NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: METS v BRAVES

October 15, 1999

Bobby Cox

BOBBY COX: I think John, even listening to him a little bit, he turns it up a notch. He's able to do that. Even though he's turning it up a notch, his normal stuff, speed and velocity on the ball, is still plenty good. He's a great competitor, and he goes as hard as anybody I've ever seen. John's a great pitcher. He says he turns it up a notch. I'm not so sure. He's good all the time. He's a great pitcher.

BOBBY COX: Well, we had a fairly young ballclub when we first started winning in '91. There was a pretty good foundation there of Lopez and Klesko, Smoltz, Tommy Glavine, Steve Avery was coming in at 19 years old, pitching big games. There were some real smart deals by John Schuerholz and Stan Kasten and great ownership with Ted, and we were able to keep all those guys. None of them were making a lot of money at the time; so it made it easier on the payroll. But we signed Greg Maddux, which didn't hurt to keep the tradition of winning going.

BOBBY COX: Some of them I know have turned down a lot more money to play somewhere else just to stay in Atlanta. The old Fulton County Stadium was great, and, of course, our new ballpark is about as good as it gets. Atlanta is a great place to live, really. And most of the guys make their permanent homes there. Maddux still lives in Las Vegas, but owns a home in Atlanta, and is there an awful lot. But most of them, once they come there, they stay and live there. There's some great areas. I think that has a lot to do with it.

BOBBY COX: I think some of it has to do not knowing who we're playing, what time we're playing. And I think that has a lot to do with the working crowd there. Not as big as New York, of course. And it's expensive. And I think really there's only two or three thousand seats that aren't filled. The right field upper deck is the last to go. We sell out during the season a lot of times. I think those combinations -- it seems like we're always playing at 4 o'clock, that's an odd time to play a ballgame.

BOBBY COX: I had no inkling that he was fired.

BOBBY COX: Yes. (Laughter). I had no clue. That's really a shocker. He's done a super job there. That's too bad. To me, he's a real good manager. There must have been underlying problems with the front office. That's the only thing I can think of. Everybody likes to win. I'm flabbergasted, too, to be honest with you.

BOBBY COX: You know, I have not read the papers. And I really am trying to stay away from them, even laying around to read the front page. Just from other players, I've heard some things. Yeah, it irritates me. I don't like it. I don't condone it. He was roughed up by the fans, I think, our first series here out in the outfield. And he's the type of guy that's going to give it right back to him. He's got to work on that. He's a great pitcher, a great competitor, but he needs to work on his player/fan relationships (laughter).

BOBBY COX: I tell all our guys to watch what they say; that it's still the game of baseball; it's not a game of words. So I haven't talked to him today about it, but I probably will.

BOBBY COX: I don't think so, at all. He certainly is not going to scare you. They can yell all they want and curse him all they want. If he's on, he's on, but if he's off, he's off. If he has a bad game, sometimes it's not going to be because somebody yelled at him. I think he gets locked in and zoned in, and he gets oblivious, kind of like Tiger Woods putting on the 18th; they're locked in. I think John Smoltz is the pitcher that he is in the postseason because of that; he gets locked in.

BOBBY COX: No, not really, because it's sort of exactly the way you described it. Somebody who generally wins it, they're not picked in any of the poles to finish very high, and they do. It's something that's never bothered me, and I've never thought about it at all. It's a great honor and I've had it twice, in the American League and National League. It's a great honor, and I like getting those, but certainly something I don't think about.

BOBBY COX: I don't think I've outfoxed anybody. Both of us are going to make moves, and some of them are going to work and some of them don't. And. I don't think any manager has ever actually been responsible for being the World Champion. You've got to have the players. And you've got to keep them motivated and moving and headed in the right direction. Basically, that's what we do. It is hard to keep a team pumped up year after year after year, going after the same thing. And we've been able to do that. I try to help in that direction, but the moves are moves. And sometimes they work. If they didn't work for us, I would have been the dumb guy. Fortunately, they did work.

BOBBY COX: Well, this is the only city that it's possible, I guess. San Francisco and Oakland would be considered the same, I don't know. New York is a wonderful, wonderful place for me. I never liked coming to New York. Years ago, I played here, enjoyed it a little bit, then I started disliking it. Now, I've really grown to really like New York. Because I've gotten out, not just hotel to ballpark and back, I've got out. Been to Greenwich Village and Soho, walking around, meeting people. It's one of the safest cities walking around, any time in the morning. It's wonderful they can support two teams. And it's terrific, because both stadiums are filled. Those have been two classic games, with the Red Sox and the Yankees. That's great baseball.

BOBBY COX: I don't know about that one. (Laughter).

BOBBY COX: Eddie is a guy that gave us good offense last year. Eddie always catches. The one good thing about playing with the Braves is we give our catcher one day off every five days. And I think it's kept Javy really strong. It didn't have anything to do with his knee problem; that thing just busted. But it's kept Eddie in great playing shape, and with his hitting eye and actually catching and throwing. You can sit too long and rust up a lot. And maybe he gets to catch every other Sunday, a day game following a night game. But I had made up my mind after the divisional series, I wouldn't pinch-hit for Eddie probably, because he's swinging so good. And I might, but right now, I wouldn't.

BOBBY COX: I think they catch quite a bit here. Pratt is a great back-up like Eddie. If you consider them back-up -- I consider them front-line guys, really. Both of them bounced around and finally landed with a team where they could show their stuff. Mike is a terrific guy, and to be able to put up the numbers he's put up in the catching position, it's something. It's mind-boggling, because he does play with sore fingers, sore knees and shoulders, but an outfielder can stand around all the game and maybe chase down a couple of balls. There's a huge difference there.

BOBBY COX: Of course. And the only reason we've been here so many times is because we've been able to keep our starting pitching together, and fairly healthy. They had a lot of fuel left this year. Didn't have to push them real, real hard. They're always volunteering to pitch on three days' rest during the course of a season and things like that. We've kept them pretty strong this year. But it always boils down to if you're going to win consistently -- it's like the Mets. The Mets have good pitching. And it's unfortunate they lost three young guys, Pulsipher, Isringhausen and Wilson. It's still the name of the game.

BOBBY COX: Well, the Boston writers called me after they had signed Jimmy. He had a rough press conference. I think he was asked some weird questions. And I told them I thought they were the luckiest team in baseball to get Jimy Williams, really fortunate. He's nothing but baseball. He's a good guy. He can teach baseball. He knows what's going on. He has a great personality. And I just knew he would do -- he was absolutely the best candidate out there, there's no doubt in my mind. And I don't see him much different. He did a great job in Toronto. Why did Hargrove get fired? Tell me that one. I don't know why Jimy got let go in Toronto.

BOBBY COX: I think it's good for both sides to have a little -- applauding and cheering and jeering. I can remember going into Cleveland years ago in the old ballpark where you'd have to have the team meetings just to get through the ballgame and make sure you hustle, because there was nobody in there. So it's always better to play, even though they're pulling against you, before a big crowd.

BOBBY COX: I watch them on TV and I was watching the Red Sox on TV, and you make mental notes while reviewing. But, yes, it's way too early. We're 2-0, and we know as well as anybody that could evaporate fast, and it's a day-to-day thing. It's not like the Mets have to win four in a row or something. They still have room not to do that, but we have to play them one at a time and take it that way.

BOBBY COX: I think they might be better.

BOBBY COX: I think he would be very popular on any ballclub. But I'm still going to work on his relations with people and fans. We've done that all season. And I really don't condone the words in the papers and things like that. He really does have a problem with fans when they're yelling at him up close.

BOBBY COX: As long as the language remains good. I don't think you should be shouting obscenities. I do that occasionally, get too loud with umpires and in the dugout, and I'm not very proud of that. I know there's some bantering going back and forth, and the language is not real good. But I don't want any of our players to act like that. It's something that we work on, we try, and it will be resolved next year. If I could apologize to their fans, I would. I'm not supporting that type of behavior, no. There's nothing wrong with it, to see him run in and that type of thing and jump up and down. Eckersley and those guys, after they got the last out to give you that (indicating), but everybody is doing that nowadays, so you overlook it.

BOBBY COX: Any team can come back. And they were starting to bleed there when we left town. They knew exactly what they had to do, and they swept Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati let a game get away 3-1. But they did their job. Their destiny wasn't in their control. They could only do what was possible, and that's win three in a row. Anybody is capable of doing that.

BOBBY COX: Believe me, they won't be looking ahead, no. They'll be looking at Saturday's game.