Biography of Bobby Cox

Biography of Bobby Cox

Throughout his career, Bobby Cox never got the fame that every coach wants. He did his job and never complained about it. With all the criticism that he has gotten over the years he still puts together a well organized and in the most part well behaved team in baseball. Starting off as a player himself, he will always be remembered as one of the best managers of all time.

He was born on May 21 in 1941 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Attended a high school and junior college in California. His professional career started out in the Dodgers farm system for seven years. In 1966, he was acquired by the Atlanta Braves. He spent 1967 at the Richmond farm team but then traded to the New York Yankees in 1968 gaining the third base position. In his first year of play, he made the Topp's Rookie All-Start team. In the next year, he lost his position to Bob Murcer in 1969. Cox then ended his career at the age of 30 due to bad knees and began to coach.

Cox was appointed the managing job of the Yankees Class A team in Fort Lauderdale in 1971. Within all of his 6 seasons, not one of his teams finished lower than fourth. He continued with the Yankees system until 1978. He ended up with winning the Eastern League pennant and championship with the club in West Haven in '72 and with the Syracuse club won the International League's Governor's Cup in '76. His last year with the Yankees he was the first base coach before going to manage the Braves.

In Atlanta Cox stayed for 3 years, 1978 to 1981. He built the Braves up to be replaced before he could take them to the 1982 National League West title. His next endeavor was to bring a team up basically from the ground.

In 1982, Cox was given four years to manage at Toronto. He was given the task of building a winner out of the returning last place team. His first season, he coached them to gain their best record since the Blue Jays birth. It was only a mere 78 wins to 84 losses but it was still a big accomplishment. The next two following seasons, Toronto still improved their record to a winning one with 89 wins to 73 losses which gave them seventh place.