Richard Justice

But he had his employees' backs.

They loved him.

I know I have a friend that has worked for the Braves for 25 years.

Ted Turner, Hank Aaron worked across the hall from them.

And to say beloved, I mean, people don't understand that.

You know, Ted did things like he fired Bobby Cox in 81.

And he said, the perfect guy to, you know, I'm looking for would be Bobby Cox.

But I just fired him.

Okay, that's a funny line, except he brought Bobby back four years later and putting Bobby in charge of the baseball operation changed the Braves forever and created one of the great franchises in the game.

Remember Ted Sine, Andy Messerschmidt, really the first free agent in baseball.

That's right.

But you would have thought the world was going to end.

We're giving this guy three years, a million dollars, insane money.

What turned out not to be a really good deal.

They had to sell the contract.

And he did fire managers, put himself in the dugout one time during a 16-game losing streak, which became 17 after Ted managed one game and Bowie Coon told him, no, you can't do that anymore.

But it was just...

I think his legacy in baseball is that he put in place these guys.

Paul Snyder, a legendary scouting director.

Bobby Cox, John Sherholtz came in, and they finished first.