Aloha, Bobby Cox

I never met Bobby Cox, but I’ve seen him a few times on the baseball diamond when I’d been lucky enough to attend a Major League Baseball game when the Atlanta Braves were playing.

It was always in a ballpark other than Atlanta Fulton County Stadium, or Turner Field. It was, in fact, at San Diego’s Jack Murphy (Qualcomm) Stadium and Petco Park, Dodger Stadium, and Denver’s Mile-High Stadium and Coors Field. And yet, despite being on the “other side,” I wore my Atlanta Braves cap and cheered for “my” team.

I started watching the Braves in 1978 because they were carried by TBS, the superstation owned by Ted Turner, who also owned the Braves, and the station carried all of the Braves’ games. They were horrible that year, finishing last in the division. Bobby Cox came onboard as manager, but that didn’t seem to help. His first four years didn’t pan out; they continued to occupy the cellar.

Joe Torre replaced him in 1982. Of the five managers who followed Bobby Cox, Joe Torre had the most success. Then the manager merry-go-round began, until they brought Bobby back in 1990.

The players changed through the ensuing years, the uniforms changed, the Braves’ positions in the standings changed – boy, did they change. And throughout it all, there was Bobby Cox. Fourteen division titles. From last to first and a World Series appearance in 1991. And finally, a World Series championship in 1995.

He retired from baseball on Monday. Every Braves fan wishes he could have extended his tenure for just a few more games; we hoped for another World Series ring to close out his career. But … c’est la vie, it wasn’t to be.

When the fans and the San Francisco Giants gave him a standing ovation at the close of the division series playoff, I’m not ashamed to say that …

I cried … with pride. Aloha, Bobby Cox. Thank you so very much, from the bottom of my heart.