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Yer outta here! Braves' skipper Cox leads majors with ejectionsPosted: Tuesday July 01, 2003 5:01 PMUpdated: Tuesday July 01, 2003 6:09 PM
Bobby Cox could be billed as the angriest man in baseball, but you’d never guess it in his office four hours before a recent game. On this muggy late afternoon, the Atlanta managerial genius is as cool as the Fudgesicle he's working on while a cigar waits in a desktop ashtray. Not wanting to trigger an eruption, we take quick read of his mood before gingerly broaching the subject of umpires. Stunningly, there’s no rage. No whipping off of his Braves cap. Heck, it turns out Bobby is a huge fan of the guys in blue. “I like umpires," Cox insists. “Always have. I’d do anything for the umpires." You suspect his feelings are genuine. Then again, just imagine if these guys really were a burr in his saddle. Since the start of the 2000 season, Cox’s good buddies have ejected him from 29 ballgames. How big a deal is that? Well, his closest rivals -- Jerry Manuel of the White Sox and Larry Bowa of the Phillies, feisty as a player, too -- have only been tossed 13 times. As the season nears its halfway point, Cox has already been ejected six times, five for arguing balls and strikes. He’s on pace to match and perhaps surpass his 11 early exits of 2001, which no one else -- not even the spirited Lou Piniella nor the Astros' Jimy Williams -- has come close to in recent years.
Between them, Cox and Williams -- his former assistant coach -- have 40 ejections in the last three-plus seasons. “All we’re trying to do is win games," Cox says. “It is not that we’re mad at the umpire or anything. Yeah, we want to win. It has been part of me ever since I was in my teens. And it is not whining. It is not bitching. It is just friggin’ ‘Hey, we want to win.’ “That is what we’re here for. We’re professionals. I tell my guys, ‘We’re paid to win.'" And few have won at a better clip than Cox. With 335 victories since the start of the 2000 season, the Braves’ boss is just one behind Joe Torre and ahead of Art Howe (330), Tony LaRussa (328) and Piniella (326). But while Torre (six ejections since 2000) and Dusty Baker (3) are reserved, quiet winners, Cox stews on the dugout bench, appearing to argue every borderline pitch. His ejection total is more than the NBA’s top griper, Dallas Mavericks coach Don Nelson, who's been tossed from 11 games the past three seasons. So what’s the major gripe in baseball? Most managers blow out of the dugout because of a bad call, often triggered by perceived inconsistency by umpires, and to stick up for their players. What’s seemingly got everyone on edge nowadays, umpires included, is the controversial QuesTec system that uses computerized cameras to grade plate umpires. “Let’s face it, every manager wants strikes for their pitchers and balls for their hitters," Bowa said. “And umpires are gonna make mistakes. All you want as a manager and player is if a pitch down by your knees or a little below your knees is a strike in the first inning, it should be the same in the eighth. The good umpires establish a strike zone and stick with it. Then, you got guys in the sixth inning that all of a sudden are gonna change the strike zone." If it comes to that, Bowa says, it’s his duty to raise a ruckus. He says his Phillies are a quiet team, with players not prone to argue. Not one of them has been ejected this season, to his recollection. So if they fuss, he’s quick to jump in. “I can’t help the team win," Bowa says. “They can help the team win. So it is my job to get in there and let [the umpires] focus on me." And no one is better at providing cover for his players than Cox. The cost of a typical ejection ranges from $500 to $2,000, depending on the passion of the manager’s fight. So you figure it’s cost Cox around $30,000 in recent years, though he’s not inclined to reveal the bottom line. “It gets in your pocket pretty good," he cracks. “It doesn’t matter. I got it.’’ Mike Fish is a senior writer for SI.com.
Comments? To e-mail Fish, click here.
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