NORFOLK, VA (WTKR) — Growing up just across the water in Poquoson, Chad Pinder can remember plenty of trips to Harbor Park to see the Norfolk Tides.
There was just one box left unchecked at the ball park for him.
"I never played in this park when I was growing up," Pinder said. "It's pretty crazy that this is the first time I've been out here on this field."
A member of the Rochester Red Wings, the AAA affiliate for the Washington Nationals, Pinder returning to his home area to play his first games inside Harbor Park. In three games of action over the six game series, the former Bull Islander and Virginia Tech standout collected three hits and scored a run.
Upwards of 30 family and friends made the venture to see Pinder play in the series.
"We had a day game on Thursday," Pinder said. "To be able to go home to my parents house in Williamsburg after it, hang out with my kids, have a cookout at the house and take them around the farm. It gives you a little bit of a not baseball season. It's very refreshing."
"He's always been out west with the Oakland A's, so to come here and you only have to drive 30 to 40 minutes, it's great," Chad's father Chris Pinder said. "To see your son out there playing, it's awesome."
Pinder spent the last seven seasons with the Oakland A's, drafted in the second round by the organization in 2013. After the 2022 season, he signed a minor league deal with Cincinnati with a Spring Training invite but was released on March 24. Three days later, he signed a minor league deal with Washington and was assigned to Rochester.
His desire to get back to Major League Baseball is still great but he's learning to approach this season with a new perspective.
"If you look at it as a negative, it can consume you," Pinder said. "Look at it as an opportunity. I'm still 31, I still have a lot more baseball in me."
Time back at home helping reassure that confidence. After Sunday's game against the Tides, the third baseman got plenty of autograph requests, bringing up some childhood memories.
"I remember coming for a field trip one time and Jose Reyes was signing autographs down the right field line," he remembered.
He's batting .237 in 38 plate appearances this season. Pinder's younger brother Chase is also playing AAA baseball for Memphis, while his sister Avery is an outfielder for James Madison University.
"I was telling my wife, we're 57 and still going to baseball games for our kids," Chris said. "It's incredible."
Chad says the biggest takeaway this weekend won't be the hits or fielding plays, but rather the time to take a few moments and be around the people who helped him fall in love with baseball in the first place.
"Being on the West Coast the last few years and not having family there," he said, "it was really cool to have this and being able lto actually spend time with them was awesome."
