How Hank Aaron Helped Brian Snitker
This article was written by Dan Schlossberg
This article was published in Henry Aaron book essays (2026)
Henry Aaron and Brian Snitker at February 2020 dedication of “Hank Aaron Way” at the Braves’ spring training facility. (Courtesy of Kevin Liles/Atlanta Braves)
To Brian Snitker, who spent 49 years with the Braves organization, Hank Aaron was a boss, mentor, and friend.
A minor-league catcher who couldn’t hit, Snitker still caught Aaron’s attention as a man with the brain for baseball even if he lacked the brawn.
The retired home-run king was farm director for Ted Turner’s Braves when he had to release Snitker – along with his son Lary – after he saw they had no future as players.
He persuaded Lary to continue his education at the same time he persuaded Snitker to stay in uniform – as a minor-league coach.
“I went to DeKalb College to work out and saw him walking around,” Snitker said years later. “That was his first year back in Atlanta. I was in Double A and threw a lot of batting practice. He called me one day and wanted me to go to Rookie League in Bradenton, Florida, to work with the club as a pitching coach.”
That was in 1980, four years after Aaron’s 23-year career as an active player came to an end with the Milwaukee Brewers. Turner brought him back to Atlanta as director of the team’s minor-league system. Hiring and firing were two key facets of the job.
Hank Aaron, who had played for dozens of coaches and managers, saw something he liked in Snitker.
Two years later, he made him a manager, starting him in Class A at Anderson, South Carolina.
The rest is history.
“He gave me the ability to develop young players,” the baseball lifer remembered. He didn’t micro-manage. He trusted [the men he hired]. “Every one of us wanted to do a very good job for Hank. Just the fact that he trusted us to do that job was huge.”
A true organization man, Snitker stayed in the Atlanta organization for his entire career, coaching and managing in the majors and minors according to team needs. He concluded his career in uniform with a 10-year stint as manager of the Braves, winning six straight National League East titles and the team’s second World Series championship in Atlanta.
Aaron remained a mentor and adviser throughout. Whenever there was a difficult situation or a personnel problem, Snitker called to ask his opinion.
“Anytime I called, he answered the phone,” Snitker said. “Anything he could do for me, my family. He was always a big advocate of mine and pulled for me. Anytime anything good happened in my career, he would call to congratulate me.”
Snitker, like Aaron before him, was a student of the game who learned on the job. He coached under Bobby Cox, who landed in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014, and parlayed that experience into victory in the 2021 World Series. He also forged a strong working relationship with the club’s president of baseball operations, Alex Anthopoulos, despite their 20-year age difference. Snitker, pushing 70, was the oldest manager in the National League when he transitioned from field manager to Anthopoulos adviser after the 2025 season.
With continuity a constant theme in Atlanta’s continued success, Snitker recommended bench coach Walt Weiss as his successor. Counting Cox, Weiss is only the third manager of the Braves since the team started its record streak of 14 consecutive division crowns in 1991. Fredi Gonzalez and Snitker are the others.
Snitker succeeded by adopting Aaron’s stoic approach to all things baseball. Never too high or too low, he embraced the “serenity now” concept popularized by the hit sitcom Seinfeld. Had Aaron realized his one-time wish to become a major-league manager, he too might have stood in the dugout like a silent sentinel, watching and directing the action without a modicum of obvious emotion.
Hall of Fame pitcher Don Drysdale once said Aaron was so relaxed at the plate that he looked as if he was falling asleep between pitches.
Actually, Aaron was wide awake – just as Snitker would be years later in a different role.
Without Hank Aaron’s help, however, the name Brian Snitker would be just a small footnote to baseball history.
DAN SCHLOSSBERG is the author, co-author, or editor of 43 baseball books, including biographies of Hank Aaron written 50 years apart and collaborations with Ron Blomberg, Al Clark, and Milo Hamilton. The former AP sportswriter, who has covered baseball since he graduated from Syracuse University in 1969, has been the weekend editor of the Here’s the Pitch newsletter since its creation in 2020 and the national baseball writer for forbes.com since June 2018. A SABR member since 1981, he is also an award-winning travel writer and founder of the North American Travel Journalists Association. He is a lifelong resident of Northern New Jersey.
SOURCES
All quotations are from Dan Schlossberg, Home Run King: The Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron (New York: Sports Publishing, 2024), 210.