PHOENIX -- On the day of his first T-ball game, Jeff Pickler made sure he was dressed in uniform and ready to go early. The game was scheduled for 11 a.m. Pickler was ready by 5:45 in the morning.
Today, Pickler is the new bench coach for the Rockies under manager Warren Schaeffer, and he’s in the midst of a baseball career that is in its fourth decade.
In the interim, Pickler was named the 1998 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year in college with the University of Tennessee, hit .299 over eight seasons in the Minor Leagues (including .331 with an .848 OPS for Colorado’s Triple-A affiliate in 2005) and went on to become a scout and coach with the D-backs, Padres, Angels, Dodgers, Twins and Reds before Colorado hired him last December.
He is a teacher at heart and has been heavily involved in player development with the various clubs he’s worked for over the years.
The teaching gift can be traced back a generation to his father, Scott, a legendary collegiate coach who ranks second all-time in the California Community College Athletic Association with 981 wins, thanks to his incredible run of more than 30 years and five state championships at Cypress College in Orange County.
Scott also coached in the Cape Cod League, and Jeff had stints as his dad’s assistant in both settings.
Baseball is in the Pickler blood, and in an 8-4 Rockies split-squad game loss to the Brewers at American Family Fields of Phoenix on Saturday afternoon, that heritage was on display in a very unique way.
Except this time, Jeff was managing, and Scott was his bench coach.
“I told him,” said Scott, “that the night before, I felt just like you did when you were getting ready for your first T-ball game.”
The occasion marked the first time Pickler had managed at the Major League level, and while it was only a Spring Training contest, it was an incredibly special moment for the two men who have shared the game in such a special way for so long.
It didn’t take long for Jeff to enlist some fatherly advice.
“He just sees the game so well,” Jeff said. “In those first few innings, we had a few things going on, and I was like, ‘Where you at? Get over here, I need to know what you’re seeing.’”
Scott wasn’t far from him all game, and father and son worked in tandem from the Rockies’ dugout on this picturesque spring day in Arizona.
It was two days earlier that Scott was notified that he would be sharing the dugout with his son at the helm. He was already planning on visiting Jeff anyway, but this was something altogether different. Something stunning and surreal.
“I had a few off-days, and I asked him if we were going to be able to get together,” Scott said. “And then two nights ago, he sent me a text with a picture of a Rockies jersey with my name on it. I called him and said, ‘Oh, you made me a jersey. That’s awesome.’
“And he said, ‘No, you’re going to be my bench coach.’”
Remarkably, this was more than just a family affair for Jeff and Scott. Two coaches for the Rockies and three players currently in camp also played for Scott -- assistant hitting coach Jordan Pacheco, pitching coach Alon Leichman, shortstop Cole Carrigg (the Rockies’ No. 6 prospect per MLB Pipeline), catcher Brett Sullivan and right-hander Zach Harris.
All of them were with the Picklers in Maryvale on Saturday.
“It was really cool to see Coach Pick [Scott] out here,” Pacheco said. “I hadn’t seen him, honestly, since I played in the Cape. So it had been 20 years. He still looks the same. It’s gotta be kind of a surreal thing for Jeff -- I know if I had my dad be my bench coach in a big league game, that would be pretty cool, something you dream about.”
Neither Jeff nor Scott could have ever dreamed this would happen. But it did, and it was a cherished moment in their separate baseball lives as well as their shared baseball life.
Jeff had surely thought about what it would be like to manage in the big leagues over the many years he’s been in the game. But he could never have seen this coming.
“I was telling some friends before the game,” Jeff said. “I’m like, ‘Your first time managing, it’s nice to know you’re going to have a bench coach you can trust.”