BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : WORLD SERIES : Cox Took the Hard Road to Success

Shortly before Game 6, the Braves’ Bobby Cox remembered what it was like when life was not so great.

His thoughts turned to 1971, his first season as a professional manager, when he guided the Ft. Lauderdale Yankees of the Class-A Florida State League.

Cox was so poor, he lived on a cot in the clubhouse. His team’s depth was so thin, sometimes he was forced to bat. Even worse for this former infielder, sometimes he was forced to pitch.

Yes, he would come to the mound to make a pitching change with a glove in his hand.

“I remember one time I came in against Cocoa Beach with the bases loaded and none out, and I got out of the inning,” Cox said Saturday. “But then the next time out, I got my brains beat in.”

Cox, who began his career in the Dodger organization in 1960, said he could never have become a successful major league manager without his six seasons as a minor league boss.

“For me, the minor leagues was everything, I could not have stepped into a major league situation, no way,” Cox said. “It taught me everything.”

Among other things Cox has learned, he said, is one simple truth.

“The players are not always wrong,” he said.

This is the 10th time a team that plays on artificial turf (Minnesota) has played in a World Series against a team that plays on grass (Atlanta). Turf teams are 6-3. . . . The Game 3 and 6 matchups of the Twins’ Scott Erickson (23) against the Braves’ Steve Avery (21) were the second and third youngest matchup in Series history. The youngest occurred in Game 3 of the 1981 World Series, when the Dodgers’ Fernando Valenzuela (20) went against the New York Yankees’ Dave Righetti (22).