North Carolina Tar Heels: Walt Weiss Resigns from Colorado Rockies
Former North Carolina Tar Heels baseball star Walt Weiss resigned the manager position with the Colorado Rockies.
Often we need to be reminded that the North Carolina Tar Heels have a legacy other than championship basketball or middling football. There is also the baseball program.
In recent years the Tar Heels baseball team has turned out several notable major league pros, but there were Tar Heel pros in baseball before Matt Harvey or Andrew Miller. Going back to the eighties the Heels produced the likes of B.J. Surhoff and Walt Weiss.
Walt Weiss started his major league career for the Oakland Athletics. He was not there to add a bat to the likes of Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, but instead he provided steady defense and a good glove. He was still good enough to win Rookie of the Year. He was traded to the Florida Marlins but moved to Colorado a year later as a free agent.
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Weiss found a home as a shortstop for the Colorado Rockies. He found enough comfort there that the team brought him in to manage for the last four seasons. That era ended two days ago when Weiss resigned.
According to reports from Liz Roscher of Yahoo Sports, Weiss had been in disagreement with general manager Jeff Bridich over personnel decisions. The problems had gotten big enough that Bridich essentially cut Weiss out of the loop of team moves.
Weiss had very little leverage in the dispute. Over four seasons he had built a 283-385 record with no winning seasons.
The team has arguably improved since Weiss’ second season as manager but the team was still south of eighty wins in the most playoff friendly environment that baseball has ever had.
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What Weiss does next is open to question. There are other teams looking for managers this off season and perhaps one of them will be a better fit to Weiss’ leadership style. Grant McAuley of CBS Radio noted that the Atlanta Braves are a team that could look at Weiss. The Braves were Weiss’ last stop as a player and the only All-Star appearance that he ever made.