Bobby Cox now has a matched set of Manager of the Year awards.
Cox, voted National League Manager of the Year by the Baseball Writers Association of America on Tuesday after leading the Atlanta Braves to their first World Series since 1958, was the 1985 American League Manager of the Year with Toronto. He is the first ever to win the award in both leagues.Atlanta, the worst team in baseball in 1990 at 65-97, finished 94-68 this year and won the NL West title for the first time since 1982. The Braves, along with the Minnesota Twins, became the first major league teams this century to go from last to first.
He said the Braves made his job easy. "It was fun to manage a team like this," Cox said. "I could do plenty of things because of the great personnel. It was just a great year to manage with this ball club. I'm a very lucky guy."
Cox, 50, won the award with a team built around a nucleus and a pitching staff he created as general manager. He returned to the field in the middle of the 1990 season and new GM John Schuerholz completed the picture by signing key free agents like infielders Terry Pendleton, Sid Bream and Rafael Belliard and reliever Juan Berenguer.
After trailing the Dodgers by 91/2 games at the All-Star break, the Braves drove to the NL West title, clinching it with an eight-game winning streak in the last nine days of the season.
They beat Pittsburgh in seven games to win the NL pennant and took Minnesota to the seventh game of the World Series before losing 1-0 in 10 innings.
Two weeks ago, Cox was named as The Associated Press major league Manager of the Year.
"I don't take this honor lightly. You also don't get to achieve something like this without good players and staff," Cox said.
"I had great players and great coaches. It's hard not to succeed with a combination like that. It's something that means a lot, but for a lot of reasons."
Cox is in his second stint with the Braves, whom he managed in 1978-81. He managed the Blue Jays from 1982-85, returning to the Braves as general manager after leading Toronto to its first AL East title.
Cox got 13 first-place votes, 10 seconds and one third for 96 points, easily beating Pittsburgh's Jim Leyland, who got 74 points. Leyland, who guided the Pirates to the NL East title for the second straight year, received nine votes for first, seven for second and eight for third.