Bobby Cox, who led the Atlanta Braves to 14 straight division titles, five National League pennants, and a World Series title in 1995, died on May 9.
“We are overcome with emotion on the passing of Bobby Cox, our treasured skipper,” the Braves said in an emailed statement. “Bobby was the best manager ever to wear a Braves uniform.”
A former third baseman who played two seasons for the New York Yankees in the late 1960s, Cox managed the Atlanta Braves and Toronto Blue Jays throughout his career that spanned 4,508 games, with a .566 winning percentage, according to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He recorded a 100-win season six times, a record matched only by Joe McCarthy.
The Braves’ domination during the 1990s was due in part to the “Big Three” pitchers, including John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, and Tom Glavine, a trio who led the team to the 1995 World Series championship and six division titles.
Cox holds the all-time record for ejections in MLB with 162, which was previously held by John McGraw, who got the heave-ho more than 130 times. It’s a record that MLB writer Will Leitch said may never be broken.
Glavine, in an interview with Fox Sports, recalled how Maddux, who was charting pitches during a game, got Cox booted from a game by commenting on the home plate umpire’s calls.
After first telling Glavine the umpire was doing a good job, Maddux then told Cox, “He’s terrible. He’s missed so many pitches.”
“I said, ‘Greg, you know he’s gonna get thrown out of the game now,'” Glavine recalled. “Sure enough, our pitcher is on the mound, about two or three pitches into the inning, boom, there he is out there, screaming and yelling, and gets thrown out of the game.”
In 2025, MLB Throwbacks put together a compilation of every Cox ejection in the 1990s.
Cox was voted the Manager of the Year by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America four times (1985 with Toronto and 1991, 2004, and 2005 with Atlanta). Cox was also honored by the Sporting News, in a poll of his peers, as the league’s top skipper eight times, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014.
“Bobby was a favorite among all in the baseball community, especially those who played for him,” the Braves’ statement said. “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.”
