00:00get you to tell us what were the rules in a bobby cox clubhouse that every player knew that he
00:06would
00:06share and when would that conversation happen well i think the rules are very simple you know
00:13you had to be on time okay and then you had to wear your uh uniform with respect in other
00:20words
00:21uh uh everybody was to dress the same everybody was to have the same uh as a team uh music
00:28was
00:28allowed in the clubhouse except you had to put headphones on because he said that some of the
00:34guy across from you might not like what you're playing what you're playing so and he said so
00:39it was just a very organized very low-key uh clubhouse but you had to act a certain way i
00:47remember a couple times when a player would come up and you could hear it he was louder than the
00:51veteran guys and he would tell one of the one of the coaches to go tell that kid to shut
00:56up or he
00:56was going back to richmond so yeah it's just understanding your place yeah in the uh the
01:03pantheon of a clubhouse and everything else now bobby leds uh breaks the major league record for
01:08ejections with 162 how often how often would you know that bobby's thinks getting tossed here is
01:15going to be a good thing how strategic was it and how much was spontaneous give us some notion of
01:22those
01:23162 which which fall in what categories well you had you had spontaneous it for sure but then you
01:30had also some of the some of the guys some of the pitchers setting him up you know i mean
01:35they had
01:36some fun with that and especially with the balls and strikes and uh and that was when basically
01:43basically what he argued about but you know there were times when uh glavin was pitched like glavin
01:49would be pitching in a game and strike zone looked small and bobby had the uh he allowed the the
01:56starter to go up in the clubhouse and watch the game on tv and uh didn't chart chart the next
02:01game
02:02chart the game and so you know one time glavin was pitching and uh and uh you know bobby says
02:09how's
02:09the strike zone uh bob and glass it's okay we'll figure it out you know don't worry about it and
02:15so bobby
02:15marched into the into the clubhouse real in between innings and he said mad dog how's the umpire strike
02:22zone he said bobby it's terrible he's not calling nothing he's not giving glavin anything well glavin
02:28followed bobby into the clubhouse wondering what was going on so bob glavin heard maddox tell bobby that
02:35so then bobby left and glavin looked at maddox says you know he's getting thrown out the next inning you
02:41know that don't you and he goes yeah yeah they're all laughing said maddox is laughing his butt off
02:46so he goes out there and soon as soon as the next pitch was called a ball there he went
02:51and got
02:51thrown out so maddox got him thrown out a couple times but um uh for the most part uh it
02:58was arguing
02:58about balls and strikes and uh and uh but it was it could it could be spontaneous then it could
03:04be
03:05building but uh you know it here's here's the funny thing a lot of managers you know when they when
03:11they were thrown out that much young parts kind of dislike them or they don't like them very much
03:15but they still love bobby whether he got thrown out a hundred times or no times and uh i remember
03:20one
03:20time uh bruce freming said and we were in atlanta on a sunday day game in fulton county went hotter
03:27than
03:27heck and uh so bobby went out in the second second inning raising the cane and uh and bruce said
03:34you know
03:35what i'm not throwing you out he goes you're going to stay out here and sweat your ass off like
03:39like me for
03:40the next eight inning so i'm not going to throw you out so that's great that is great it was
03:45it was a
03:45lot of fun jerry crawford was another umpire who uh he would come by our dugout and say i can
03:52hear
03:52bobby i can hear everything you're saying in there he goes now your pitchers are hitting the target
03:58he said but the catcher's sitting a foot outside
04:03leah mazzoni we had a lot of fun with it yeah hey um tell us the rocker story and i
04:08know john
04:09rocker and there are certain other guys less conventional maybe a little less respect for
04:14the process certainly put the uh players in a bad spot with you guys um you know a number of
04:20times
04:20the famous interview but john was acting out on the mound and you got sent out there and what was
04:25the
04:28message well i think that uh wasn't there number one rocker huh yeah wasn't there a game where bobby
04:34said go handle him or i'm going to go out there and handle him myself well no there was just
04:40a time
04:41when uh uh uh basically uh uh he rock we got along fine with rocker i mean it was just
04:49uh uh and the time
04:51that he went out there to talk to him i mean one time he went out there to talk to
04:55him and bobby had
04:56a rule he goes okay leo he said when i first got there he goes he goes when i go
05:00out to take a
05:01pitcher out of a game he said he said number one don't make a face at me and number two
05:06uh hand me
05:07the ball don't flip it to me he said number three you stay the the the pitcher stays on the
05:13mound
05:13relief pitcher gets there and then when he leaves you go in and sit down next to leo then you
05:19leave when
05:19the inning's over well this one time you know we brought rocker in late in the game he was
05:23struggling and uh you know basically just uh bobby said you know what i'm going to give him a breather
05:29leo we'll just go ahead and give him a breather and um so he he went out to the mound
05:35and going to
05:36take rocker out and and rocker made it you know like a made a face like what are you doing
05:41coming out
05:42and i went oh boy here we go you know rocker comes in and don't don't get me wrong rocker
05:51we
05:51got along fine everybody did but he just had to get you know you you adapt to different personalities
05:57that's for sure so anyway he sat down next to me and he said what's going on what's going on
06:01balls
06:01man and i said look i said don't you realize what he's doing he's giving you a breather i can
06:08still do
06:08it i said yeah i know you think you're superman but not tonight okay yeah so anyway so bobby comes
06:13in after he's making a face and so i know bobby's really angry you know because there's a vein coming
06:18out in his neck and his arm starts flipping around and uh he come over at rocker and told him
06:23if he
06:23ever made a face with him again when he come out to the mound he said he'd break his neck
06:30hey we're all sitting there right and so now uh maddox is on the other side of rocker and uh
06:38maddox peaks around rocker after bobby goes back to the corner of the dugout and he goes uh
06:43hey leo hey leo i said not now mad dog i said this ain't funny this ain't funny he goes
06:48oh coach
06:49cox is really pissed yeah that's an understatement hey uh we're talking to uh leo mazzoni about bobby
06:58cox passing over the weekend what kind of a game manager how do you categorize that he managed some of
07:04the great great teams in braves history i know you guys i mean gut-wrenching moments massive games
07:11with everything on the line that sometimes turned out our way a lot of it did not so talk about
07:17him
07:17as a game manager and what that pressure meant to him and how he handled it well let me let
07:22me tell
07:22you something uh i was my first year in the dugout with him i was sitting in the dugout we
07:29were in the
07:29fifth inning of a game you know and of course i'm locked in on our on our on the on
07:33the fifth inning
07:33he says leo he said i want you to put your thinking cap on i said yeah what's going on
07:38he goes the the pitcher could come out come up with the bases loaded two out the seventh inning
07:42we're gonna have to decide whether to pinch hit or not this is the fifth inning now i'm sitting there
07:47going okay i got you and i'm thinking damn i'm locked here on the fifth he's already he has an
07:54idea
07:54that that could happen in the seventh inning amazing yeah and then here's the other thing
07:59guys and and more baseball people should listen to this and probably had no clue that he had this
08:07the pitch counts came into play right i mean we were the last ones to put the pitch counts up
08:13last
08:13ones to put radar guns up by the number how hard you were throwing because to us it didn't matter
08:18you know that was that was a non-issue so well anyway uh uh let's see what was i going
08:27to tell
08:27you oh anyways we had what he had what you called a max out ending for example if say for
08:36example glavin
08:37was going out to the mound in the seventh inning leo is he going to max out and i'd say
08:41yeah he's going
08:41to max out that meant he was going to max out his effort to get through the inning that also
08:47meant
08:47that he was done regardless of pitch count okay he was going we're going to take him out now say
08:54for example it's a different situation where glavin goes out in the seventh inning leo is he going to
08:59max out no he's still on on normal effort okay bobby says okay he says we're not taking him out
09:06and pitch count don't matter so example so one of the big reasons how those guys stayed healthy
09:13was the amount of effort and and the uh the one the ending that they were going to uh jack
09:19it up to
09:20get through the inning or if they were still on normal uh effort so he understood all that and when
09:26you understand you know how many managers know that and in the big leagues went then and now
09:32probably nobody you know but anyway he had that ability to let the pitchers be the first class citizens
09:39and uh the pitchers love that and i think that uh you know they they they they were more disappointed
09:47if they didn't pitch well because they let him down more so than just losing the game so that's
09:52because he took care of he took care of them you know but he did he did that with the
09:56whole team
09:57that's for sure but you know we used to joke around because i had that little clicker on the pitch
10:02count and i used to cheat on it you know and he you know one of our guys threw an
10:06easy easy pop-up you
10:07know on the first pitch i said i ain't counting that one you know or you know stuff like that
10:13it got to a point where he'd say leo how many has he got and i'd tell him he goes
10:17well is it the real
10:18counter is that yours you know it that's good stuff so we had we had some funny things like that
10:24go on
10:25uh so game management absolutely one of the best best around and uh but you know what the difference
10:32you know i had a couple of people teach me had a great teachers in the game i had three
10:37or four
10:38total in 42 years i also had about two to three hundreds that taught me how not to do it
10:45and if you listen if you if you listen to bobby when when i first met him and when we
10:50were all
10:50meeting for the first time you knew that you knew that this was different you knew that this
10:57this is not the same as a a crusty old manager cussing somebody out or or i'll get the pictures
11:03off field one get them over on field two so we can get some work done all that bs yeah
11:08you could also
11:09tell that there was going to be no eye wash no phoniness none of that stuff and also if you
11:16did
11:17your job efficiently and got things done the right way you were rewarded by saying okay the work day's
11:24done especially in spring training now if you didn't get the work thing done then of course you
11:30didn't go in as fast so you know it's just common sense stuff but he really wanted the players to
11:36look
11:36good on the field when we were on when we were on the road his coaching staff had uh uh
11:41sport coat tie
11:43slacks and then the players had sport coat slacks and a golf shirt and he said you know what we
11:49we play
11:50like champions and we're going to look like champions and uh just that's just a small example
11:56of uh everything that went on leo i want to just say i'm sorry for your loss because i know
12:03that your
12:03relationship with him was much much more than bench coach and manager and i know that your friendship
12:08was was long and winding and you had so much respect for him so just thank you for coming on
12:13and i know
12:13this has been really really tough all right thank you sandra it's always good to hear your voice and
12:19uh we miss seeing you guys uh over the years but uh you know if with ted and bobby this
12:26uh this week i
12:27mean it's you know i'll be down there uh whenever i hear about what's going on and uh pam said
12:33she wants
12:34me to speak at his funeral and um and no i think i'll tell some i'll give give you guys
12:41a heads up i'm
12:42going to tell some funny stories i'm not going to you know go up there and say that you know
12:45i've got
12:46some stories that uh i'll get i'll make them laugh and you know what i was just at his house
12:51two weeks
12:51ago i've gone down there every couple of weeks to visit him all the time and uh uh i get
12:57him laughing
12:58and i'd come walking through the door and he pointed pam and start and pam would go wait a minute
13:03leo
13:04let wait a minute bobby let leo get through the door before i get him his vodka and club soda
13:10way to go man talk about old school hey leo we'll see you when you're back here
13:13thanks always for coming on miss seeing you and uh i appreciate you coming on in atlanta
13:19thank you buddy absolutely great you know great to hear you two guys that's for sure
13:24love you leo all right there he is leo mazzoni when we
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