Several people who made their mark in the baseball field passed away this year. The two that generated many memories for me are New York Yankees radio play-by-play man John Sterling and former player, coach, manager and general manager Bobby Cox.
Cox excelled in many baseball roles except as a big league ballplayer. After playing in the minor leagues for the Yankees, he was brought up to the Yanks in April of 1968, to play third base and fill in at other positions. Injuries and a low batting average led to a quick demotion back to the minor leagues, but Cox treasured his time as a teammate of Mickey Mantle in his last season.
While the 29-year-old Cox was back in the minors, he realized he probably would never get back to the majors and accepted an offer from the Yankees in 1971 to manage their Ft. Lauderdale club and hoped to work his way up the ladder back to New York.
In 1977 Cox was back in a Yankees uniform as first base coach for fiery manager Billy Martin. It was a memorable year for the Yanks as they won the World Series and Cox earned a World Series ring, the first of many more. Cox enjoyed hitting fungoes (tossing the ball up in the air, wrapping both hands around the bottom of the bat as the ball came down and swinging) to Yankees outfielders in batting practice. The outfielders would throw the ball back in and Cox would stop it with his bat, and the ball usually would roll a few feet away.
One beautiful Detroit summer Sunday morning, I was about 30 feet behind Cox on the warning track, heading to the Yankees dugout to interview the biggest name available. Reggie Jackson rifled the ball in and Cox attempted to stop it and slowed it down with his bat, but the ball continued in the direction I was headed and hit me in my left cheek. Cox heard the sound of ball hitting bone and came over to check me out. I assured him I was okay, but knew something was serious. I elevatored to the Tiger Stadium press box and managed to eat two bags of kosher potato chips with a coke.
The pain went away in a day or two and sometime that winter I slipped on the ice, fell against the car, and was with a friend when it happened. He noticed my eye was red and we were near a hospital. He took me to the emergency room to check it out. The doctor told me the eye was fine but I had a broken cheekbone. I knew I didn’t land on the left side and the cheekbone was a result of a throw from Jackson to Cox, to Cohen.
Cox went on to manage the Atlanta Braves in 1978, and managed the Toronto Blue Jays (1982-1985) and returned to Atlanta in 1986 as General Manager where he was responsible for drafting, signing and trading players. He fired the manager in 1990 and hired himself. From 1991 to 2005, the Braves won 14 consecutive division titles, a record.
Cox racked up 2,504 career victories, fourth best in baseball history among managers. The respected and beloved baseball lifer was 84 when he died.
Much has been written about what a great guy and announcer John Sterling was. He was both. He also was the first New York member of the media to interview me and have me on his nightly call-in talk show 53 years ago in 1973.
Sterling, who was 87 when he died, announced 5,060 consecutive Yankees season games including all of Derek Jeter’s career hits. It would be nice if the Yankees use Sterling’s signature call after each victory at home: “Ballgame over. Yankees win. Thuuuuuuuh Yankees win.”