Despite the fact that the Braves were back in town and riding high following a successful road trip out West, there was still a bit of a somber feeling at the ballpark ahead of their series opener against the Chicago Cubs. That’s because this was the first time where the organization would be able to honor the memory of both former owner Ted Turner and former manager Bobby Cox — both of whom passed away while the Braves on the road.
As such, this gave some figures around the Braves a chance to publicly spell out some of their memories and takeaways from their time spent with the legendary manager. Walt Weiss spoke with the media (as he usually does) ahead of Tuesday’s game and he had plenty to say about Bobby Cox’s impact on his baseball career.“
“I think everybody’s done a really good job of communicating the legacy of Bobby Cox in the last several days. There’s been a lot of great stories,” said Weiss when he was asked about his thoughts on the whole situation. A lot of confirmation about what a great leader he was and the impact he had on so many people.
Walt Weiss played under Bobby Cox from 1998 through the 2000 season as he ended his playing career as a member of the Braves. He also discussed how he learned from Cox on how to be a leader during those times. “I was honored that I got a chance to play for him for three years. I always tell everybody that I wish everybody in the game could either play for Bobby or work for Bobby for at least one year, just to see how it’s supposed to be done,” explained Weiss. “He was a different type of leader and a different type of person based on the way he treated people. He just created loyalty with how he treated people. That respect always came back to him.”
“He always had great culture,” continued Weiss. “I remember coming in my first year for spring training as a Brave and thinking ‘I don’t wan’t be the one to screw this thing up,’ so you get on board and you do things the way Bobby wanted them done…in ‘99 we lost in the World Series to the Yankees. Every guy in the room felt like we let Bobby down. That doesn’t happen in professional sports. A lot of times, it becomes self-preservation because it’s such a cutthroat business. But he had that kind of impact where when we didn’t play well or in that instance, we didn’t win the World Series for him, we let him down. I don’t know if I’d ever felt that before at this level.”
Weiss’ time playing under Bobby Cox clearly had an impact on how he has operated as a manager and it’s obvious that he has carried a lot of what he learned during that time with him into his current stint as manager. “I said this when I got hired. I was proud that in some way, a small way, that Bobby’s lineage continues,” exclaimed Weiss. “I think that’s really important here. It’s been foundational to the Braves’ success over the last few decades so I’m proud of that. That doesn’t mean that we’re all do the things the exact same way that Bobby did but we are going to do some of the things that he did that are important and that respect this brand and organization. I think that’s important and I’m proud that in some small way, I’m an extension of Bobby.”
Tuesday’s game was televised on TBS (coincidentally but also fitting), which meant that Jeff Francoeur got a chance to be in the house as a color commentator. He also spoke with the media ahead of the game and he took the time to share plenty of memories that he had during his time playing under Bobby Cox.
“The first game I ever got ejected was in San Diego at Petco Park in 2006,” began Frenchy as he started telling a story of one of the more offbeat moments for him — and something routine for Cox. “Bobby comes out and he gets ejected with me — I’ve never been ejected. We’re walking on the stairs, Bobby’s waddlin’ and I ask him ‘Bobby, what do I do? I’ve never been thrown out of a game before,’ and he said ‘Well, go get in the cold tub, have a couple of beers, ice your legs. You’ll probably get fined $500 or $1000, depending on what you said — or you can do what I do which is I just send a $50,000 check at the beginning of the year and whatever’s left over, just give it to charity…he was one of a kind.”
Frenchy went on to talk about how he wasn’t the only former Braves player in the house to pay respects to their former manager. “It’s cool to be here to be able to honor Bobby tonight…we’re having Andruw [Jones] on in the third [inning] on TBS because I want him to tell the story live of when Bobby yanked him out of the game…He’s just a such a respected man, Bobby was. In our first day of spring training, Bobby would get everybody in that thing and he would say that everybody that was on the plane, whatever they were, they were part of the Braves family. Treat them with respect and give them your time.”
Frenchy went on to give Bobby Cox some extremely lofty praise when it came to his opinion of Cox’s impact on the franchise. “This might be a lot to say but I think that the two most influential people in the history of the Atlanta Braves were Hank Aaron No. 1 and probably Bobby Cox as No. 2,” exclaimed Frenchy. “Just the foundation and the way he built [this team], people came here to play for less money and they came here to play for Bobby. I was one of the fortunate ones who got to realize the dream to play for him early on.”
Francoeur went on to tell another story about how Bobby Cox would be faithful to his players. Sometimes it would be to a fault but sometime it would work out like it did for Frenchy in this particular situation. “I was 2-for-26 coming off a road trip and he’s like ‘You’re going to play right field for me and you’re going to bat fifth or sixth depending on the matchups so just go out there, relax and play baseball. It’s what you’re good at, it’s what you do — don’t listen to talk radio or anybody else. Just go out there and play baseball,” remembered Francoeur. “That little two-minute conversation all of a sudden frees me up. My last at-bat that night, I got a bloop single to right at Turner Field. The very next night vs. the Phillies…I had two home runs. I took off, man. He knew how to encourage you.”
It makes sense that when Francoeur was asked to sum up Bobby Cox in one word. It’s a tough task but Frenchy rose to the occasion with a pretty good word, in my opinion. “Loyal. Loyalty was his thing,” said Francoeur. “He would ride and die with you. You wanna know the impact he had? All the guys he had to release, trade, send down…they all still talked about him with reverence. They all talked about him with such respect. I’ve played for a lot of other managers and I loved them but they’re not talked about like that. He found a way to just ride with you to the end.
