Walt Weiss returned to Coors Field this weekend as manager of the red-hot Atlanta Braves.
There were hugs all around from those Rockies who knew Weiss back in the day.
And jokes about his newfound internet fame.
“You don’t mess with Walt, as everybody has seen now,” Rockies longtime trainer Keith Dugger said with a laugh.
The thing is, the 62-year-old Weiss never expected to go viral. But there he was, sparking memes, inspiring T-shirts, getting a tweet from the Atlanta Falcons: “Come put on the pads, Skip.”
In case you missed it (how could you?), Weiss extinguished a baseball brawl that broke out between the Braves and the Angels in Anaheim, Calif., on April 8.
As fists started to fly between Braves pitcher Reynaldo Lopez and Angels designated hitter Jorge Soler, Weiss sprinted from the dugout, flipped off his hat, and tackled the 6-foot-3, 235-pound Soler.
Atlanta Braves manager Walt Weiss meets with reporters in the dugout before a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies Friday, May 1, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
The 6-foot, 180-pound Weiss, who still lives in Parker during the offseason, is a soft-spoken gentleman. But just beneath the surface flows white-hot competitive intensity. Sporting biceps like Schwarzenegger’s, Weiss goes to the gym nearly every day. He’s a martial artist with a black belt in taekwondo and has training in MMA, including jiu-jitsu.
Soler was the 2021 World Series MVP for the Braves when Weiss was the bench coach. But that didn’t matter in the heat of the moment.
“I love Soler. We were teammates here,” Weiss told reporters that night. “But that’s a big man, and so I just felt I’ve gotta get him off his feet because he’s gonna hurt somebody. And so that was my instinct, just to get in there and get Jorge off his feet, yeah, because he was on a warpath.”
Weiss is way past all of that now, but the moment inspired the Braves.
“We could not get enough of it,” said Braves reliever Tyler Kinley, who pitched for Colorado from 2020 through part of 2025 before he was traded to Atlanta. “Guys rally around different things throughout the year, and that, for us, was huge. Guys already knew that Walt was tough and a bad dude.
“I mean, everyone knows that Soler is a big dude, and he’s not a gentle giant. To see Walt zone in on Soler, find him, and then take him down and end the whole scrum was amazing. Guys were already ready to run through a brick wall for Walt.”
Walt Weiss, manager of the Colorado Rockies shakes hands with Rafael Betancourt after their win over the New York Mets April 16, 2013 at Coors Field. The Colorado Rockies defeated the New York Mets 8-4 in the first of a double header. (File Photo By John Leyba/The Denver Post)
An evolution from player to skipper
Weiss’ baseball card is impressive. He played 14 years in the majors and was the American League rookie of the year in 1988 with the Oakland A’s, with whom he won three pennants and the 1989 World Series. He played shortstop for the Rockies from 1994-97. He was an All-Star with the Braves in 1998 at age 34.
After retiring as a player in 2000, Weiss served as a special assistant and instructor with the Rockies from 2002 to 2008. He managed the Rockies for four seasons (2013-16) and was Atlanta’s bench coach for eight years before replacing Brian Snitker as manager.
Former Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd hired Weiss to replace Jim Tracy after the Rockies’ 98-loss season in 2012. The Rockies went 283-365 under Weiss, and while owner Dick Monfort wanted him to continue after the 2016 season, Weiss resigned because of his strained relationship with Jeff Bridich, the GM who replaced O’Dowd.
The Rockies improved to 75-87 under Weiss in 2016, and many of the building blocks were in place for the 2017-18 Rockies teams that made the playoffs under Bud Black, most notably an infield that included third baseman Nolan Arenado, shortstop Trevor Story, and second baseman DJ LeMahieu, as well as All-Star outfielders Charlie Blackmon and Carlos Gonzalez.
“The circumstances are worlds apart,” Weiss said Friday when asked what he learned managing the Rockies. “The first time I did this, back here, I had been out of the game for four years, which is an eternity in this league. I mean, I was coaching high school football (at Regis Jesuit) when I interviewed for that job.
“I had a lot to learn, had to learn on the fly. But I had a good staff around me that helped me through those early years.”
Weiss has evolved a lot since then.
“I saw the game probably more through a player’s eyes back then, because that’s what I leaned on,” he said. “In some ways, that’s good. In some ways, probably not so good.
“I was the bench coach (with the Braves) for eight years, so I know this team very well. The trust has been established. But this is a very different scenario. This is a team that’s built to win, right now. I’m certainly more comfortable in my own skin, in this role, right now.”
The Braves beat the Rockies 8-6 in comeback fashion on Friday night and entered Saturday’s game at Coors with a big-league-best 23-10 record and were 9-0-1 in series this season.
A hard-nosed ‘father figure’
Weiss steered his club through some early-season turbulence.
During spring training, the Braves lost right-hand Spencer Strider to an oblique strain. He’s scheduled to make his season debut on Sunday against the Rockies. Starters Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep went down with elbow injuries and have yet to return.
Catcher Sean Murphy was sidelined with a hip labral tear, and shortstop Ha-Seong Kim tore his finger tendon. Both players are expected to return in the next few weeks. But outfielder Jurickson Profar was suspended for the second time for PEDs and is done for the season.
“Walt is very consistent with what he does, and he puts a good, positive outlook on everything for everybody,” said Atlanta utility infielder Kyle Farmer, who played for the Rockies last season. “He’s a very good communicator and checks in on guys all the time.
“For a bench guy like myself, he lets me know what’s going on. Our roster is loaded with talent, but for a guy like me who doesn’t play every day, he’s been very considerate and approachable.”
Utility player Mauricio Dubon, who hit a three-run triple in the eighth inning against Colorado on Friday, called Weiss a “father figure.”
“Walt’s ability to relate to guys and speak the players’ language is unique,” Kinley said. “He shows up every day and is diligent about what he does. He has an intention for everything he does. He understands it’s not an easy game, and he knows how to communicate with guys. He’s amazing at that.
“And Walt walks the walk. He’s in there, busting his butt with us in the weight room. He’s intense, and guys feed off that.”
As a player, Weiss was hard-nosed, so he expects the same from those who play for him. He also expects them to be on time, work hard, and hustle — all of the time. Arenado found out about that when he played for Weiss.
In July 2014, Arenado was benched after jogging to first base on a groundout against the Pirates at Coors Field. Arenado had failed to hustle up the first-base line several times in the minors, and Weiss wasn’t about to accept that in the majors.
“You don’t know how a player is going to take that, especially someone as good as Nolan,” Weiss told The Denver Post in 2019. “It can go either way. Managers and catchers almost always show up to the ballpark earlier than the players, but the next day, there’s Nolan, waiting in my office. I really didn’t know how that was going to go. Was he mad because he thought I had embarrassed him?”
“But then Nolan actually thanked me for benching him. Imagine that? He was there early to tell me how much he appreciated me pulling him out of the game.”
When Arenado was feuding with Bridich near the end of his career in Colorado, one of the people he sought counsel from was Weiss, who has a sterling reputation throughout the game.
“One of the finest men I’ve ever known in baseball,” Dugger said. “One of my favorite people — ever.”
Colorado Rockies Vinny Castilla, New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi, Dante Bichette and Walt Weis all pose for a photo during batting practice May 7, 2013 at Coors Field. (File photo By John Leyba/The Denver Post)
Vinny Castilla, a member of the famed Blake Street Bombers and a Rockies special assistant for the past 21 years, has known Weiss for 32 years. During Weiss’s first managerial stint, Castilla saw signs pointing to success if Weiss ever got another gig.
“He’s a players’ manager, and he’s going to do whatever he can to protect them,” Castilla said. “He’s a very nice man, and I love him, and I miss him. But he’s a black belt, so don’t mess with him.”
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