The city of Macon can now claim to have a hand on a Major League Baseball franchise.
Brian Snitker, a graduate of Macon High who was managing the Atlanta Braves' Triple-A Gwinnett Braves, got the call up to be the big league leader after Fredi Gonzalez was fired.
Snitker was part of the 1971 Macon High baseball team that made a magical run to the state championship game before losing to Waukegan. At the time Macon had an enrollment of 250 students, while Waukegan's was well over 5,000. Sports Illustrated's Chris Ballard wrote a book called One Shot at Forever that chronicled the season.
From 1977 to 1980 Snitker spent time as a player at various minor league levels, and then he transitioned to coaching. He worked his way up through virtually all levels of the minor leagues, and then to the Braves' big league club as a coach from 2007-13. He has been manager of Gwinnett since 2014 and will serve as Atlanta's manager on an interim basis.
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