During the 1990s, there was no more famous fixture on a major league bench than Rockin’ Leo Mazzone, the humorously restless pitching coach for the Atlanta Braves. Under Mazzone’s tutelage, the Braves rolled with Hall of Fame-caliber pitching from John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, and Greg Maddux. Hell, he even made Steve Avery an All-Star. Steve Avery, people!

(Leo, seen here just hating it.)

But after the 2005 season–and 26 years in the Bravo organization–Mazzone took a massive pay raise to move north and head up the Orioles’ pitching staff under his best friend, then-manager Sam Perlozzo. And Leo chose… poorly. The experiment lasted but two forgettable years before he was fired, an ignominious end to a great career. And according to the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, Mazzone couldn’t be happier to have been booted by Baltimore.

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