Last year during spring training, Braves third base coach Brian Snitker surprised a young soldier from Conyers and friend of the family with a visit to the Braves dugout shortly before he deployed to Afghanistan. Snitker showed him around and introduced him to Dale Murphy and Bobby Cox.
On Friday night before the Braves played the Mets, that soldier – Lt. Eric Bagley – surprised Snitker back. Four months after returning home from his deployment, he came to Turner Field to present Snitker with an American flag he and his unit carried on their armored truck during more than 150 missions in southern Afghanistan.
“Just to say thank you to Mr. Snitker,” said Bagley, 25, who is now stationed at Ft. Stewart in Savannah. “The level of support they showed my family - and from what I’ve heard the support they’ve showed the military in general - I was very touched by it.”
Snitker didn’t know Bagley was even coming to the game. Manager Fredi Gonzalez got Snitker and the rest of the coaches onto the field about an hour before the game, where Bagley was waiting in his dress blues with an American flag folded and encased in glass.
“That’s the greatest gift I’ve ever gotten,” Snitker said.
Snitker’s wife Ronnie had taught at Craig Elementary in Lawrenceville with Bagley’s mother-in-law. The Snitkers had been keeping tabs on him throughout his deployment.
“I’m just glad you’re home safe,” Snitker told Bagley as he shook his hand.
New defibrillator
It just so happened the Braves had installed a new defibrillator in the visiting clubhouse two weeks ago – the same one Nationals trainer Lee Kuntz and assistant John Hsu used Wednesday afternoon to resuscitate a man who suffered an apparent heart attack at Turner Field. They attended to him until paramedics arrived.
Reuben Porras, 61, of Newnan, who was working as a cameraman for MLB Network, died later that night at an Atlanta area hospital, according to the Nationals. But the defibrillator gave him a fighting chance.
The Braves keep two defibrillators in the home clubhouse, one in a permanent location and one in a trunk which they take on the road with them. Visiting teams carry defibrillators as well, as the Nationals had, but the newly-installed one was closer to a media workroom near the visiting weight room where the man collapsed.
