Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Travis Snider (L) and infielder Aaron Hill chase fly balls at the team's MLB baseball spring training facility in Dunedin, Florida February 20, 2010. REUTERS/Fred ThornhillFRED THORNHILL/Reuters
In a young life that has already seen its share of tragic events, Travis Snider always had baseball to fall back on.
But when the skills that blasted him through the minors and into a Toronto Blue Jays uniform eroded after a fast start last season, he was left an angry baseball player.
"I went through some mental struggles … from a baseball standpoint, that I never had to deal with," Snider said yesterday, an early arrival at the Blue Jays spring training facility (the first official practice for position players is not until Friday).
"I never had to deal with that kind of failure."
The 22-year-old outfielder is certain he has learned from his mistakes and is ready to move on in the face of starting 2010 at Triple-A Las Vegas.
"We still think that Travis is a big part of our future," Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos said in a recent interview. "But he is not guaranteed a spot on our team heading into the season. He has to come into camp and earn it."
Snider said he has no problem with the GM's challenge.
"It was the same I think I had last year," he said. "I feel like we've got some good competition in camp. We've got a great group of young guys, that we're all kind of in this together, on-the-bubble guys that really have to come out here and prove ourselves in spring training and early in the season.
"And I think it's great."
Belting mammoth home runs and driving in runs accelerated Snider's rush through the minor leagues.
The Blue Jays' No. 1 draft choice out of high school in 2006, Snider breezed through three levels of minor-league baseball in 2008. And when he made his big-league debut at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 29 that year, Snider was the youngest position player in Major League Baseball (20 years 209 days).
He made the American League team's roster out of spring training last year as the everyday left fielder, and many were heralding him as the next great Blue Jays slugger after a blazing start in which he belted three home runs in his first seven games to complement a .321 batting average.
But the magic wouldn't last, as pitchers quickly deduced the rookie could not resist taking hacks at off-speed stuff out of the strike zone. Snider's average plummeted to .211 over the next 23 games, with 19 strikeouts and zero homers.
Last May, a shaken and an admittedly angry Snider was dispatched back to Triple-A to get his game in order.
It was the first time he had experienced consistent failure in baseball, and Snider said he was stubborn accepting instruction from the his coaches.
"Adjustments at this level are key to being successful, and I stopped making those adjustments the end of April, the beginning of May," he said. "Even for a while in Triple-A, I was reluctant to listen to some of the people. They were trying to help me and you kind of back yourself into a corner.
"And somebody who is as strong-minded personality as myself, you go out there and you try and think you know everything."
Snider learned early on the cruel twists life can deliver.
Over a two-year span, he endured the deaths of a grandfather and a grandmother, and his mother, Patty, was killed in a car accident in 2007.
In 2002, when Snider was 14, his mother lapsed into a two-week coma that led to major liver problems. It disrupted the Snider family and led to his parent's divorce. The teenager developed anger issues and underwent anger-management counselling.
Snider will now say it's all just a part of growing up, as was last year's struggles on the diamond.
"I'm still young, and you try and learn as much as you can at a young age to prepare yourself for some of these things that I, honestly, wasn't prepared for," he said. "I think going into it now you understand how blessed and how thankful we really need to be as athletes [at]having this opportunity and not taking that for granted.
"I wouldn't say I took it for granted, but sometimes you lose you're perspective on where you're really at, and what kind of opportunity you have."