When did having a bench coach become a thing? Was it always a thing? The first time I remember a bench coach being named was when Joe Torre took over the Yankees and named former manager Don Zimmer as bench coach.
As I’ve seen it bench coach seems to defined as assistant manager. He’s the advisor and right hand of the manager. The bench coach does not have any other duties such as base coach or hitting coach. So was Zimmer the first?
Bench coaches are a recent commonality.
This role goes back well over a hundred years but such a coach was often called an “Assistant manager” or some other title aside from “Bench coach.” It wasn’t a common thing, though, and managers who wanted someone to discuss strategy with or keep track of information would often rely on trusted veteran players. Casey Stengel would refer to Yogi Berra - who despite his penchant for funny quotes knew a lot about baseball - as “my assistant manager.” The first long term bench coach I can think of was Pete Reiser, who served under Walter Alston with the Dodgers, but I am not sure he was called a bench coach. I don’t think so. anyway, there were some more isolated examples.
What made it really take off was when Don Zimmer became Joe Torre’s bench coach, I believe in 1995 or 1996. The Yankees suddenly won every year and pretty soon every team wanted one. (A bench coach, not necessarily another guy named Don Zimmer.)
While the spread of bench coaches is partially copycatting the Yankees, it does make sense today in a way it did not 60 years ago. There is far, far, far more data available to a team’s coaching staff than used to be the case; way more stats, far more complex and detailed scouting reports. Having another head to help keep track of it all helps.
Yeah that’s what I figured. I was thinking about it because I had read that Wally Backman was fired and or quit as AAA manager for the Mets because he wasn’t promoted to bench coach when it became available and they put in a guy with mostly front office experience. Not your typical Zimmer type.