In 2021, an unlikely man led an unlikely team on an unlikely run. It’s the stuff that movies are made from, and it’s about our Atlanta Braves.
As we’ve gone through the three prior managers that have brought World Series titles to the Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta Braves, there have been characteristics about each man that have stood out.
George Stallings… a brief major league career with a long run as Braves manager and one extraordinary run with his club during the Summer of 1914. He was the innovator who made platoon players into an offensive force.
Fred Haney… by far the most accomplished major leaguer with a career bWAR of seven seasons of 9.8 (2.6 per 162-game season). Even so, he only played in 622 games, yet was a fiery motivator at times who tried to get the best out of his players during a total of 10 years running major league clubs.
His task was to bring together an extremely talented set of players and bring out a killer instinct that could not only win, but win it all. They did in 1957.
Bobby Cox… the player’s manager who brought out the best in his players by having their backs at all times while maintaining accountability behind the scenes.
Cox is one of twelve Braves managers who have been granted membership in Baseball’s Hall of Fame and he easily stands alone with the longest tenure, the most wins, most division titles, most pennants, and the most playoff appearances. But somhow, you might have expected that from him.
Cox took teams to the playoffs in 15 seasons with one World Series title. Our final manager in this series managed that with just his 4th playoff team and 1st time in the Fall Classic.
His name is Brian Snitker, but it might as well be Walter Mitty.
Atlanta Braves Manager Brian Snitker
Walter Mitty was a fictional character created by author James Thurber in a 1939 New Yorker article. That day-dreaming character of fantastic feats later found his way into a book (1942) and two movies (1947 with Danny Kaye and a remake with Ben Stiller in 2013).
We tend to gravitate to the unlikely hero, the underdog, the survivor, the one who prevails by continuing to plod on when all around him is disintegrating into chaos.
Peter Sellers once had a hit movie called “Being There” about a simpleton gardener named Chauncy who ended up becoming President of the United States despite himself. We all know the story of Forrest Gump, too. Underachievers who achieved marvelous things… at least in movie lore.
The difference here is that Brian Snitker is no simpleton. And what he’s done actually happened in real life. But he is probably as surprised as anyone else that he’s here. It’s really hard not to like someone with the kind of “aw shucks” attitude Snitker conveys.
Of the four managers in this series, Snitker was easily the worst baseball player as a professional, reaching the AAA level for all of 6 games and 13 plate appearances with the Richmond Braves in 1978.
Overall, he slogged through just 4 seasons as a catcher in 7 cities for 236 games, a .254 batting average, and a quite respectable 23 homers with 112 RBI and .706 OPS.
All with the Braves… always with the Braves.
Maybe it was a superior recognition of talent that made Hank Aaron notice that he might excel as a coach or manager instead. Maybe just being in the wrong place at the right time. Either way, once his playing career ended, his coaching saga picked up almost immediately.
Snitker started as a roving instructor. He then managed in Anderson (S.Carolina), Durham, Macon, Myrtle Beach, Greenville, Mississippi, Richmond… virtually every city the Braves had ever occupied in those years.
Starting in 2007, the native of Decatur, Illinois finally made it to the majors… as a third base coach under Bobby Cox. He stayed in that role until 2013, when a shake-up sent him to manage as AAA Gwinnett.
Less than three years later, that shakeup of jobs at the major league level proved to be ineffective, and Snitker was the choice to replace Fredi Gonzalez on a club that was now in full rebuild mode.
Year after year, though, Brian Snitker ended up being the choice to stick around as his Atlanta Braves continued to rise up around him.
Freddie Freeman. Dansby Swanson. Ronald Acuna. Ozzie Albies. Austin Riley. Max Fried. Mike Soroka. Ian Anderson. Prospects continued to blossom and then excel in the majors.
The 2018 season arrived. The Braves were the unlikely winners of the NL East. The Dodgers ended that run fairly quickly.
2019 saw the Braves win again, only to lose a series lead to the Cardinals.
2020 became a breakthrough year as they took the heavily favored Dodgers to the brink before sparkling defense and some young nerves stopped the young Braves with LA going on to the title.
2021 began with high hopes, though this story could not be written with an easy sail through the season.
The Braves suffered multiple major injuries: Ronald Acuna out in early June; Mike Soroka out before he could even get restarted. Then there was the Ozuna arrest. Potentially 3 significant contributors… all out for the year.
Oh, and then there was the pair of centerfielders who couldn’t hit their own weight.
At that point, Snitker’s Braves couldn’t even get themselves above the .500 mark, let alone think about winning their division.
Sure… GM Alex Anthopoulos found some additional bats to use, but how could any one or two of these replace Acuna and Ozuna? Snitker was tasked with figuring out how to use 5 new players (Heredia, Pederson, Rosario, Soler, and Duvall) to form an entirely new outfield.
The run finally happened. The Braves took out the lingering Phillies while Washington sold off most of their useful assets, the Mets imploded (stop me if you’ve heard that one before), and Miami sold their only bats… one of those coming to Atlanta.
Even so, Snitker’s club still had to face formidable pitching from both the Brewers and the “all-in” Dodgers. No matter… Atlanta had fought through strong pitching all year. They kept winning.
The World Series became a different problem: stop an unstoppable offense. For that, Snitker introduced the Astros to Messrs. Morton, Fried, and Anderson… and then guided the club through a mine field after losing their Game 1 starter — Charlie Morton — to a freak-injury broken leg.
But it worked. 6 games. Snitker’s Braves did what they had done all year: bent but didn’t break. They won the World Series despite not outscoring the Astros (overall) until the decisive 6th game.
Brian Snitker is now 66 years old and has a contract to continue managing our Atlanta Braves through 2024. He’s now made it through 5 full seasons — plus a partial 2016 campaign — as a major league manager.
At 441-390, he already ranks 5th all-time for wins as a Braves manager… he’s passed his predecessor Gonzalez and is very likely to pass up Bill McKechnie (1930-37) and Stallings before he’s done.
Snitker also has 22 playoff wins already… that’s second-best behind Bobby Cox among Braves managers.
Nobody would have predicted this. Yet he’s still that guy whose baseball card appeared in the movie “Bull Durham“… so why not?