Chad Pinder retired less than three years ago from a professional baseball career highlighted by seven seasons with the Oakland A\u2019s. He\u2019s already a step away from returning to the major leagues \u2014 this time as a manager.<\/p>\n
Pinder, a 33-year-old Poquoson High and Virginia Tech graduate, was named on Thursday as manager of the Charlotte Knights, the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox and a competitor of the Norfolk Tides in the International League.<\/p>\n
It continues a meteoric rise for Pinder, whose managerial debut came this past season with the White Sox\u2019s Single-A Carolina League affiliate in nearby Kannapolis, North Carolina. Securing a managing job in professional baseball with no coaching experience is a rarity, so Pinder\u2019s quick promotion confirmed the value the White Sox place in him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just one of those things you don\u2019t expect to happen,\u201d Pinder told the Daily Press and Virginian-Pilot on Friday. \u201cYou go into it, at least personally, with an open mind that like `Hey, wherever I am I\u2019m going to do my very best to serve and help the players, be available and at least pass on some of the knowledge I accumulated.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s got to be a better word than `surprised.\u2019 The emotions are surprise, excitement, I can\u2019t believe this is happening, and gratitude for them to trust me at this level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pinder earned that trust first managing the comparatively young players in Kannapolis. The Cannon Ballers went 64-68 but won 11 of their final 14 games in a season where Pinder felt he learned lots through successes and mistakes.<\/p>\n
He followed by working with some of the White Sox organization\u2019s older players in the Fall League in Arizona. Soon thereafter he interviewed for the Charlotte job and believes he got it because he\u2019s \u201con the same page\u201d with others in the organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about me and not about the staff,\u201d Pinder said, while adding that the White Sox have provided him with \u201can incredibly knowledgeable staff\u201d to guide Charlotte. \u201cIt\u2019s about the players and what we\u2019re doing for the organization to put them in great situations to grow.<\/p>\n
\u201cI put that at the forefront, and I think the players see that we\u2019re just trying to create an environment where the guys come to work every single day, have an opportunity to put their best foot forward and play free.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pinder says he\u2019s taken a little bit from each of the men who have guided him on the road to Charlotte. That started with Kenny Bennett, his coach on Poquoson High\u2019s 2009-10 Group AA state championship teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe loved the game, loved his players and did things the right way,\u201d Pinder said.<\/p>\n
He said that he loved playing for Pete Hughes at Virginia Tech, where he was All-ACC, because \u201cHe was such a competitor and players always want to know a coach is in the fight with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drafted in the second round by the A\u2019s in 2013, Pinder played professionally for 11 seasons. During his seven MLB seasons in Oakland he batted .242 with 62 home runs and 197 RBIs as the ultimate utility man \u2014 playing every position (even pitching an inning) except catcher.<\/p>\n
The A\u2019s made the playoffs three times during his years in Oakland. He said his managers there, Bob Melvin and Mark Kotsay, are huge influences on his managing style because they were \u201csteady\u201d whether he was batting .150 or .300.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have somebody in your corner who believes in you, no matter what the outcome is, that\u2019s the type of manager I wanted to play for,\u201d Pinder said. \u201cThose are the guys who `get it.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThey know how hard it is to be a baseball player in a game where, the majority of the time you\u2019re getting kicked down and you have to find a way to get back. You gravitate toward that kind of manager because the conversations are always the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also unchanging is Pinder\u2019s address.<\/p>\n
He has lived for years in Charlotte with wife Taylor, son CJ, 5, and daughter Camden, 3. He feels \u201cblessed\u201d that he\u2019ll get to spend so much time with them in this latest chapter of his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know this does not happen often in this game with the lifestyle of professional baseball,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m extremely fortunate and humbled and grateful for this.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know my wife is, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chad Pinder retired less than three years ago from a professional baseball career highlighted by seven seasons with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[202571,202572,2558,363,99],"class_list":["post-425613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-757teamz","tag-757teamz-baseball-and-softball","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}