Freddie Freeman, coaches remember late manager Bobby Cox - ESPN

LOS ANGELES — Bobby Cox was known for wearing spikes and stirrups in the dugout, for sporadic bursts of anger, which prompted a record number of ejections, and for being at the center of one of the most dominant runs in baseball history. But to those who knew him best, something else sticks out above all else: his unwavering love and support.

Freddie Freeman experienced it in his first spring training with the Atlanta Braves in 2009, when Cox gave him way more at-bats than a player with his track record warranted. He felt it before his first major league game, on Sept. 1, 2010, when Cox, noticing Freeman nervous and borderline distraught, instantly eased the tension by asking, «What took you so long to get here?!» And he felt it as the years went on, while continually hearing about how glowingly Cox spoke about him behind closed doors.

«I have that autographed Bobby Cox jersey hanging in my house in Atlanta,» said Freeman, the veteran first baseman who spent his first 12 years with the Braves before joining the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2022. «It says, 'To Freddie: keep on hitting.'»

Freeman got a call from longtime Braves catcher and current coach Eddie Perez on Friday morning informing him that Cox died. He was 84. Throughout a managerial career that spanned 29 seasons, Cox accumulated 2,504 regular-season victories, 15 division titles, five pennants, one World Series and one Hall of Fame induction.

Freeman's first season in the big leagues coincided with Cox's last. He's 36 years old now, a father of four, with 2,471 career hits and his own path to Cooperstown. But Cox's impact still resonates with him.

«You do things a little different over there, and that's the Braves way, and that's what I was taught,» Freeman said.