LOS ANGELES -- Bobby Cox was known for wearing spikes and stirrups in the dugout, for sporadic bursts of anger, which prompted a record number of ejections, and for being at the center of one of the most dominant runs in baseball history. But to those who knew him best, something else sticks out above all else: his unwavering love and support.
Freddie Freeman experienced it in his first spring training with the Atlanta Braves in 2009, when Cox gave him way more at-bats than a player with his track record warranted. Freeman felt it before his first major league game, on Sept. 1, 2010, when Cox, noticing Freeman was nervous and borderline distraught, instantly eased the tension by asking, "What took you so long to get here?!" And Freeman sensed it as the years went on, while continually hearing about how glowingly Cox spoke about him behind closed doors.
"I have that autographed Bobby Cox jersey hanging in my house in Atlanta," said Freeman, the veteran first baseman who spent his first 12 years with the Braves before joining the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2022. "It says, 'To Freddie: keep on hitting.'"
Freeman got a call from longtime Braves catcher and current coach Eddie Perez on Friday morning, informing him that Cox had died. He was 84. Throughout a managerial career that spanned 29 seasons, Cox accumulated 2,504 regular-season victories, 15 division titles, five pennants, one World Series and one Hall of Fame induction.
Freeman's first season in the big leagues coincided with Cox's last. Freeman is 36 years old now, a father of four, with 2,471 career hits and his own path to Cooperstown. But Cox's impact still resonates with him.
"You do things a little different over there, and that's the Braves' way, and that's what I was taught," Freeman said. "There's still things that I do. I can't wear a hat backwards. My sunglasses -- like tomorrow, if a cloud comes over, you won't see it go over across my 'L.A.' It'll be on the back of my hat. That's Bobby. Bobby's still in me."
Cox's Braves were required to wear their uniforms to batting practice. Their hats were always forward, their sunglasses always hung on the back of their caps and their clubhouses never blared music. Cox was strict. He demanded excellence. But within all that, there was unmistakable affection and encouragement.
"What an honor to have been a part of his legacy, really," current Braves manager Walt Weiss said. "He was one of the greatest leaders I'd ever been around. He was the best I'd ever been around at creating loyalty amongst the group. It was the way he treated people. The way he encouraged guys. Bobby always made you feel like you were playing better than you actually were."
After a short-lived major league career, a managing stretch in the minors and a one-year stint as a coach under unforgettable New York Yankees manager Billy Martin, Cox was hired to manage the Braves in 1978 and was fired by then-owner Ted Turner four years later. Cox went on to manage the Toronto Blue Jays from 1982 to 1985, leading them to their first division title in his final year. Turner -- the former Braves owner, philanthropist and cable-TV pioneer who died at age 87 on Wednesday -- brought Cox back as general manager thereafter. Over half a decade in the Braves' front office, Cox began to assemble the team that would dominate the 1990s under his stewardship.
From 1991, Cox's first full season back as manager, to 2005, the Braves claimed 14 consecutive division titles, the longest streak in the divisional era. Their .581 winning percentage under Cox from 1991 to 2010 trailed only the Yankees (.582) for the highest in the majors during that stretch. Cox won the National League Manager of the Year Award four times, was ejected 162 times and won more games than anyone except Tony La Russa, Connie Mack and John McGraw.
"We lost a legend," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "We lost a great one."
But what Weiss remembers most is Cox's grace when Weiss' son was sick in 1998. And how the prevailing sentiment from players when the Braves lost the 1999 World Series to the Yankees was that they had let down Cox.
"That's how we felt," Weiss said. "And that's powerful. That doesn't just happen, you know, in professional sports. But that just goes to show how guys felt about Bobby."
In Atlanta, Cox managed Chipper Jones, Fred McGriff, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, all of whom have since joined him in the Hall of Fame. But he also carved a path for Brian Snitker, who led the Braves to six consecutive division titles and another championship from 2018 to 2023, and Weiss, who has the Braves atop the National League East in his first season at the helm. And Cox has left a lasting legacy with players throughout the sport, most notably Freeman, whose Braves ties will never leave him.
"Not many people get to be managed at all by a Hall of Fame manager," Freeman said. "I got to have my first one in the big leagues be a Hall of Fame manager -- and a manager who relentlessly had our backs."