Ronnie Snitker — the wife of Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker — will not be in attendance at Citizens Bank Park next Thursday when the team plays the Philadelphia Phillies on Opening Day.
In fact, in a recent interview on 92.9 The Game in Atlanta, Snitker said that his wife made a vow after last postseason that she will never attend a game at Citizens Bank Park again.
“It is Philly by far, where we’re going, that is by far the most hostile crowd,” Snitker said. “I know after the playoffs last year, my wife’s like, ‘I don’t care what you guys are doing, I’m not going back there’.”
In each of the last two postseasons, the Phillies have upset the NL East Champion Braves in the NLDS, finishing off both series wins in front of raucous crowds at Citizens Bank Park. Without getting into any specifics, Snitker continued to suggest that the families of Braves players and coaches felt unsafe during Games 3 and 4 of the NLDS a year ago.
“It’s rough there,” Snitker added. “And they don’t seem to mind, either, quite honestly. It was rough on them all last year to the point where it was concerning.”
In response to one of the hosts vaguely suggesting that he’s known fans who have had unpleasant experiences wearing road jerseys to Phillies home games, Snitker said he’s instructed his family members not to wear Braves clothing. He also insinuated that the Phillies don’t do a good enough job policing crowds at Citizens Bank Park.
“I tell her don’t wear anything with Braves on it either because you’re a marked person,” Snitker continued. “And that home team, they don’t seem to mind that [it’s] our wives — it’s our wives, girlfriends, and families. You know what I mean? Inappropriate stuff being said around the children and things like that and nobody seems to care.”
The reality when you have 45,000+ fans in a stadium, there will be some who cross the line and make inappropriate comments. No one should defend that. The families of players often sit together, particularly at playoff games. Might some Phillies fans have figured out they were sitting near people connected to the Braves and said inappropriate things? Sure. And if they weren’t corrected — or ejected by security, depending on the severity of what they said — then that’s a failure of stadium security.
But it can often be difficult to decide what’s good-natured ribbing between fanbases of two division rivals, and what is over the top. Snitker didn’t given any examples, so it’s hard to know what category this falls in. If Phillies fans were just taunting Braves fans or families when things went south for Atlanta in the postseason for the second consecutive season, well, that’s part of going to any sporting event, particularly in the north eastern portion of the country.
It just feels like if there was anything truly heinous, someone would have recorded it. Until then — or until Snitker gets more specifics in his accusations — you’re left to wonder if they’re being a little too sensitive.
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