Peter Bendix, a Cleveland Heights native and the Miami Marlins' new president of baseball operations, has always loved sports, more specifically Cleveland sports.
He said that this passion originated with the love and support of his late grandmother, Gloria Goldstein, and a passion for the Cleveland Indians (now Guardians) of the mid-1990s, which led him to a career in baseball.
His grandmother was "one of my biggest champions and supporters," Bendix said, adding they spent a lot of time together attending sporting events during his youth.
"My grandmother was the main one who would take me to Indians games, to Cavs games, to Cleveland Crunch games," he said. "We went to a bunch of those and she would take me to all of my baseball practices and tennis practices. She was the primary person who took me there and supported me and was a big cheerleader for me."
Looking back on Goldstein and what she meant to him, Bendix said he believes she would be proud of the path he's taken. He also said she wouldn't be surprised by the success he's had.
"I think on one hand, she would say that it's incredible and amazing and surreal, and on the other hand, she would tell you that she's not surprised that I was always so invested and passionate about baseball that I was able to make a career out of it," he said.
Bendix noted that his passion is tied to the tremendous success the Indians had in the mid-1990s.
“When I was 10 years old, the Indians made it to the World Series, and that was when Jacobs Field had just opened," he recalled. "Those teams were incredible that we were selling out every single game, and I think that served as probably the foundation for wanting to work in baseball.”
Strength in numbers
The path to running the Marlins didn't just begin with a love of baseball and the support of his grandmother. Bendix said he also had an interest in the statistics, which are an integral part of the game.
"I got very into the statistics and would come downstairs in the morning, and my dad was downstairs in the kitchen and I would ask for the sports page, and I would sit there and scour the box scores and read the sports page, not just for baseball, but for every sport, every morning," he recalled. "I think that just informed my interest in baseball, the way that I look at the game, and really just my passion for the game."
It was Bendix's knack for statistics, more specifically sabermetrics, which use statistical analysis to evaluate baseball players, that got him noticed by the Tampa Bay Rays. The team offered him an internship in 2009 based, in part, on his research on the topic as a student at Tufts University. Smaller market teams with lower payrolls, like the Rays and Oakland Athletics, have historically used such sabermetrics to successfully compete with teams that have more money.
Leading with kindness
Bendix said central to his success is his belief that caring about others is an important part of being a leader.
“Some of the core leadership tenets I believe in strongly are kindness, humility and logic and understanding — that if people don't feel cared about, they don't really care what you know, but also once they do feel cared about, that can lead to really good decisions and really good outcomes," he explained.
Bendix said he saw many examples of this during his time with the Rays, including the way Erik Neander, the team’s current president of baseball operations, conducted himself.
“How much he cares, how he treats people and puts them in positions to succeed, it's something that I've really tried to emulate," Bendix said. "His leadership style is something that I aspire to.”
Another mentor was the late Bart Braun, a former Rays scout.
“He welcomed me to go out and see players with him, and not only welcomed me, but made me feel welcome," Bendix said. "I would take advantage of this and see local games, professional games, whatever, and just try to shut up and listen.”
Bendix said Braun was so good that he could tell if a pitcher had major league talent after just a few pitches. It took just four or five pitches from the late José Fernández for Braun to know the future Marlins star was going to reach the big leagues, he said.
Fernández earned two MLB All-Star selections and the 2013 National League Rookie of the Year award through four seasons before his tragic death in a 2016 boating crash.
Bendix spent 15 years with the Rays and was eventually named the team's general manager before Miami hired him in November 2023.
In an odd twist, the Marlins (called the Florida Marlins until 2012) were the ones who defeated Bendix's beloved Indians in the 1997 World Series. Bendix said this doesn't phase him.
"Once I started working in the industry, my previous fandom, it's compartmentalized into a different portion of my life," he said. "I have really fond memories of being an Indians fan, but as soon as you start pouring your everything into a different team that you're working for... it just disappears. It's amusing to me that I'm working for the team that, in '97 beat my favorite team, but beyond being kind of a quirky, amusing thing, it doesn't really impact things now."
In fact, Bendix said the challenges and disappointments he faced as a Cleveland sports fan helped mold him into the person he is today.
Shaped by Cleveland sports
“Growing up in Cleveland helped shape my view and my identity about being able to maybe overcome the odds," Bendix said. "Having that chip on my shoulder and wanting to prove people wrong and wanting to overcome those long odds, I think that drives me every day.”
He added that, despite falling short of winning a championship, the Indians meant so much to the city.
"They were an event, they were exciting," Bendix said. "They were involved in the community. They were an embodiment of a lot of the revitalization of Cleveland in a lot of ways."
He added his experiences as a kid with the Indians showed what baseball can mean for a community and for families.
"I learned that baseball can be a hugely meaningful impact in somebody's life," Bendix said. "It can be an impact for good, regardless of whether you win or lose at the end of the day. It's something that brings people together, gives them a common knowledge to talk about, common experiences, positive or negative, to celebrate or commiserate — bonds between, you know, fathers and sons, all of that romantic stuff. It's true. I experienced it. I saw it firsthand."
Bendix said he wants to create the same experience for kids in Miami.
"We want to be in the race," he said. "We want to be playing those important games every single year and hopefully starting to instill those experiences and those memories into the 12-year-old kids who are watching the game now, that September, October baseball is really, really fun."
