When the Modesto Roadsters take the field May 19 for Opening Day, even hardcore fans will need time to get to know the players – untested young athletes on a brand-new team in an independent league just introduced to the area.
But many will recognize their manager.
Expect a roar from the crowd when the announcer introduces J.T. Snow.
People appreciate what the elite-fielding first baseman meant to the San Francisco Giants for nine seasons (1997-2005), building a culture that led – not long after, with Snow in a lesser advisory role – to three World Series-winning teams.
Can he bring similar magic to Modesto?
“I can’t guarantee how many wins we’re going to have,” Snow said in an exclusive 90-minute interview covering his exploits with the Giants, his path to Modesto and his approach to developing young players.
“But I can guarantee that our team will be well-coached, and we’ll play hard,” he told The Modesto Focus. “And they will respect the game.”
Respect for the 58-year-old coach will put people in seats, Roadsters management hopes.
“J.T. gives credibility to what we’re trying to do here,” said Michael Neis, the Roadsters’ general manager. “He’s a baseball figure people in this area have a tremendous amount of respect for. So it’s not just ‘a name I recognize,’ but it’s ‘I recognize and respect.’”
Fans respected the ability that Snow, hitting behind the likes of Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent, had to bring them across home plate, time after time, year after year. His reliable arm and uncanny touch with a first baseman’s mitt brought six Gold Gloves. And he helped take the Giants to the 2002 World Series, although they lost to the Anaheim Angels.
“They saw the brand of baseball that J.T. brought” to the Giants, Neis continued. “That resonates with our fans. And when they hear him talk, they understand that we’re going to play a style of ball that’s going to be really fun to watch.”
Message to potential host families in Modesto: ‘You won’t regret it‘
Jack Thomas Snow Jr. was raised with two sisters in Southern California, the children of a retired LA Rams football player. J.T. never played travel baseball like many of today’s youth, and in high school he received all-state honors in three different sports.
“I didn’t even really like baseball in high school,” he said. “I loved basketball and I loved football, because of the crowds Friday night, and the gym was packed,” and baseball crowds often were sparse, he said.
J.T. credits his father for suggesting he might go a long way in baseball. He ended up at the University of Arizona – the only school to offer him a baseball scholarship.
Summer breaks meant summer league baseball, first in Alaska and then Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In both places, Snow stayed with host families, who kept in touch and continued providing moral support on his path to the big leagues.
So he has a message to anyone in Modesto, Turlock, Ceres, Oakdale, Newman, Manteca or anywhere in the region who might consider becoming a Roadsters host family, providing a professional athlete with a bed, family meals and opportunities to bond.
“It’s something that’s fun, and they won’t regret it,” he said.
J.T. Snow’s journey to San Francisco Giants
Signed by the New York Yankees in 1989, Snow was traded to the Angels in 1992 before Brian Sabean, who was responsible for Snow’s start with the Yankees, brought him in 1997 to San Francisco.
Faithful fans recall that the Giants were behind the Mets by three runs in the bottom of the ninth in a 2000 National League division series game – until Snow lit up the stadium with a three-run homer (San Francisco went on to lose in extra innings).
Two years later, the career .268 hitter hit safely in all seven World Series games against the Angels, a rare feat contributing to his respectable career postseason average of .327.
“I saw Barry go through it,” Snow recalled. “He pressed. He’s like, ‘The whole world is watching me.’” And while Snow considers Bonds the greatest lefthanded hitter in history, Bonds’ postseason average stands at .245.
“I remember sitting on the airplane with Barry after we lost to the Mets in 2000, and he talked to me for two hours about how he can’t sleep at night, how he paces the hotel room because ‘the whole world is watching me.’ And I’m just sitting there having a beer, like no one cares about me,” he said with a shrug.
The world sure noticed when Snow, perhaps instinctively, swooped 3-year-old bat boy Darren Baker away from possible catastrophe as Snow crossed the plate in the 2002 World Series. Giants Manager Dusty Baker’s son had wandered into the action without anyone noticing until almost too late.
Today, Darren Baker plays in the Chicago White Sox organization – and Snow might get more questions about the rescue than anything else in his career, he said.
Baseball players are notorious for following silly routines in an effort to stay in the zone. Snow was no different, shunning gourmet food offered to players in favor of PBJs each gameday just because that’s what he always ate as starving upstart in the minors.
“If you’re playing well, you might drive to the ballpark the same way,” he said. “I would always put two pieces of gum in my mouth, and if the gum was gone, two new pieces. We’re kind of kooky like that. Or if you’re hitting well, maybe you don’t wash some of your undergarments. It’s not so much superstition, it’s just if you’re feeling good, your mind’s in the right spot.”
Of Snow’s accomplishments, the one closest to his heart was winning the Giants’ Willie Mac Award, voted on by teammates and coaches to recognize spirit, ability and leadership.
Snow was the only two-time recipient not to be honored in successive years (Mike Krukow, 1985 and ‘86, and Benjie Molina, 2007 and ‘08); Snow won the award in 1997 after coming back from being drilled in the face by a Randy Johnson fastball, and the second waited until the twilight of his career, in 2004 – a seven-year gap.
Retiring after the 2006 season, Snow spent some years away from baseball, although he coached his son’s little league team and performed enough odd jobs with the Giants to earn three World Series rings as a staff member, in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
A former Giants star’s landing in Modesto
In recent years, Snow felt the itch to get more involved, but his inquiries didn’t get much traction with the Giants’ front office, he said. In 2024, he became first base and bench coach for the start-up Oakland Ballers in the independent Pioneer League – which should sound familiar because that’s exactly the position Modesto finds itself in today.
“I had an absolute blast” with the Ballers, he said.
With the Giants still showing little interest, Snow was open to a Ballers-like challenge when Dave Heller, the new Modesto club owner, came calling, offering Snow his own team.
He said Modesto is even “more intriguing” because many pieces often lacking in a brand-new club, like a stadium with a clubhouse, are already in place here – and have been for 76 years at John Thurman Field.
In the end, “I just wanted to get back into the game,” he said.
Hoping to treat his players as carefully as he once did Darren Baker, Snow sought advice from mentors Sabean and Terry Francona of Red Sox fame, “just trying to absorb their wisdom,” Snow said.
“The challenge of coaching is we take this kid and mold him and make him a player,” he said.
Changes coming to Modesto fan experience
One of his best moves, Snow said, was hiring Alex Leach, who is Modesto Junior College’s head baseball coach and also knows the Pioneer League inside and out. The Roadsters also brought on board Garry Templeton Jr., who has MLB and independent league experience and is the son of a former three-time MLB all star.
Heller deserves credit, Snow said, for pivoting when the name initially chosen for Modesto’s new team – the Glow Riders – landed poorly with many fans. Two weeks later, it was changed to the Roadsters, evoking Modesto’s classic car heritage, although the team will wear Glow Riders jerseys on some occasions to celebrate the area’s Latino lowrider culture.
“It says something about the person to be able to make a change; let’s have an open mind and don’t be so stubborn,” Snow said. “It feels like everything in our world nowadays is like, ‘We gotta do it this way, this way, this way.’ I think everybody loves the Roadsters now. He made a pivot and it’s been great.”
Other changes coming with new ownership, management says, include tasty food at fair prices. The clubhouse is getting a facelift, and the venerable stadium in west Modesto recently received a new coat of Roadsters-blue paint.
Player talent remains to be seen. Independent league athletes weren’t drafted into Minor League Baseball – the level of former Modesto teams including, most recently, the A’s and the Nuts. Regardless, experts say fans probably won’t notice much of a difference.
Molding young men into pro baseball players
Pioneer League players did not land huge signing bonuses, so they might be humble enough to absorb instruction, making them more coachable, Snow said.
“They listen,” he said. “They want to learn; ‘Tell me how to get better.’ In this league, you can win, you can lose, but you can also develop kids and get them on their way to another team.”
Some might pay attention because of Snow’s background. He can tell them, “‘I’ve been in your shoes, I know how you feel. When you go out there with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, I know your stress level. I can help you with that.’ But it’s developing a relationship with the player first,” he said.
And if a player performs well enough to land a real contract with an MLB-affiliated team, that’s success, Snow said – even if it means he’s moving on from Modesto.
Snow’s impression of Modesto has been positive so far. “The people have been great. I think they’re super excited.”
The Roadsters don’t owe anything to a far-away club – like Colorado and Seattle in years past – so this squad is truly Modesto’s. Snow said, “This is their team.”
Garth Stapley is the accountability reporter for The Modesto Focus, a project of the nonprofit Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. Contact him at garth@themodestofocus.org.