Walt Weiss’ place in Braves history is a bit of a muddle. As he returns this season to serve as Brian Snitker’s bench coach, let’s attempt to sort it all out.
As a player, he arrived in 1998 at the age of 35, a plug-in temporary solution at shortstop whose career was in its initial descent. Yet that first season in Atlanta was the lone All-Star season of his career.
Still, he wishes he could have done more over the whole of his three years as a Brave. “I was hurt a lot. I was older player. I was at the end of my career. I wish I could have performed better for Bobby (Cox). I was at the end, the twilight,” he said.
That All-Star year, as professionally satisfying as it may have been, also was one of his more difficult personal years, when early in the season his then 3-year-old son Brody was among a group of children severely sickened by an E. coli outbreak at White Water in Marietta. One child died as a result. Brody made a dramatic recovery.
“Those were dark days there for a little while,” Weiss said. “A lot of things that are bittersweet about my stay in Atlanta. I loved being a part of that team and a part of that run. The thing with my son was tough.”
Brody is 23 now, getting ready to graduate from a small college in California. Inevitably, all four of Weiss’ sons have played baseball, the youngest now in high school in Colorado. For the duration of the season, Dad will pitch his tent at a place in The Battery Atlanta and walk to work.
This is a franchise whose highlights tilt toward the mound or the momentous at-bat. But let’s not forget that Weiss was the author of what may be the most significant defensive play in team history. Not the most spectacular – although it had plenty of that, just maybe not the added elegance of an Otis Nixon wall-climb or an Andrelton Simmons infield pirouette.
Remember the National League Division Series game at Houston in ’99 when Weiss saved the day for Atlanta, diving to his left to spear a sharp ground ball by Tony Eusebio in front of second base. A pure reflex play, the ball nearly ripping the glove from Weiss’ hand. He then scrambled to his feet and made a lunging throw home to force out Ken Caminiti at the plate. Escaping that inning, the Braves went on to win a swing game and eventually on to the World Series.
Weiss’ place in the Braves’ present is a little more easily defined. He was hired this offseason to be bench coach, taking over for Terry Pendleton.
Following four seasons managing in Colorado, he was out of baseball last season, spending time at home and enjoying it, but he said, “I knew I still had the itch to get back in the game.
“I got a call from Snit this offseason that lit me up. I was really excited to get back here.”
Weiss and Ron Washington make two former managers on the Braves’ coaching staff. Adding another hasn’t seemed to shake Snitker’s sense of job security too badly to date.
“I love what (Weiss) is bringing. I think we’re really hit it off,” Snitker said.
“(Weiss) has worked his butt off. There are times every day I go in there, dude, will you go home? I’ll joke around and ask him, ‘Do you mind if I go home yet?’ He’s relentless,” the boss said.
There’s the in-game bugs that the bench coach is expected to plant in the manager’s ear. But foremost, Weiss sees his job as “taking as much as I can off Snit’s plate.
“I’ve sat in that (manager’s) seat, and I know what it entails. To be honest, one of the things I didn’t care for about managing was you’re not involved on a day-to-day basis with the baseball stuff as much as I’d like to be.
“As a coach, I’m kind of enjoying this because I’m doing baseball stuff. I’m hands-on with the players. I’m in the mix, getting my hands dirty. As a manager, you’re dealing with lots of things unrelated to baseball. I understand that. I want to lighten that load on Snit. Not everything needs to get to the manager’s desk. If you have a staff that can put out those small fires, it really helps.”
Speaking of fire, that is another element that Weiss could impart to this team.
He was the flintiest of players, uncompromising with his approach. Granted, he hit only 25 career home runs, but no one ever questioned the strength. His coach at North Carolina once broke out a Ty Cobb reference when talking about the young Weiss.
That’s one reason he was hired to manage the Rockies in late 2012, almost out of nowhere. He was, in fact, at a fundraiser for one of his boy’s Little League teams when he got the call from the Rockies about the job. Colorado was unsparing in its search for a little toughness.
“If I can say this, I think my strength as a manager was developing a mentality for our club. I do feel like in my four years in Colorado, we played with a certain level of intensity and intent. I do feel good about that. The wins and losses weren’t great but I do feel there was a culture change there,” Weiss said.
“During the game I think I do have a switch. My demeanor is different once the game starts, and I get a little bit intense sometimes,” he said. “That should be the mentality of an athlete. I think you should be a great teammate in the clubhouse, easygoing. And when the game starts, you flip the switch.”
Switch-flipping just might be a worthwhile trait to pass along to a young and impressionable team.
That could make for a nice little build-on to his place in Braves history.
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