Snider comes home

SEATTLE — Professional baseball has taken Travis Snider a lot of places since he became a first-round pick following his senior year at Jackson High School.

This week, finally, it brought him home. Snider, now the starting left fielder for the Toronto Blue Jays, played in Safeco Field this w

eek for the first time since he helped lead the Timberwolves to a state title here in 2006.

And as was the case in May of 2006, a large contingent of Snider’s friends and family members made the drive to Seattle to watch the Blue Jays take on the Mariners for the three-game series that ends today.

“It’s been special,” Snider said. “It’s been a lot of years of hard work, and a lot of great people, friends and family in this community, have helped me get to where I am now, and to be able to come home and play in front of all of them, it’s special for all of us. I’m glad they could be here to share it with me.”

When Snider says these are the people that helped him get to where he is now, he doesn’t just mean to the starting lineup of a major league team. Snider also credits them with helping him mature into the person he is today while overcoming some incredibly challenging times. Already Snider had dealt with more than his fair share of pain and loss by the time he signed with the Blue Jays in 2006, then the cruelest blow of all came in the fall of 2007 when his mother, Patty, died in a car accident.

But despite any painful memories that could potentially come with a return trip to the Northwest, Snider is thrilled to be sharing this week with loved ones. Already he has had a handful of friends, family and teammates to his Mill Creek home to barbeque, and he’ll stay behind tonight to spend more time at home while the rest of the team travels to Boston (Toronto is off Thursday).

“Those are all the people that helped me get through that, and that helped me even before that as I’ve gone through other ups and downs in my life,” said Snider, 23. “These are the people that I’ve leaned on for my entire life to help keep me on the right path and keep me humble and focused. Just being able to be around them is something I cherish every moment when I’m able to be home and spend time with family and friends, no matter what the circumstances are.”

Prior to the start of Tuesday’s game, Denne Snider sat behind home plate watching his son and the rest of the Blue Jays take batting practice. This was a moment he thought they would have last season, but a wrist injury kept Snider out of action when the Blue Jays came to Seattle. But an extra year of waiting has only made this week more special for Denne and the rest of group of fans that, for this week anyway, were rooting against the home team.

And just as much as Snider credits his family getting him here, his family credits baseball for helping him overcome the off-field adversity.

“As his dad, at that age I’m not with him night and day, so he had to do a lot of soul searching on his own,” Denne said. “The influence of people that are around him, that was a big thing, because if I wasn’t with him, he was playing baseball, and those guys … That’s been a big help having the influence of good people. Without that, mentally he might not have made it where he needed to go. That’s been a big deal, a big deal. Everybody, including the Blue Jay organization, has been good to him. Just a ton of people have had a positive influence.”

As for Snider’s time on the field, he’s had his struggles despite a quick rise to the major leagues as a 20-year old three seasons ago. He showed promise that year as a late-season call-up, batting .301 with a .466 slugging percentage in 24 games. Injuries and inconsistent play have kept him from playing a full season at the major league level since, but he isn’t letting that discourage him even as he has gotten off to a slow start at the plate in 2011.

“It was quite a rise through the minor leagues, definitely on the fast track,” said Snider, who still calls Mill Creek home in the offseason. “I got there at a very young age and dealt with some successes and some failures over the last three years. Looking at this season, you try to take the short-term successes and failures the same way, because there are going to be times when you’re hot and there are going to be times when you’re grinding a little bit, so you’ve got to make sure you’re keeping an even-keeled personality and mindset and going into it with the right attitude.”

As someone who was forced to grow up a lot faster than most young men his age — and particularly most professional ballplayers — keeping the right attitude should not be a problem for Snider. Especially not with so many loved ones behind him.

“To have a lot of those (high school) teammates and family and friends in the stands this series, and having them over and hanging out, and just getting back to my roots, it’s really what’s kept me going in my life through baseball and life challenges,” he said. “The people that support you and care about you no matter what, I’m very thankful to have them in my life.”

Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com.