ATLANTA -- Walt Weiss spent some of his early post-playing days guiding a Denver youth football team to a national title. He later served as both the head coach and offensive coordinator for Regis High School’s JV football team.
On Friday nights, he would be on the sidelines or in the press box assisting with the varsity team.
But as Regis prepared for the 2012 playoffs, Weiss missed a couple practices to interview to become the Rockies' manager.
“I couldn’t tell anybody why I wasn’t at practice,” Weiss said. “Most of those kids just viewed me as a football coach. They didn’t even know I had played baseball.”
Well, they soon learned about their coach’s past when he unexpectedly became a big league manager for the first time.
“I got asked to do an interview [with the Rockies], and I said, ‘What the heck?’" Weiss said. “You know, I've never done this. I'll go through the process and it will be a good experience. I ended up getting the job.”
As Weiss prepares for the Braves managerial role he gained on Monday, he is thankful for what he learned during his challenging four-year stint as Colorado’s skipper. Enduring four straight losing seasons is hard for anybody, especially for someone like this former shortstop, who played for four pennant winners, including one in Atlanta, during his 14-season playing career.
Weiss’ first big league manager with the A’s was Tony La Russa and his last was Bobby Cox with the Braves. Spending a combined nine seasons playing for these Hall of Fame managers was a great learning experience.
So too were those years as a football coach in the Denver area. He also spent a season as Regis Jesuit’s varsity baseball coach just before becoming Colorado’s skipper.
“When I got back in the game with the Rockies after being out of the game for four years, I felt like the football experience prepared me probably more than my experience as a high school baseball coach, just because the speed of the game. I was the offensive coordinator, head coach and quarterback coach. So, I was calling the plays. Down and distance. You’re up against the clock every play. So, you’re constantly out in front of the game and it’s challenging. So, coaching football helped me slow down the game in baseball as a manager.”
Weiss’ football roots go back to his days as an option quarterback at Suffern High in upstate New York. He wore No. 22 throughout his playing career to honor Mercury Morris, a running back who starred for the great Miami Dolphins teams during the 1970s.
During Monday’s press conference, the Braves announced Weiss will once again wear No. 22. Because Nick Markakis was wearing this number when Weiss became Atlanta’s bench coach in 2018, the former shortstop opted to wear No. 4 throughout his eight-season stint as Atlanta’s bench coach.
Links to Murphy: When Tony Vitello recently ended his reign as the University of Tennessee’s baseball coach to become the Giants' manager, some chose to link him to Pat Murphy, who was a successful college coach at Notre Dame and Arizona State long before he positioned himself to win a second straight National League Manager of the Year Award this year.
But given that Murphy spent many years as a Minor League manager and then spent nine seasons as Milwaukee’s bench coach before beginning his current stint as the Brewers' manager, it might be better to link him to Weiss.
Weiss spent each of the past eight seasons as Brian Snitker’s bench coach in Atlanta. He declined an opportunity to interview for the Marlins’ open managerial vacancy in 2022 with the hope he’d eventually find himself in his new role.
“We have some recent precedent here with bench coaches taking over,” Weiss said. “Pat Murphy did it in Milwaukee, a seamless transition. There’s advantages to it. Joe Espada in Houston took over and won a division with a seamless transition. There's big advantages.
“I didn't realize it when I was in it that first year [as a big league manager], but I got to the end of that first year and it was like, man, it took most of this year for me to truly know my club,” Weiss said. "And we don't have time for that.”
A nod to Snit: As Weiss addressed Atlanta media members on Tuesday, he was sitting directly in front of Snitker, who with Cox’s advice had brought Weiss to Atlanta to begin his stint as a bench coach in 2018.
Snitker ended his successful 10-season stint as Atlanta’s manager at the end of this past season to move into a special assistant role.
“I wouldn’t be here without Snit,” Weiss said. “Snit and Bobby Cox brought me back into a Braves uniform eight years ago. I loved these last eight years working for Snit. I would have happily done it for another 10 years. If Snit went another 10 years, I'd have happily done it.”