Mutual respect as Cox bids adieu to Big Apple

This will be one of the more poignant goodbyes in Bobby Cox's season of farewells. On his way to retirement as Braves manager, he officially will take his leave today of New York, a city that never will leave him. He got his start as a big-league player and coach with the Yankees and he has, of course, owned the Mets.

It will come as no surprise to hear that Cox has had more wins against the Mets than any other team during his 29 distinguished years of managing. Counting a 4-2 victory yesterday at Citi Field that helped his club's postseason chances, he has a 198-156 record against the team most frustrated by the Braves during his era.

So when the Mets honor Cox before today's game, presenting him with an autographed magnum bottle of wine from Tom Seaver's California vineyard, there will be some relief mixed with admiration. Cox will view it as one last (barring another World Series against the Yankees) nice visit.

"I love New York. I've learned to," he said, giving a verbal tip of the cap to former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. "I've seen New York since the Sixties and I saw that he did a really great job. I love walking the streets in the city. A lot of people on the streets know who you are in New York, they really do."

Suffice it to say he receives a better reception than did his former reliever John Rocker, who drew a 700-member police presence (some in riot gear) the first time he pitched at Shea Stadium following highly uncomplimentary published remarks about New York. Cox's Braves won that night, too.

Possibly none of Cox's achievements would have happened if not for New York. His life turned for good when, as a career minor-leaguer, he was traded by the Braves to the Yankees before the 1968 season for Dale Roberts and Bob Tillman. Cox won the starting third base job over Mike Ferraro and earned the right to say he played a season with Mickey Mantle.

"Mickey was great. All that other stuff was overrated," Cox said yesterday, alluding to the Hall of Famer's reputation for carousing. "Everybody drinks too much occasionally. Mickey wasn't like that at all. We were a .500 team, all his buddies were gone. He was still pretty good."

After the 1969 season, Cox was gone. He was undone by bad knees and supplanted by his roommate, Bobby Murcer. Before the 1971 season, before Cox turned 30, general manager Lee MacPhail asked him if he would be interested in managing the minor-league team in Fort Lauderdale. It took him less than a day to say yes.

"When I started, we had no coaches. I had the extended [spring training] kids in Fort Lauderdale," he said. "We'd start at 10 in the morning, and again at 3 and the regular team at 5. I put everything I had into it."

The Yankees noticed and promoted him to Triple A manager. In 1977, he was first base coach for Billy Martin on the big club during the "Bronx is Burning" championship season. The next year, he began the first of two stints with the Braves. In between, he managed the Blue Jays and happened to win three games during a pivotal 1985 series at Yankee Stadium, provoking George Steinbrenner to call Dave Winfield "Mr. May."

It was during his second run with the Braves, the one in which he won five pennants and one World Series, that Cox left his greatest mark in New York. He has been the one constant for a franchise that repeatedly crushed dreams in Queens.

Andruw Jones' 1999 pennant-winning "walk-off walk" against the Mets stands out in Cox's mind. But to this day, he insists the most memorable game was a loss - at Shea Stadium on Sept. 21, 2001, the first night back after 9/11. He was struck by how deserted the city had been. "The only [other] people in our hotel were CIA and FBI agents," he said.

Shea was full of energy, though, especially after Mike Piazza shook the park with an emotion-laced home run. "It was a New York City victory," Cox said. "It didn't hurt as bad as most losses, put it that way."