EVERETT – Like a lot of little kids, Brent Lillibridge and Travis Snider dreamed of playing professional baseball.
The difference is, their dreams came true.
Lillibridge and Snider, graduates of Mill Creek’s Jackson High School, were both high baseball draft picks, are both coming off successful minor-league seasons in 2006, and are both on paths that could put them in the major leagues in the next few years.
Now they want to share their baseball knowledge with youngsters who have the same dreams.
Lillibridge and Snider have been hired to spend their offseasons teaching hitting and other fundamentals at the Everett Baseball Academy, run by Everett Community College baseball coach Levi Lacey. Between now and when they head to spring training, Lillibridge and Snider will be instructors at the Rage Cage hitting facility in south Everett several days each week.
“When I retire from baseball, whenever that is, my goal is to be a Division I (college) baseball coach,” said the 23-year-old Lillibridge, a 2002 Jackson graduate who went on to play three years at the University of Washington. “I’ve always thought that was one of my callings, to be a coach at the end. So (my desire is) to learn how to communicate with kids and to be able to teach them how to play the game.”
“Obviously, the dream for both of us is to continue our careers and hopefully make it to the big leagues as soon as possible,” agreed the 19-year-old Snider, who was drafted in the first round by the Toronto Blue Jays (No. 14 overall) last spring, shortly after his Jackson graduation. “But down the road we both know our careers are going to end. Being a Division I or professional coach is something I want to get into, because I know I’m not going to be able to walk away from the sport of baseball completely.”
They have students who are baseball beginners all the way up to accomplished high school players. Many realize that Lillibridge and Snider are celebrities, but others do not.
“Some of the kids don’t really know who I am, other than maybe their parents knowing the name,” said Lillibridge, who was drafted in the fourth round in 2005 by the Pittsburgh Pirates. “But other kids do. Maybe the older kids who have been around and read the newspapers.”
Though some are slightly star-struck, “we break that ice pretty quick,” Lillibridge said. “We say, ‘We’ re here for you. We want to teach you.’ “
Lacey, who coaches baseball at several levels in addition to his Everett CC team, says there is an obvious benefit to having Lillibridge and Snider as instructors.
“They’re community figures,” Lacey explained, “and they can talk to these kids and say, ‘You can play baseball in the Northwest and still make it. You don’ t have to be from California to do that.’ They have name recognition as players who are already in the position these kids want to be in. And when they relate to the younger kids, they can say, ’ This is what I did on my road.’ “
That road will resume this spring when Lillibridge and Snider head off for another season of pro ball. For Lillibridge, it will be his third in the Pirates chain. It will be Snider’s second season in the Blue Jays farm system, and his first full season after a short season of rookie ball.
Major league timetables are difficult to predict, but both players say they hope to reach the majors in another few seasons.
Will they make it? “I think both of us believe that,” Snider said. “I had a pretty good first season and Brent’s had two really good seasons. But we also both understand that those (seasons) are over and done with. The only thing we have to worry about now is our careers ahead of us.
“But hopefully some day we’ ll be playing against each other, under the lights in front of 20,000 or 30,000 people,” he said.
For the rest of this fall and winter, though, they are instructors. They not only teach hitting, they share their dreams with youngsters who have dreams of their own.
Coaching is fun, Snider said, because “you get to work with these kids, and they look at you and they admire you and they listen to you. You can remember the first time a kid came in to work with you and maybe his mechanics were off. But then you see a kid respond to what you’ re trying to tell him. You see him actually make those changes and you watch him progress.
“That’s the kind of feeling that helps you feel good when you go home from your job every night,” he said. “You’re able to give him something that helps him with his careers. You know you’ve helped a kid out.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
