1986 bobby cox

bobby cox was the al manager of the year in 1985, guiding the blue jays to their first al east title.  in fact, had the playoffs not been expanded from best of 5 to best of 7 that year, cox would have had the blue jays in the world series, and maybe then he wouldn't have gone back to atlanta (where he had managed from 1978 through 1981) to take the general manager's job.  but, he did go back to the braves organization as is so nicely inscribed on his 1986 o-pee-chee card.

i'm a little disappointed with o-pee-chee here.  they should have given cox the whole team variation treatment and changed the position circle, too.  i am going to categorize this as a 'now with' text variation, even though there is no 'with' in there.  close enough.

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

cox actually lasted a few seasons before reclaiming the field manager duties in 1990, allowing chuck tanner and then russ nixon to manage the team (poorly, judging from their records).  then the braves went worst to first (almost, thanks to the twinkies) in 1991, and cox was firmly entrenched in the job. 

2010 will be cox's final season managing (unless he decides not to retire) and i know quite a few people who would like to see the braves get back to the playoffs after 4 straight seasons of being left out.  still, 5 pennants, 1 world series championships, 5 manager of the year awards and 14 straight divisional titles (if you choose not to count that pesky strike year) is a body of work to be proud of, regardless of how things end.

voici à vous, 1986 bobby cox!