphy to center field, replacing him at first base with veteran Chris Chambliss, who Cox knew from his year in the Bronx. The position change sparked Murphy to flourish both offensively and defensively, posting a 6.6 WAR (Wins Above Replacement).
Atlanta regressed a bit in 1981, going 50-56 in the strike-shortened split season. Cox was fired shortly after the season ended, with Turner saying simply that he wanted a “fresh face” and that Cox would have been one of the leading candidates if he weren’t the manager being replaced. Cox’s replacement, Joe Torre, led the 1982 Braves to the N.L. West title.
“I just remember Bobby, as a lot of guys would, as giving you a chance and understanding that you’re going to mess up. Bobby was in your corner and you were his guy if you were wearing a Braves uniform and he was the manager. He hung in there longer than a lot of managers would. He changed the arc of my career for sure because he was determined to find ways to have my bat in the lineup when I was struggling as a catcher… We weren’t very good those first few years he was our manager. But we got better and then finally won. I think Joe Torre would tell you this too, the 1982 team that won the division was Bobby’s team. He got fired after the 1981 season. But he built that team and Joe came into the role with a pretty good group.”
— Dale Murphy (played for Cox from 1978-81 and in 1990), May 9, 2026, mlb.com
1982-85: Bobby Cox in Toronto
Bobby Cox wasn’t out of work for long. One week after being let go by the Braves, he was hired by General Manager Pat Gillick (a future Hall of Famer) to manage the Toronto Blue Jays. The Jays, of course, were another reclamation project, having finished last in the American League East in their first five years of the franchise’s existence.
As it was in Atlanta, in Cox’s first few years in Toronto, he was managing a young team. He had three solid mid-20’s starters (Dave Stieb, Jim Clancy, and Luis Leal) and a pair of 22-year-old outfielders (Lloyd Moseby and Jesse Barfield) who would go on to have solid MLB careers. The 1982 Blue Jays, while still a losing team, had the franchise’s best-ever finish, going 78-84 to finish in a tie for 6th place in the A.L. East.
In 1983, the Jays improved to 89-73 to finish fourth in the A.L. East and repeated that record in 1984, finishing in second place in the division.
In 1985, the Blue Jays put it all together, going 99-63 to claim their first A.L. East title and first playoff appearance. Despite only 14 wins, Stieb led the A.L. with a 2.48 ERA, and the Jays got solid pitching contributions from veteran Doyle Alexander (17-10, 3.45 ERA) and second-year lefty Jimmy Key (14-6, 3.00 ERA), with veteran reliever Dennis Lamp going 11-0 with a 3.32 ERA out of the bullpen.
Barfield had a big year, hitting .289 with 27 HR, 84 RBI, and 21 assists from right field with his cannon of an arm, leading all A.L. right fielders. Left fielder George Bell, in his second full-time season, provided additional firepower (28 HR, 95 RBI).
In the American League Championship Series, the Blue Jays matched up against the Kansas City Royals, skippered by Dick Howser in a managerial matchup of former Yankees coaches. Behind eight innings of shutout ball by Stieb, the Jays took Game 1 at Exhibition Stadium by a 6-1 score. In Game 2, also at home, the Jays went down 5-4 in the top of the 10th inning, but came back to score two runs in the bottom of the frame, with veteran Al Oliver delivering the game-winning RBI single off Royals’ closer Dan Quisenberry.
In Game 3 at Royals Stadium, the Royals beat the Jays 6-5 thanks in part to a game-tying sixth inning two-run home run (his second of the game) by future Hall of Famer George Brett off Alexander.
In Game 4, with Stieb matching up against Charlie Leibrandt, the Royals had a 1-0 lead after eight innings. In the top of the 9th, Quisenberry walked second baseman Damaso Garcia to lead off the inning. Moseby followed with a game-tying double. Two batters later, Oliver delivered a two-run double to score Moseby and Bell, and the Blue Jays would go on to win 3-1 and also take a 3-to-1 series lead.
In the first 14 years of the ALCS, a third victory would have meant a trip to the World Series. But in 1985, the league expanded the LCS round to seven games, and so the Blue Jays needed one more win. They wouldn’t get it. The Royals won the next three games to advance to the Fall Classic.
Bobby Cox: Back in Atlanta as the GM
Six days after the crushing ALCS defeat, Bobby Cox resigned as the manager of the Blue Jays to take a job as the General Manager of the Braves. Besides the motivation of a new challenge, Cox’s primary reason for wanting to return to Atlanta is that his family was still living there during his four years with the Blue Jays. This was yet another rebuilding project for Cox. The 1985 Braves had gone 66-96. Chuck Tanner had been hired as the team’s new manager ten days before Cox took the GM job.
During the five years that Cox served as the team’s GM, the Braves went a woeful 323-481 (.402), finishing last in the N.L. West in four out of those five years, and in fifth place in the other year.
Despite that terrible record, Cox was starting to put together the pieces that would serve as the foundation of the Braves’ dynasty of the 1990’s.
Here are some of the notable players that the Braves drafted between 1986 and 1990:
- 1986: Kent Mercker (1st round)
- 1987: Mike Stanton (13th)
- 1988: Steve Avery (1st), Mark Wohlers (8th), Tony Tarasco (15th)
- 1989: Ryan Klesko (5th)
- 1990: Chipper Jones (1st)
Note: Tarasco was a part of the April 1995 trade with the Montreal Expos that brought Marquis Grissom to Atlanta.
And, of course, there’s one of the most famously lopsided trades in baseball history: in August 1987, Cox traded Doyle Alexander to the Detroit Tigers for future Hall of Fame John Smoltz. Cox also made an important trade in December 1989, when he dealt Gerald Perry to the Kansas City Royals for veteran left-hander Charlie Leibrandt, who would be a key member of the Braves’ starting rotations in 1991 and ’92.
In May 1988, with the team at 12-27, Tanner was fired and replaced by minor league manager Russ Nixon. Then, in 1990, with the team off to a 25-40 start, Cox decided to replace Nixon with himself. The team went 40-57 for the rest of the ’90 campaign. Shortly after the season, with Cox now entrenched again in the dugout, the Braves hired John Schuerholz to be their new General Manager, with the golden age of Braves baseball about to begin.
Glory Years in Atlanta
The “worst to first” turnaround of the Atlanta Braves under Bobby Cox (65 wins, last in the N.L. West, to 94 wins, first in the N.L. West) is most simply explained in two parts. The first is that three young pitchers (Smoltz, Tom Glavine, and Avery) all blossomed into top-line starting pitchers, and Schuerholz made the best free agent signing of the offseason when he inked third baseman Terry Pendleton to a four-year, $10.2 million contract. Glavine, a future Hall of Famer, would win 20 games and the Cy Young Award, and Pendleton the MVP.
The blossoming of Smoltz, however, was not without trials and tribulations. In his first 18 starts, Smoltz went 2-11 with a 5.16 ERA. But Cox believed in the 24-year-old righthander, and he went 12-2 with a 2.63 ERA for the rest of the campaign. From Tim Deale’s SABR bio about Cox:
“It was really right here, at this specific point, that my manager changed the course of my career. No, that’s not accurate. He saved my career. I mean, you can imagine the kind of flak he was taking for continuing to hand me the ball every five days. The critics were clamoring for the hook, for anything. The sentiment became ‘Send him down. Or send him to the bullpen. Do something, Bobby! The kid has obviously lost it… If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times: I will always be grateful for Bobby Cox.’”
— John Smoltz, from Starting and Closing (2012), reported in Cox’s SABR bio.
The Braves defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates in seven games in the NLCS, with Smoltz pitching a shutout in Game 7. Smoltz was on the hill again in Game 7 of the World Series, against the Minnesota Twins and future Hall of Famer Jack Morris, in one of the most famous games in the history of the Fall Classic. Smoltz delivered 7.1 innings of scoreless ball before being replaced by Mike Stanton. The 36-year-old Morris pitched a 10-inning shutout, with the Twins winning on a 10th-inning single by Gene Larkin.
The 1992 Braves won the N.L. West again, with a 98-64 record. Glavine won 20 games again, and Pendleton had another big year (Glavine finished 2nd in the Cy Young voting, with Pendleton the MVP runner-up). Smoltz was an NLCS star again, winning Games 1 and 4, and delivering six innings of two-run ball in Game 7. The Braves defeated the Pirates in Game 7 again, this time on a two-run, two-out, bases-loaded walk-off single by pinch-hitter Francisco Cabrera.
Alas, the Braves fell again in the World Series, this time in six games to the Toronto Blue Jays, with future Hall of Famer Dave Winfield delivering a 10th-inning two-run double off Leibrandt, who was pitching in relief.
The second huge free agent signing of the Schuerholz regime in Atlanta came in December 1992, when he inked the reigning N.L. Cy Young winner, Greg Maddux, to a five-year, $28 million contract. (Maddux delivered with three more Cy Youngs, in consecutive seasons). Anyway, with four front-line starters now, the Braves were seemingly unbeatable on paper.
And yet, as of July 16th, the team was 37-30, putting them six games behind the San Francisco Giants, who had signed a huge free agent of their own (Barry Bonds). So, Schulerholz struck again, trading for another future Hall of Famer, first baseman Fred McGriff. The Crime Dog had a huge second half (.310, 19 HR, 55 RBI in 68 games), and the Braves finished the season with 104 wins, one better than Dusty Baker‘s Giants.
Once again, the Braves disappointed in October, this time losing in the NLCS (in 6 games) to the Philadelphia Phillies, with Maddux getting hammered for six runs in 5.2 innings in the decisive Game 6.
For the 1994 season, both leagues went from two divisions to three, with the Braves moving from the geographically nonsensical N.L. West to the N.L. East. The Braves were six games behind the Montreal Expos when the season was prematurely ended by the players’ strike. When we talk about Bobby Cox’s 14 consecutive division titles, one must remember that they were not in first place when the 1994 season ended. With 48 games left, of course, they could have overtaken the Expos, but we’ll never know.
1995-99: Three Pennants and a World Series Championship
The 1995 season started late due to the ongoing players’ strike, so Bobby Cox and the Braves won the N.L. East title with a 90-54 record. This was future Hall of Fame third baseman Chipper Jones’ rookie campaign (he finished second in the N.L. Rookie of the Year voting, behind Hideo Nomo). With McGriff still at first base and the big three starters still in their primes, the Braves had five future Hall of Famers on the roster.
For the first time since the other major strike-shortened season (1981), the playoffs had three rounds. The Braves dispatched the Wild Card Colorado Rockies in four games and the Cincinnati Reds in the NLCS in a four-game sweep, setting up a World Series matchup against the Cleveland Indians, who won 100 games in the 144-game campaign. The Indians were a powerhouse team of hitters, with seven regulars in the starting lineup who hit over .300. In Game 1 at Fulton-County Stadium, Maddux limited that lineup to two unearned runs in a two-hit complete game, giving the Braves a 3-2 victory.
The Braves also won Game 2 behind Glavine and three relievers, with second-year catcher Javy Lopez hitting a go-ahead two-run home run in the 6th, leading to a 4-3 victory. Game 3, at Jacobs Field, went 11 innings, with future Hall of Famer Eddie Murray hitting a walk-off single to give the Indians a 7-6 win.
After the teams split Games 4 and 5, the series returned to Atlanta for Game 6, and Glavine pitched the game of his life, pitching eight innings of scoreless ball while giving up just one hit with three walks and eight strikeouts. David Justice‘s solo home run in the 6th was all the offense Atlanta would need, with Mark Wohlers closing it out in the 9th to give the Braves their first World Series title since the franchise was in Milwaukee in 1957.
In the regular season, the Indians hit .291 with 207 home runs and 840 runs scored, all the best in all of Major League Baseball. In the World Series, the Indians hit just .179 and scored 19 runs in six games, despite Smoltz giving up four runs in 2.1 IP in his Game 3 start.
The Braves won the N.L. East again, of course, in 1996, going 96-66. It was Smoltz’s turn to win the Cy Young Award, going 24-8 with a 2.94, giving the Braves Hall of Famers five out of the previous six Cy Young trophies. Atlanta swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS to face Tony La Russa’s St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS. Behind Smoltz and Wohlers, the Braves won Game 1, but then the Redbirds took Games 2-through-4.
Needing to win three games in a row, the Braves pummeled the Cardinals in Game 5, winning 14-0 behind seven innings of scoreless ball by Smoltz. Then, Maddux pitched 7.2 innings of one-run ball to lead the Braves to a 3-2 Game 6 victory. Finally, Atlanta crushed the Cards in Game 7, winning 15-0, with Glavine tossing 7 shutout innings while delivering a three-run triple in the bottom of the 1st. The Braves needed to win three games in a row. They started three Hall of Famers, and won those three games.
After the offensive outburst in the NLCS, the Braves were heavily favored in the World Series against Joe Torre’s New York Yankees. In Game 1 at Yankee Stadium, rookie left fielder Andruw Jones hit a two-run home run in the top of the 2nd off Andy Pettitte, and then hit another one in the next inning to give Atlanta an 8-0 lead, leading to a 12-1 victory. The 19-year-old Jones, who became an instant household name that night, was elected to the Hall of Fame this January, giving the ’96 Braves six future Hall of Fame players.
The Braves went on to win Game 2 by a 4-0 score, with Maddux tossing eight innings of scoreless ball and McGriff driving in three runs. With the series back in Atlanta, the Yankees won Game 3 by a 5-2 score, despite Glavine tossing 7 innings of two-run ball. The Braves were poised to win Game 4, holding a 6-3 lead in the top of the 8th inning, but Jim Leyritz hit a three-run, game-tying home run off Wohlers to send the game to extra innings. The Yankees scored two runs in the top of the 10th, leading to an 8-6 victory.
Game 5, the last game ever played at Fulton County Stadium, was a pitchers’ duel, with Pettitte and John Wetteland besting Smoltz and Wohlers 1-0, with the only run coming as an unearned run in the 4th.
The Braves returned to Yankee Stadium needing to win both Games 6 and 7, but, with Maddux and Glavine scheduled to pitch, winning two games was certainly a strong possibility. However, Maddux gave up three runs on four hits in the bottom of the third inning, which was all the Bronx Bombers would need. Jimmy Key and three Yankees relievers held the Braves to two runs. The Yankees won the game 3-2 and the Series.
In 1997, playing in their new stadium (Turner Field), the Braves easily captured the N.L. East once again, this time winning 101 games. As if having three future Hall of Fame starters wasn’t enough, Cox got 20 wins and a 2.97 ERA from 4th starter Denny Neagle.
After sweeping the Houston Astros in the NLDS, the Braves matched up against the wild-card Florida Marlins in the NLCS. The pivotal game was Game 5 at Pro Player Stadium. With the series tied at two games apiece, Maddux took the hill against Cuban rookie Livan Hernandez. Maddux pitched well, giving up two runs in seven innings, but Hernandez was brilliant, pitching a complete-game three-hitter with 15 strikeouts to win the game 2-1. Hernandez famously benefitted from a generous strike zone by home plate umpire Eric Gregg, who called Fred McGriff out to end the game on a pitch that seemed to be nearly a foot outside the zone. The Marlins shelled Glavine in Game 6 at Turner Field to advance to the World Series.
The 1998 Braves cruised to 106 wins and another N.L. East title, with Glavine (20-6, 2.47 ERA) winning his second Cy Young Award. Andruw Jones, just 21 years old, posted a 7.4 WAR and won the first of his ten consecutive Gold Gloves. Andruw, Chipper Jones, and Javy Lopez all swatted over 30 home runs while new first baseman Andres Galarraga hit .305 with 44 taters and 121 RBI. However, after sweeping the Chicago Cubs in the NLDS, the Braves fell to Bruce Bochy’s San Diego Padres in the NLCS in 6 games.
In 1999, the Braves won 103 games to cruise to their eighth straight division crown. Chipper Jones (.319 BA, 45 HR, 110 RBI, 6.9 WAR) was the N.L. MVP while third-year starting pitcher Kevin Millwood emerged as the staff ace, going 18-7 with a 2.68 ERA. Atlanta defeated the Astros in the NLDS and the New York Mets in the NLCS to return to the Fall Classic, but were swept in four games by Torre’s Yankees.
2000-2011: Bobby Cox’s Final Years in the Dugout
Although the 1999 season represented the fifth and final pennant in the Bobby Cox era, the Atlanta Braves remained a powerhouse in the National League for many years. The 2000 Braves won their ninth straight division title with 95 wins, with Glavine and Maddux finishing 2nd and 3rd in the N.L. Cy Young balloting behind Randy Johnson, and new shortstop Rafael Furcal earning Rookie of the Year honors. Smoltz missed the entire season due to Tommy John surgery. For the first time since 1990, excluding the strike-shortened 1994 campaign, the Braves did not appear in the NLCS. They were swept by the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS.
In 2001, the Braves won only 88 games but still captured the N.L. East crown. Smoltz returned and was mostly used out of the bullpen. After sweeping the Astros in the NLDS, the Braves fell in 5 games to the Arizona Diamondbacks, with Johnson and Curt Schilling combining for three wins and a 1.08 ERA. The Braves would never return to the NLCS during Bobby Cox’s reign.
For the 2002 campaign, Chipper Jones moved to left field to accommodate new third baseman Vinny Castilla, while Gary Sheffield also joined the Braves as the team’s new right fielder, with Andruw Jones remaining the anchor in center field. Smoltz became a full-time closer and led the majors with 55 saves. The Braves won the N.L. East again, this time with 101 wins. However, the Braves fell to Dusty Baker’s Giants in five games in the NLDS, with Glavine getting hammered for 13 runs in two losses.
After 16 years and 242 wins in Atlanta, Glavine departed as a free agent, signing with the Braves N.L. East rivals, the New York Mets. To replace him, the Braves acquired Russ Ortiz from the Giants; Ortiz had won Games 1 and 5 of the 2002 NLDS for the Giants. In his first year in Atlanta, Ortiz won 21 games to help the Braves to 101 wins and yet another division crown. Meanwhile, Baker moved from San Francisco to Chicago, and Baker’s Cubs defeated the Braves in five games in the NLDS.
After 11 years and 194 wins in Atlanta, Greg Maddux departed as a free agent, signing with his original team, the Cubs. And so, for the 2004 campaign, with Smoltz still in the bullpen, the Braves’ rotation no longer had a future Hall of Famer in it. With Chipper Jones back at the hot corner, the team still managed to win 96 games and a 13th straight division title, but lost the NLDS in five games to the Houston Astros.
Smoltz returned to the starting rotation in 2005, and was joined by another ace, Tim Hudson, acquired from the Oakland A’s. Andruw Jones had a monster year (51 HR, 128 RBI) and finished 2nd to Albert Pujols in the MVP balloting. The team won 90 games to give Cox a 14th straight division title. Once again, however, the team lost in the NLDS, again to the Astros, this time in four games.
In 2006, for the first time in a full season since 1982, Bobby Cox managed a team to a losing record. The Braves went 79-83 to finish 3rd in the N.L. East. The team won 84 games in 2007 and went 72-90 in 2008 to finish 4th in the division. Andruw Jones was gone, having departed as a free agent in a good “no sign” because his career fell off a cliff. Glavine, now 42 years old, returned for his final campaign, but only pitched 63.1 innings. Smoltz, at age 41, pitched only 28 innings due to arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder. It was the end of Smoltz’s 20 years with the Braves; he pitched for the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals in 2009, his final MLB campaign.
The Braves won 86 games to finish 3rd in the N.L. East in 2009. The following spring, Cox announced that the 2010 campaign would be his last in the dugout. The Braves won 91 games to capture a wild-card playoff berth. Having managed six future Hall of Famers during the team’s glory years, Cox got another one in 2010 with closer Billy Wagner, who saved 37 games with a 1.43 ERA in his final MLB campaign. Meanwhile, a young fireballer who might make the Hall in the future, Craig Kimbrel, debuted with a 0.44 ERA in 20.2 innings, while a 21-year-old first baseman, Freddie Freeman, a likely future Hall of Famer, also made his MLB debut.
The Braves lost to Bruce Bochy‘s San Francisco Giants in the NLDS in 4 games. After Game 2, the fans in San Francisco gave Cox a standing ovation, and, of course, he got another one after the Braves fell in Game 4 at Turner Field.
Bobby Cox’s Legacy
On August 12, 2011, Bobby Cox was inducted into the Atlanta Braves Hall of Fame, with his uniform jersey #6 being retired. Three years later, Cox was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, in the same year as Tony La Russa, Joe Torre, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, and Frank Thomas.
He finished his career with 503 more wins than losses, the third-highest “games above .500” total in MLB history, behind only John McGraw and Joe McCarthy. What’s remarkable about that record is that he did it despite being 63 games under .500 in his first six seasons with the Braves and the Blue Jays.
Cox led his teams to six different 100-win seasons, tied for the most-ever, also with McCarthy, who had a few Hall of Famers of his own on his Yankees squads, including guys named Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Joe DiMaggio.
Cox was one of five managers in baseball history to manage the same team for 20 consecutive seasons, along with McGraw, Connie Mack, Walter Alston, and Tommy Lasorda. And, as Jayson Stark noted in his 2010 tribute, “just in the time Cox has managed the Braves, the 15 other National League teams have ripped through 106 managers. Yeah, 106.”
Thanks to managing in part during the wild-card era, Cox’s teams appeared in the postseason a record 16 times. The disappointment, of course, is that he only has one World Series ring from those 16 playoff runs, compared to Torre’s four World Series titles and La Russa’s three. Even so, Cox is in good company among Hall of Fame managers with that lone World Championship. Leo Durocher, Earl Weaver, Whitey Herzog, and Jim Leyland all entered the Hall with just one title. And none of them managed 2,504 regular-season wins.
Sabermetric pioneer Bill James, in a series of articles about MLB managers, ranked Cox as the third-best manager of all time, again behind only McGraw and McCarthy.
But beyond the record, Bobby Cox will be remembered as a manager who ran a tight ship but always backed up his players. His MLB-record 162 ejections came mostly because he was protecting his players.
“I generally don’t go onto the field that much … but 90 percent of the time it’s because my player is upset. And I’ve got to get in there right away and keep him in the game or at least stick up for him. My relationships with umpires, in my mind, is great. I like them, every single one of them. Being a major-league umpire is the single toughest job in sports. It’s hard. Those guys are good. But again, I have to stick up for my players. I can get really upset and other times I’m not and I will talk softly and not be as irate.”
— Bobby Cox, as told to Kevin Newell, reported in his SABR Bio.
“The umpires have the utmost respect for Bobby Cox,” the umpire Richie Garcia told The Associated Press in 2007. “What happens one night isn’t carried over to the next.”
Tributes to Bobby Cox
Finally, let’s hear from some of the men that Bobby Cox led on the diamond.
“He understood players that were struggling and how they could turn it around. He gave you confidence when you didn’t have it yourself. And there’s a lot to be said for that… His ability to just manage people and lead us was second to none. I’m not a Hall of Famer without him. I’m not even a Cy Young Award winner without him. He changed the course of my career, and he gave me opportunities that I’ll never forget.”
— John Smoltz (played for Cox from 1990-2008), May 9, 2026, mlb.com
“I’m struggling to tell all what Bobby Cox meant to me and so many others in Braves Country. He was the leader of men and a second father to so many Atlanta Braves thru the yrs. I’m so sad today, but as I sit here watching my two youngest boys play in their championship games on the day he passed, I can’t help but shout the same things he did from the corner of the dugout. ‘Come on kid, u got this!’ We are gonna miss him so much, but his legacy is forever cemented with the success of this franchise for the last 35+ yrs. He started it as GM, continued as manager, and passing the torch to others, the Atlanta Braves will continue to be force that Bobby Cox always wanted us to be. We love you Skipper. You were our rock. I love you more than words can express. My boys won both of their games…..Bobby had a hand, I have no doubt!”
— Chipper Jones (played for Cox from 1993-2010), May 9, 2026, on X
“I think the one word that continues to come up when I think of Bobby is his passion. His passion for the game, passion for his players, passion for his job, and what he brought to the ballpark every day. I think it was hard to ignore. I think it was a big reason why everybody loved playing for him, and would seemingly run through a wall for him, because you saw it on display every night. The minute he came down in that dugout, in full uniform with his spikes on and ready to go, there was just a passion to win the game and fight for every inch of advantage he could get for his players.”
— Tom Glavine (played for Cox from 1990-2002 and in 2008), May 9, 2026, mlb.com
“Bobby meant everything to me in my baseball career. I’ve said this before, he was like my second dad. He took the chance to give me the opportunity to go out there and be the baseball player that I was, and he trusted me. When a legend tells you to go out there and that they trust you, you never want to fail them.”
— Andruw Jones (played for Cox from 1996-2007), May 9, 2026, mlb.com
“You do things a little different over there, and that’s the Braves’ way, and that’s what I was taught. There’s still things that I do. I can’t wear a hat backwards. My sunglasses — like tomorrow, if a cloud comes over, you won’t see it go over across my ‘L.A.’ It’ll be on the back of my hat. That’s Bobby. Bobby’s still in me… Not many people get to be managed at all by a Hall of Fame manager. I got to have my first one in the big leagues be a Hall of Fame manager — and a manager who relentlessly had our backs.”
— Freddie Freeman (played for Cox in 2010), May 9, 2026, espn.com
“He was one of the greatest leaders I’d ever been around. He was the best I’d ever been around at creating loyalty amongst the group. It was the way he treated people, the way he encouraged guys. Bobby always made you feel like you were playing better than you actually were.”
— Walt Weiss (current Braves manager, played for Cox from 1998-2000), May 9, 2026, espn.com
RIP Bobby.
Thanks for reading. Please follow Cooperstown Cred on BlueSky @cooperstowncred.bsky.social and on X @cooperstowncred.