This is the most remarkable thing to me. That is one heckuva run in this era of baseball.
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Man, it is WEIRD to think of baseball without Bobby Cox. I really thought he would die in the dugout.
My favorite Bobby Cox memory is from 9/24/02.
Up 20 games in the division in late September, Cox left 35 year old Tom Glavine in for 124 pitches in a meaningless game in Philadelphia.
Glavine's combined line from the subsequent 2002 NLDS vs. the Giants on 10/2 & 10/6:
2 starts, 7.2 IP, 17 H, 13 ERs, 7 BBs, 4 Ks, 15.26 ERA.
Glavine's 2002 game log.
Glavine was vilified by the locals for "failing to show up" during the post-season. No one ever made the connection that perhaps Glavine didn't show because he was gassed from the way the brilliant Bobby Cox rode his aging HOF starter so hard down the stretch when the division was in the bag by mid-August.
Reminds me of a game from '96 (I think) that I went to....
Reds were playing the Dodgers at Riverfront. I think this was right before Tommy Lasorda had his heart attack and retired. It was a long game that kind of clanked along and went to extra innings. By that time in the twilight of his managing career, Lasorda just sent his pitching coach out for pitching changes so he appeared on the field very seldomly.
But something happened to caused Lasorda to actually appear on the field and totter out to see what was going on (I think a pitcher tweaked his shoulder or something).
And the crowd slowly woke up to the idea that Lasorda was out there and we hadn't seen him in a long time and it was like "hey, look, it's Lasorda". One of those times when you realize the guy has been around for a long time and maybe he's closer to the end of his career than the start. It wasn't a standing O or anything, but Tommy got a pretty good round of applause from the crowd. As he trundled back to the dugout, he tipped his cap to the crowd. A nice little moment. I think it was not long after that he had a heart attack and didn't manage again.