Bobby Cox team featured such future major leaguers as Ron Guidry, Mickey Klutts, Terry Whitfield and Juan Bernhardt. Overall, Cox had a highly successful six-year tenure as a minor league manager, compiling a record of 459 wins and 387 defeats (.543) with two league championships. He then spent the 1977 season as the first base coach on Billy Martin's staff with the World Series–winning Yankees before beginning his MLB managerial career. Cox replaced Dave Bristol as the manager of the Atlanta Braves prior to the 1978 season, inheriting a team that had finished last in the league during the previous two seasons
Bobby Thompson (baseball) Bobby Thompson (baseball) Bobby La Rue Thompson [″Bull″] (November 3, 1953 – April 25, 2011) was an outfielder in Major League Baseball, playing mainly at centerfield for the Texas Rangers during the season. Listed at 5' 11", 175 lb., Thompson was a switch-hitter and threw right-handed. He was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. Following his graduation from Harding University High School, Thompson became the first African American born in Charlotte to join the Major Leagues. He was selected by the Texas Rangers in the 1972 amateur draft, and played six years in the Rangers Minor league system before joining the