Former Blue Jays Manager Sets Dubious Major League Record
Posted August 15, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Baseball is a game of records – Barry Bonds’ historic homerun, Mark McGwire’s single-season homer mark, no-hitters and more. Which brings us to longtime manager and former Blue Jays’ skipper Bobby Cox. The Atlanta Braves bench boss managed a spot in the game’s history, although it’s not one that will ever be enshrined in Cooperstown.
Cox was thrown out of his 132nd game in Atlanta Tuesday night, leaving him as the baseball manager with the all time record for ejections. It came in the fifth inning of the Braves-Giants game, when the upset manager began arguing a called third strike to Chipper Jones that ended the frame. When Jones began balking at the call, Cox protected his player by taking up the argument.
Cox was well aware of the record and wasn’t anxious to pass its former holder, John McGraw. But with runners at second and third and his team trailing, he felt he had no option. And because arguing balls and strikes is one of the game’s big no-no’s, he knew the old heave-ho was coming. His displeasure was first voiced from the dugout, before winding up in the kind of nose-to-nose confrontation longtime Toronto fans still remember.
One thing is certain – if he was going to set the record, Cox wanted to make sure he got his pound of flesh. “Bobby had kind of been biting his tongue lately,” Jones relates. “He was embarrassed by the record. But it was inevitable. He’s too passionate about the game.”
Cox is refusing to make a big deal about the mark – even though everyone else seems to be. “It’s nothing,” he shrugs. “It just means I’ve been around a long time, that’s all.”
In the end, it was worth it. His Braves rallied for an eventual 5-4 win. And in the kind of scenario that only happens in baseball and the movies, it was Chipper Jones who knocked in the winning run.
Photo credit: Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images
