Pat Murphy grew up going to minor league games at MacArthur Stadium in Syracuse, New York. In those days, the local team tried to retrieve all the baseballs that went over the fence during batting practice, but Murphy would pocket a souvenir or two before he was run off.

Quite often chased away by Bobby Cox or a member of his staff.

That long-running connection came full circle Tuesday night when Murphy won the NL Manager of the Year award for the second straight season. The only other NL manager to take home the honor in consecutive years was Cox for Atlanta in 2004 and 2005.

Cleveland’s Stephen Vogt also was a repeat winner as AL Manager of the Year, receiving 17 of 30 first-place votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Toronto’s John Schneider got 10 first

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