Nation allagog as Cox homes in on record

America at Large:The moment could come today. It might be tomorrow. Or it might be next week, or even next month. But as sure as the sun rises in the east, a baseball landmark no one believed would ever be reached is bound to be passed soon.

No sport ever devised by man places a higher premium on statistical matters than the American National Pastime, and as the nation braces for what promises to be an extended Fourth of July weekend, the eyes of baseball fans everywhere will be glued to their television sets in anticipation of the historic moment.

We're not talking here about Barry Bonds' steroid-fuelled assault on Hank Aaron's all-time home-run record. As of yesterday morning, Bonds was still four shy, and besides, that standard has been on the books a mere 34 years.

The imperilled mark in this case is John McGraw's 75-year-old record.

Affectionately known as "The Little Napoleon", McGraw managed the New York Giants from the turn of the century through 1932, and over his career he was ejected from 131 major league games.

A couple of weeks ago, on the night of June 23rd in Atlanta, Braves catcher Brian McCann became overzealous in arguing a called third strike, thereby incurring the displeasure of plate umpire Chad Fairchild. Although the game was to all intents and purposes lost, Atlanta manager Bobby Cox came bounding out of the dugout in an effort to protect the player.

"He was the only (bleeping) catcher we had left," Cox, who had earlier used backup Jarrod Saltalamacchia as a pinch-hitter, explained afterward.

The manager's intercession came too late. By the time Cox got to home plate, the umpire had already thrown McCann out of the game, and a split-second later, Fairchild sent Cox to the shower as well.

Aware of the historical implications of the moment, the crowd of 49,074 at Turner Field rose, as one man, and offered a standing ovation.

It was Cox's 131st career ejection, tying McGraw's hallowed mark.

To put this record in perspective, while Cox and McGraw jointly occupy first place on the all-time list, no one else is even close.

The Cardinals' Tony LaRussa, in third place, has been thrown out of 73 games. Cox is in his 30th year as a manager, LaRussa his 29th, suggesting longevity is a major factor. In other words, a lousy manager would never get close to a record like this, because even a mediocre manager wouldn't be around for three decades.

And over time Bobby Cox has proven himself one of the best. The Sporting News has honoured him as manager of the year eight times, and the 2,214 games his teams have won are matched by only three baseball managers: McGraw, LaRussa, and the career leader, Connie Mack, who ran the Philadelphia Athletics for 53 seasons.

Between 1991 and 2005, Cox's Braves teams won the National League Eastern Division every year save the strike-aborted 1994 season.

For most of this year, Sports Illustrated has run a weekly box charting Cox's progress as he approaches the record, and ESPN's SportsCenter has had nightly updates, even interrupting games in progress with reports of each Cox ejection.

As a player, Cox spent only two seasons in the major leagues, both with the New York Yankees. He was the starting third baseman on a mediocre 1968 edition of the Bronx Bombers, but was relegated to a reserve role the following season. His career batting average was an anaemic .225.

When he was released after the 1969 season, Cox had never been tossed out of a game. In that respect he already has the managerial record all to himself. Fourteen of John McGraw's ejections came when he was still a player.

Post-season statistics are not included in Cox's record run, but he also happens to be the only manager to have been thrown out of World Series games twice - once as manager of the American League team, the other as skipper of the National League side.

The former came in 1992, and appears to have been almost accidental. At the Skydome in Toronto, the then-Blue Jays manager tried to slam a batting helmet against the dugout roof and missed. When the helmet tumbled on to the field, Cox got the thumb from the umpire.

Three years later, with the Braves, Cox was heaved from Game Five of the 1995 World Series for bumping umpire Darryl Cousins in a safe/out call. (Replays suggested that he was right.)

One might suppose the legacy of a man who'd been sent off 131 times would be a laundry list of memorable ejections, but oddly, Cox's eruptions have been almost mundane in comparison to those of some of his more fiery colleagues. He doesn't throw water coolers on the field, and he's never picked up a base and thrown it into the outfield or even kicked dirt on an umpire. (He did once get tossed for spitting on an ump, but that, too, appears to have been accidental.)

In other words, on the night Cox does break McGraw's record, the highlight reel of his ejections the networks have undoubtedly already assembled probably won't make for especially great theatre.

"He just walks out there like only Bobby Cox can, and you can tell by the walk he's going to get ejected," Braves assistant general manager Chuck McMichael said recently. "Once he gets out there, it never takes him long to get thrown out. He just gets in his piece and walks off. I can't imagine that John McGraw could possibly have been any better at getting ejected."

When the record falls, as surely it will, the umpires are unlikely to stop the game and send Cox's uniform to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, though they probably ought to.

The old saw holds that records are made to be broken, but this is one that almost certainly never will.