By Woodrow Carroll
The defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves have an opportunity to test themselves this week. Three games the early part of the week with the New York Mets will be followed by four games with the Washington Nationals. Results should reveal Braves’ pennant position.
Brian Snitker, 66, is the Braves’ manager. Despite guiding the club to a World Series championship last season, Snitker is largely unknown. The situation is worth rectifying.
Let us turn back the clock to the 1971 Illinois High School Association (IHSA) baseball State tournament.
In 1971, Illinois conducted a single-class high school baseball tournament and Snitker was a sophomore outfielder for Macon High School, 15 miles south of Decatur in central Illinois. Macon had a good baseball team, however, success in the State tournament was not expected given the brand names in the finals.
In 1970, along came suburban bully Morton East (Cicero) to win the State championship. The 1971 baseball finals were played in Peoria at Bradley University’s Meinen Field. Macon won, 5-0 in game one of the tournament against Nashville. Snitker, a sophomore playing right field, picked up two hits in three at bats.
Macon’s semifinal game with Lane Tech was the stuff of legends. Macon, with its 250 students was against Lane Tech’s all-male 5,200 students.
Macon worked its way to a 6-1 lead entering the bottom of the seventh and final inning. Lane Tech put a scare into the Macon faithful by scoring three runs before Macon put out the fire for a 6-4 victory and a berth in the championship game.
To gauge how good Lane Tech was in that period, the school was in semifinals in both 1970 and 1971 tournaments and was a quarterfinalist in 1972. Lane Tech was the State champion in both 1945 and 1956.
Cinderella in the form of Macon baseball went down to defeat in the championship game in 1971. It was a close final score when Waukegan halted a late Macon rally for a 4-2 victory. As fates would have it, Snitker grounded out to end the game and tournament.
Snitker played college baseball and spent some time as a player in the Braves’ organization, however, it was as a coach and manager that he made his way up the ladder. It was safe to say advancement was slow, but, steady!
Among the places Snicker coached/managed in the Braves farm system, among other stops, was Macon, only this Macon was in Georgia!
When the Braves fired Fredi Gonzalez as manager in May 2016, Snitker was named interim manager. Not long after, Snitker was given the job full time.
Snitker’s first two seasons (2016-2017) managing the Braves ended with sub .500 records. Since then, the Braves have ended up well over .500 on each occasion with last season’s World Series conquest the highlight.
Macon and Blue Mound merged their Illinois school districts in 1994 to create the Macon Meridian School District. The Ironmen have been replaced by the Hawks. The 2009 Hawks were Class 1A State boys basketball champions.
For much of this season, the Braves were well back of the Mets in the National League East Division race. Thanks to an extended period of solid play, the Braves have closed the gap on the Mets to make this week’s action most interesting.
Monday evening this week, the Mets defeated Atlanta, 4-1, however, the Mets’ lead in The NL East was only 2.5 games. Snitker’s team is within striking distance.