PITTSBURGH – Terry Pendleton has done a lot in plenty of roles in baseball, but until Tuesday he’d never served as a bench coach. Now that box can be checked, too.
The former All-Star third baseman and former hitting coach moved from his first-base coaching job to a new position as interim manager Brian Snitker’s bench coach, after the firings of manager Fredi Gonzalez and bench coach Carlos Tosca.
Snitker and Pendleton got an immediate immersion in their new duties when the Pirates scored seven runs in the first inning Tuesday. The Braves rallied from a 9-0 deficit before losing 12-9.
“I just said, here we go,” Pendleton said, re-creating the raised-eyebrows expression he made to Snitker early in that seven-run inning. “We’re in the middle of it, no turning back and running upstairs now.”
But, he added, “I can honestly say this, even with that seven-run first inning, I leaned over to Snit and I told him, listen, we’re down seven, but I guarantee you these kids are going to battle the whole way. And they did. They battled the entire way.
“It was interesting to be thrown into a seven-run first inning.”
Pendleton, 55, is in his 15th season on the Braves coaching staff after a 15-year playing career highlighted by the National League Most Valuable Player award in 1991, when he helped lead the Braves to the first of their 14 consecutive division titles. But the new position involves some duties completely new to him.
“I have to commend Carlos and every other bench coach because there’s more work involved in it,” he said. “I’m learning the ropes and trying to learn a routine or better pattern of how to do it my way, and so far the computer’s killing me. Because you have to…well, not have to, but it’s easier to print everything off the computer, and that’s been my learning curve, trying to do that right now.
“The other stuff, hanging out with Snit and just making sure I can assist him in every way I can inside the clubhouse and definitely here on the bench with thoughts and comments and the way he might want to go…. It was interesting last night. Right off the bat: Here, you guys want it, here it is, go get it.”
Snitker, 60, said when Braves officials approached him about taking over as interim manager, he told them he’d want to have Pendleton as his bench coach.
“If you want me to do this, I need to have him beside me,” Snitker recalled telling them. “The guy brings instant credibility, and the knowledge of the game. We’ve become really good friends, spent a lot of hours riding back and forth to the ballpark because we live out there (in the northern Atlanta suburbs) together. I just respect and think the world of him.”
Pendleton was asked if the leadership skills and commanding presence he (Pendleton) was known for as a player might be particularly beneficial in the bench-coach role.
“I would hope so,” he said. “I mean, for me, like I said, I’m here to assist Snit in any way possible, in any way, shape or form. If there are things that need to be said or done and he needs me to do so, I will not hesitate to do it. I’m going to back him in everything he needs to get done and make his job a heck of a lot easier for him.”
