PHILADELPHIA — “Hey, Snitker, you (expletive)!” a fan behind the Braves’ dugout at Citizens Bank Park yelled at Braves manager Brian Snitker as he walked out of the dugout and toward batting practice.
Snitker just smiled and continued walking.
Citizens Bank Park is, um, interesting. Raucous is one fitting word. Raucous is another. Visiting teams know what they’re going to get.
When the Braves took batting practice, one kid – who couldn’t have been more than 15 years old – was yelling. His barbs weren’t in poor taste, but had more of a joking feel to them.
He screamed at Matt Olson, telling the Braves’ first baseman that he can’t hit homers to the opposite field.
And at one point, Ronald Acuña Jr. engaged with one fan. Standing on the dugout steps, Acuña playfully went back and forth with a fan.
Orlando Arcia – known around here for the “Atta Boy, Harper” line – relished in the verbal jabs yelled at home as he walked down the dugout steps. One fan screamed, “Atta boy, Arcia!”
“It’s exciting here,” Snitker said. “This is a passionate fan base. There’s a lot of energy of the air. And rightly so. This is a really good club here. These fans, they’re passionate about their team. It’s a fun place to come play, quite honestly, because there is a lot of energy in the air.”
A few Philadelphia reporters showed up to Snitker’s pregame scrum to ask about his recent comments on The Steakhouse, a radio show on 92.9 The Game. He said his wife, Ronnie, didn’t want to come back to Citizens Bank Park after last postseason.
“It’s rough there,” Snitker said on the show. “And they don’t seem to mind, either, quite honestly. It was rough on them all last year, to the point that it was concerning.”
On Friday, a Philadelphia reporter asked Snitker what Ronnie experienced in October.
“I’m not gonna get into all that,” Snitker said. “Let’s talk about today.”
The families of Braves players haven’t had an easy time at this ballpark. The fans here are rabid. The insults can be disrespectful.
The worst part: They’re often directed at families, too.
During Friday’s pregame ceremony, when the teams lined up for the national anthem, the loudest boos went to Snitker, Arcia and Spencer Strider.
But for now, it’s time to focus on baseball.
“It’s exciting. It’s opening day,” Snitker said before the game. “We just had a nice boring spring training, which is a good thing. But you know what, you get to this time of the year, you get over the spring, you come north, there’s energy in the air and you get excited. It’s a beautiful day, it’s awesome. So I think we’re really excited about kicking off the 2024 season.”
Jesse Chavez is back … again
When Snitker saw that the White Sox released Jesse Chavez, did he feel Chavez would be back in Atlanta?
“Yeah, kind of,” Snitker said.
Snitker saw the news on the ticker. He knew what Chavez had meant to the Braves in previous years, especially last season.
“He did really well for us last year,” Snitker said.
Indeed. In 2023, Chavez posted a 1.56 ERA over 34-2/3 innings but sustained a microfracture in his shin that kept him out for months.
Snitker likened Chavez to Adam Duvall, who the Braves signed a couple of weeks ago. Both performed well for the Braves.
“We got good memories of those guys and how well they’ve done,” Snitker said. “Not just the people or the clubhouse guys they are, but how well they’ve performed here.”
Chavez reported to North Port, Florida, on Monday. He threw before the Braves put him on the opening-day roster.
But they didn’t need to see much of him before making him one of their eight relievers.
“It’s just because we know what he’s capable of,” Snitker said. “He stayed back and threw the other day, and we wanted to get him through that and make sure he was OK. And everything checked out, so there wasn’t any reason not to put him on there.”
Braves stayed healthy
During spring training, the Braves dealt with Acuña’s injury scare, but it turned out to be right meniscus irritation that calmed down with a few days of rest. Otherwise, those who made the opening-day roster stayed healthy (as far as we know.)
“I credit the players for coming in in such good shape all the time, quite honestly,” Snitker said. “And it’s tough because we come in and we practice four days, and then we play. It used to be you had 10 days of practice (before a game). Now, this thing’s kind of built where, I remember the first time I did it, I didn’t sleep in December because I was worried about the guys being ready to go. But they do. They come in such good shape.”
