They were friends before they were Braves co-workers. For John Schuerholz and Bobby Cox, that relationship never frayed like so many do between general managers and managers who disagree and eventually part ways.
When Schuerholz put on a crisp new Hall of Fame jersey over his shirt and tie before a throng of cameras and hundreds of reporters Monday, a day after being unanimously elected to the Hall by the Today’s Game Era Committee, Cox was seated in the second row, undoubtedly thinking about the Braves’ golden era they engineered together.
“For me, to have worked with Bobby Cox, this partnership that we had, to have that now exist in baseball’s Hall of Fame, I’m so thrilled by that,” said Schuerholz, who has spent 26 years in the Braves organization, currently serving as vice chairman. “It’s unique. … I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for the man.”
Three years after Cox’s unanimous election to the Hall by the veterans committee, Schuerholz will join him after being voted in by the renamed version of that same committee. Cox was a part of the 16-man committee, but he didn’t have to persuade any of the other voters of Schuerholz’s Cooperstown resume.
“It’s the highlight of my professional career, obviously,” said Schuerholz, 76, who was general manager of World Series winners with the Royals in 1985 and Braves in 1995, the first GM to accomplish that with teams in both leagues. “I’ve enjoyed some success with organizations because of good people and I join the greatest ‘good people’ in our industry in the Hall of Fame. I’m so proud of that and honored by that.
“I never dreamed that this would happen to me and if this is a dream, I hope I don’t wake up from it. Because this is the sterling moment of my life.”
Braves great Chipper Jones and Andre Dawson, a Hall of Famer and Today’s Game Era committee member, each called Schuerholz’s election a “no-brainer.”
“As much of a given that he’s a HOFer as Bobby, Doggie, Glav and Smoltzie,” Jones said in a text message, referring to Cox and the Braves’ pitching triumvirate of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz.
Cox, Maddux and Glavine were inducted in the Hall class of 2014 and Smoltz in 2015. All four were elected in their first year on the ballot, as was Schuerholz. And Jones is expected to be selected a year from now.
“It’s wonderful,” said Schuerholz, who was a middle-school teacher before he got his start in baseball in 1966, after writing a letter to his hometown Baltimore Orioles to ask if he could interview for a front-office job of any kind.
He got the low-level job and three years later went to the expansion Royals, working his way up to farm director to eventually become the then-youngest GM in baseball at 41.
“Who could ever expect to live this dream? Who could ever expect to be a young baseball executive in 1966 and ever expect that your career ends with someone saying, ‘Welcome to the Hall of Fame?’” he asked. “And the cadre of people who were on the committee, who voted to elect me to the Hall of Fame and do it in unanimous fashion? That’s honorable and I’m proud of that.”
No one seemed prouder than Cox, who became friends with Schuerholz in 1976 through the late Royals manager Dick Howser. They would enjoy a working relationship that few contemporary manager-GM combinations are able to sustain for an extended period because of the pressures and demands of both jobs.
“We never butted heads. We just never did,” said Cox, who had Schuerholz as his GM for 17 seasons beginning in 1991, the first year of the Braves’ unprecedented run of 14 consecutive division titles. “We were on the same page all the time. We could see what we needed, I could see what we needed. Some of the decisions were tough, of course, but I don’t remember ever, even in our meetings with the coaching staff or anything, that there was an argument over something.”
Schuerholz agreed: “We thought so much alike about the kind of team we wanted and the kind of players to make up that team and the kind of environment we wanted to create and maintain and sustain. We were like two peas in a pod. We were like Siamese twins in terms of our intellectual property and our thinking of how this organization ought to be built and run and sustained and the kind of players we want.
“And if there was a player that became a Brave that didn’t quite fit to what our expectations were or the organization’s guidelines, they didn’t last very long, no matter how talented they were. If they did not make us better, if they did not contribute to the whole but instead were focused on the individual, they didn’t last very long.”
Cox added: “John built the farm system so strong and fortunately, free agents off our team didn’t want to leave. They wanted to stay. It was a good place to live and a good place to smile, because of winning.”
And because of Schuerholz.
“John’s a great businessman,” Cox said. “I’m sure he had his bouts with the agents and people like that and was tough in that respect. Tough, but always fair. You always felt you got a fair deal.”
Everyone in the organization, from star players to scouts to interns, seemed to enjoy working for Schuerholz.
“When I was in high school, I knew I would not be good enough as a player to ever have an impact on major league baseball, but I wanted to be like John Schuerholz,” said John Coppolella, who would eventually get hired in Atlanta by the man he’d long admired and has since worked his way up to the GM position that Schuerholz mastered.
“I saw what he did for the Royals and for the Braves, saw the way he carried himself. There are a lot of young executives throughout baseball that absolutely revere John Schuerholz.”
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