HOUSTON — No matter the outcome at the end of the 2021 World Series, the Snitker family will have a World Series title.
It will be father versus son with Braves manager Brian Snitker in one dugout and his son Troy Snitker, the Astros hitting coach, in the other.
Channel 2′s Alison Mastrangelo asked Troy if he ever imagined that he would one day face his dad in the biggest series of their careers.
“To be in the Big Leagues at the same time while he’s a Major League manager and I’m in the Big Leagues here, just that alone would be very special,” Troy said. “Past our wildest dreams to get to this point to both win the pennant. To get the face-off, it’s something that we never could have dreamed of as a family.”
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Brian Snitker has been part of the Braves organization for four decades, so Troy grew up in metro Atlanta.
He attended Brookwood High School, played college baseball in Georgia and was later selected by the Braves in the 19th round of the 2011 draft.
[World Series schedule: Here’s when the Atlanta Braves will play Houston Astros]
After his minor league career ended, he joined the Astros organization. Troy started at the AA level in Corpus Christi before he was added to the Astros coaching staff in 2018.
“I said, you’re going to sell yourself. I can help get you in the door, but he didn’t want me to do anything. He knew the Braves would hire him or Dayton would if he did something with the Royals,” Brian Snitker said.
“He sent out all the letters. He taught himself Spanish through the Rosetta Stone and was attracted to the Astros.”
Troy said one of the biggest lessons he learned from his father was the value of a good work ethic.
“Just he’s been through so much in his career where -- there were plenty of times where he could have easily decided to go do something else, but he stuck with it. I’d say his hard work is the biggest thing that I try to emulate with him,” he said.
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Both Brian and Troy understand the special moment they get to share, but the person who will probably have the hardest time this series is the matriarch of the Snitker family.
“We’ve been Braves people for so long. When we went to Houston to visit Troy and put on Houston clothes, it was kind of weird,” Ronnie Snitker told Channel 2 after the Braves NLCS win. “I don’t know about the split jacket thing with Houston on one side and Braves on the other. But I’ll be there with both of my boys.”
As for who’s in charge of getting their family in the seats, Troy Snitker told his dad he’s on the hook for tickets.
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