for his “first stint” with the Braves. While many in recent baseball lore, only think of all of the division titles, the pennants, and the home grown players Cox helped produce, his run in Atlanta from 1978 through 1981 are forgettable at best. A 291-323 record during that time, ousted Cox from the Braves’ dugout for...Joe Torre. Cox wasn’t out of work long however, as the Toronto Blue Jays quickly snatched Cox up, and he helped build the foundation of what would be a highly-competitive Jays’ franchise throughout the midto-late 1980s. Cox completed his four-year run north of the border with a division title, and a record of 355-292 record. A collapse in the 1985 American League Championship Series to the eventual World Series champion Royals, left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth, and Cox looked for bigger opportunities in which to make an impact on a franchise. Over the next two decades, Cox immersed himself in everything Atlanta Braves, first serving as the team’s general manager, and then returning to the dugout for his second stint as skipper. During that time, Cox would build a National League dynasty, winning fourteen division championships, four National League pennants, and the 1995 World Series title. When all was said and done, Cox was a four-time Manager of the Year, and had more than 2500 career victories. What if Toronto hadn’t given him a chance after his failures in Atlanta the first time, and what if Ted Turner hadn’t hired him to rebuild a struggling Braves’ franchise? When Turner fired Cox after a disastrous second half of the 1981 season, he was asked who was on his shortlist to be the Braves new manager. Turner responded “It would be Bobby Cox if I hadn’t just fired him.” Finally, there is the tale of Joseph Paul Torre. Major League Baseball’s current Chief Officer of Baseball, found a long and winding road to big league managerial success. A former National League Most Valuable Player, Torre once hit .373 in 1971, but never reached the World Series as a player. Torre is one of the last people to serve in the capacity of player-manager, having pulled double-duty for the New York Mets for only 18 games before deciding to retire and manage full-time. Like Cox, Torre struggled in his first big league managing opportunity, as the Mets continued to flounder under his leadership, and like Cox, was fired at the end of the strike-shortened 1981 season. He wasn’t out of work long though, as he replaced Cox in the Braves dugout in 1982. Torre secured his first success as a manager, leading the Braves to the ‘82 NL Western Division crown, where they would fall to the St. Louis Cardinals. Torre accomplished something special in 1983, posting the first back-to-back winning seasons for the Braves in their history since moving to Atlanta, and the first as a
franchise since 1966 while located in Milwaukee. Although Torre’s Braves finished second to the Astros in 1984, Turner once again pulled the trigger, giving Torre his walking papers after an 80-82 record. Unlike Stengel, La Russa and Cox, Torre was not immediately given another opportunity to manage in the big leagues. For the next half decade, he served as a color commentator for the then-California Angels. Torre had the knack for being in the right place at the right time, when in 1990, Torre replaced the manager who kept him from reaching the World Series in 1982, the Cardinals’ Whitey Herzog. Torre’s third stint as a big league skipper mirrored his days with the Mets, finishing three games under .500 at 351-354. He failed to reach the postseason in any of his years in St. Louis, and was at the helm when the Cardinals prepared for a team sale, dealing off many of their solid AllStar caliber players. He was fired at the end of the 1995 season, and replaced by Tony La Russa. At the time of his dismissal, Torre believed his days as a big league manager were over for good. It’s not often that a manager, who has no World Series rings to show for his labors, is given a fourth shot to take on a major league roster. Then came George Steinbrenner. The Yankees had just blown a 2-games-to-none lead to the Seattle Mariners in the ‘95 AL Division Series, and the Boss wasn’t excited to renew Buck Showalter’s contract. Enter what the New York media deemed “Clueless Joe”. They openly questioned why Steinbrenner would hire a manager with no World Series pedigree, but what few people knew, was that Torre was the calming force to unite a young Yankees’ squad, that had grown tired of Showalter’s iron-fisted ways. Serving Steinbrenner for the next twelve seasons, Torre would lead the most recent Yankees’ dynasty, winning six American League pennants, four World Series championships--including the run of three in a row from 1998-2000, and was within a pair of outs away from winning four in a row. His last World Series appearance came against the Cinderella Florida Marlins in 2003, and the Yankees lost that series in six games. The infamous 2004 collapse, and several early round exits,
Mandatory Credit: bloggingmets.com
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ended Torre’s tenure in the Bronx at the end of the 2007 season. Torre parlayed his Bronx success into one more managerial job, this time in Los Angeles. Torre brought longtime Yankees’ fan favorite Don Mattingly with him, and had it spelled out in his contract, that Mattingly would succeed him upon his retirement three years later. Torre led the Dodgers to an NL West crown his first season in the dugout, but the Dodgers would fall to the eventual World Series champion Phillies. A repeat would occur the following season, as the Dodgers had the best record in the National League, only to lose once again to the Phillies (who would go on to lose to Torre’s former club, the Yankees in six games in the 2009 World Series). Torre’s final season as a manager would be similar to his first: a losing season, but he would record his final victory on the last day of the season, beating the Arizona Diamonbacks 3-1. The victory would mark Torre’s 2326th as a big league skipper. His record places him in the all-time top ten among major league managers. Now that Ned Yost has quieted all the naysayers, by leading the Kansas City Royals to a pair of pennants and most recently, the team’s first World Series title in 30 years, he might be well on his way to a spectacular, and perhaps, a Hall of Fame managing career. It’s too early to tell, but he too was given a second chance to manage after a failed first stint in Milwaukee with the Brewers. Dusty Baker, who has managed in San Francisco, Chicago and Cincinnati, will begin his fourth stint as a major league manager, taking over an under-performing Washington Nationals’ team that has World Series aspirations. Baker, unlike many of the aforementioned field leaders, has been successful in each of his previous stops, leading all three franchises to the postseason. His only appearance in the World Series, came in his first stop with the Giants, where they were within a handful of outs away from winning it all, before falling to the Anaheim Angels in 2002. The point is, we cannot judge the future success of big league managers based solely on their first runs as leaders. Coincidentally, La Russa, Cox, and Torre all entered Cooperstown together in the same class. Sure, Mattingly led the Dodgers to the postseason three years in a row, but it wasn’t enough to keep his job. He’s now the new manager of an underfunded, Miami Marlins team that has seen multiple managers come and go since their last World Series title in 2003. Will Andy Green, in his first-ever big league managing opportunity, find the success that has eluded the Padres’ franchise since the departure of Bruce Bochy, who by the way, had extended success in San Diego, but became a Hall of Fame manager up the coast in his second stint as a skipper with the San Francisco Giants? History will be the ultimate judge.