ATLANTA -- Brian Snitker finally was given his most-cherished prize for four decades of service to the Atlanta Braves.Snitker was hired by the Braves as their full-time manager on Tuesday, rewarded for helping reverse the teams direction in his interim role this season.The Braves finished last in the NL East but won 20 of their final 30 games under Snitker, who became interim manager on May 17 after Fredi Gonzalez was fired. Snitker had a 59-65 record, including 37-35 after the All-Star break.Despite the strong finish under Snitker, the Braves also interviewed former managers Bud Black and Ron Washington.Snitker, who turns 61 next week, was hired for the 2017 season with a club option for 2018. He said the contract wont be a problem.No, I trust everybody, Snitker told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the teams organizational meetings in Orlando, Florida.I understand how all this works. Im good with it. Would I like a five-year deal? Absolutely, but Im good. Im going to go do the best job I can regardless of the contract situation. Its something I dont think will ever be a stickler for me at this point.The Braves also announced Snitkers staff.Washington became the third-base coach and Chuck Hernandez is the new pitching coach. Theres also bench coach Terry Pendleton, first base coach Eddie Perez, hitting coach Kevin Seitzer, assistant hitting coach Jose Castro and bullpen coach Marty Reed.Snitker has been with the Braves since joining the organization as a player in 1977. He served as Atlantas third base coach from 2006-13 but spent most of his four decades with the organization as a minor league manager. He had been the manager at Triple-A Gwinnett before replacing Gonzalez on an interim basis.He said his long service with the organization made Tuesdays news especially satisfying.It makes you feel good, he said. It validates all the hard work.When Snitker was named Atlantas interim manager, it was widely thought the team would look outside the organization for a new skipper to take the team into its first season in new SunTrust Park.Instead, Snitker won over the players and front office. Atlanta was 9-28 when Gonzalez was fired and appeared bound for 100 losses at 18-46 before it began a dramatic turnaround under Snitker.Brian earned this opportunity through his dedication to the Braves and to our players, general manager John Coppolella said in a statement. We are excited for the energy and momentum he will bring into SunTrust Park next season.Atlantas strong finish under Snitker, bolstered by the additions of rookie shortstop Dansby Swanson and veteran left fielder Matt Kemp, boosted expectations for next season.Braves president John Hart said last week the season had been spiraling out of control before Snitker restored order.Snitker gave credit to his players.These guys never quit, he said. When I got there they had been beat over the head pretty good with the record and all.Hernandez, 55, was the Braves minor league pitching coordinator this season, his 31st as a coach. He was the Marlins pitching coach from 2013-15. The Marlins 3.71 ERA in 2013 and 3.78 in 2014 were the two best in franchise history.He spent the 2016 season working closely with many of our young, talented pitchers who will be such an important part of our future, Coppolella said.Washington, 64, spent the last two seasons on Oaklands coaching staff after managing the Texas Rangers from 2007 to 2014.Coppolella said Washingtons experience as a manager will be an asset to everyone on the club. His tireless work ethic, up-beat attitude and tremendously high baseball IQ will benefit our players and our staff. Air Jordan Baratas España . James, who turned 29 on Monday, injured his groin Friday during the Heats overtime loss at Sacramento. He sat out the following game, a 108-107 win Saturday in Portland, before coming back to help send the Nuggets to their seventh consecutive loss. Tenis Air Jordan Baratos . Ouellette, from Montreal, already has three Olympic gold medals since joining the team in 1999. http://www.airjordanbaratas.es/ . Terms of the deal were not immediately available. The 26-year-old finished last season with Clevelands Triple-A affiliate in Columbus after signing with the Indians in August. Jordan Retro Baratas . Bryzgalov stopped 25 shots on Saturday in the Oklahoma City Barons 4-1 victory over the Abbotsford Heat. The Oilers signed Bryzgalov to a one-year $2 million contract last Friday after shedding payroll by dealing defenceman Ladislav Smid to the Flames. Zapatillas Jordan Retro Baratas . With his new coach and six-time Grand Slam singles champion Boris Becker watching him during an official match for the first time, Djokovic appeared tentative early against the Slovakian player, who often appeared content to keep the ball in play. Sacked coaches deserve second chanceAFLCA AFL Coaches Association boss Mark Brayshaw has slammed the industrys failure to give sacked senior coaches another shot.Brayshaw says these dumped men, often consigned to the football scrapheap and black-listed from future senior positions, are undoubtedly better prepared for the gruelling demands of leading a team than untried coaches.Its madness to not give them a second chance. It doesnt happen in major sport in the US or Europe; they are happy to target people who have fallen over and dusted themselves off and made mistakes on someone elses payroll, Brayshaw told ESPN.The principle of doing it for a second or third time is not yet well established here and I think were poorer for it.Brayshaw expects experienced senior coaches, such as Brett Ratten and Matthew Knights who are both being touted for Brisbanes vacant post, to be better prepared for the position since their sackings at Carlton and Essendon respectively.Ratten has been an assistant coach at Hawthorn for four years, while in the same time Knights has been at Geelong and coached its VFL club to premiership success.Theres no question the learning experience coaches have from the first time round are being squandered by not giving them another chance, Brayshaw said. You learn and realise what you will and wont do again. Its a very difficult position and they do a lot of self-reflecting.Brayshaw acknowledges there has been a dramatic shift in the way clubs hire new coaches. He says the days of appointing retired champions to helm their former clubs almost immediately after retirement is a thing of the past, as clubs opt to poach strategists who might have a lower profile but have been in charge of their own teams.It (the champion-player-turned-coach) is a failed model because there are just too many carcasses on the side of the road for that to be ignored, he said.I remember talking to Mick Malthouse and he estimated five per cent of the value of a coach was how good a player he was.Leigh Matthews is an obvious exception to the rule, as is Malcolm Blight ....Clarko breaking new recordsThe fingerprints of Alastair Clarkson will be all over this finals series, and not just at Hawthorn. ESPN has crunched the numbers and studied the dusty pages of history and we have yet to find a finals series where the coach of one club has a direct relationship with the coaches of five of the other clubs in the finals as is the case with Clarkson in 2016.Three of the other finals coaches worked under Clarkson at the Hawks - Leon Cameron (GWS), Adam Simpson (West Coast) and Luke Beveridge (Western Bulldogs). Taking that a step further, Geelong coach Chris Scott was an assistant coach to Clarkson in the past two International Rules series when Clarkson took charge of the Australian team.Then theres Swans coach John Longmire, a teammate of Clarkson at North Melbourne and a close friend to this day.So by our reckoning, the only two finals coaches Clarkson doesnt have a close relationship with are Adelaides Don Pyke and North Melbournes Brad Scott, further proof of his standing as a giant of the modern game.New role for Brendon Gale?Say what you like about Richmond CEO Brendon Gale, but hes not one for shirking an issue. The embattled Tigers boss, whose excellent work in reviving the clubs off-field fortunes has been undermined by consistent under-performance on the field, has endured a tough season in which his Tiges not only missed the finals but also became the target of a messy, half-baked boardroom coup.Having extended coach Damien Hardwicks contract at the start of the season for a further two years - a move that now appears misguided in the extreme - Gale and his board cant wait for 2016 to end.You might imagine if an escape hatch was to mysteriously appear, the former ruckman might quickly like to disappear down it.But not so. For Gale was recently approached to apply for the CEOs position at the Melbourne Cricket Club, a role currently filled by the soon-to-retire Stephen Gough.Its a job that mightnt carry the remuneration of an AFL club CEO but it would sure be a whole lot less stressful.Gales response to that seemingly attractive offer? Thanks, but no thanks, I want to stay at Richmond and finish the job that Ive started.AFL media rightsThe Seven Network, News Limited and Telstra last year committed more than $2.5 billion between them to buy the AFLs media rights from 2017 to 2022. On Saturday afternoon at ANZ Stadium, steps will be taken by those three media companies to start recouping some of that expense.ESPN understands that a whos who of Sydneys media and marketing industries will be attending the Sydney Swans-GWS qualifying final as guests of the AFL and its media partners. Sydney is the media capital of Australia, home to most of the nations major advertisers and advertising agencies.Some of them are familiar with the game, but many of them are not, so the AFL is taking full advantage of that final being the only game in town for the day (there is no major rugby union or league) to put on a show, sell the virtues of the indigenous game and hope they might direct some advertising dollars to the Leagues media partners next year.ddddddddddddA smattering of the AFL executive and the commission will be in Adelaide that night for the Crows-North elimination final, but we suspect the big dogs of the League will be in Sydney, hoping like hell the Swans and the Giants play as good a game as many of us expect.New Sydney Swans sponsorAnd while were on the subject of the Sydney market, sponsors and the like, we note the recent announcement by the Swans of a sponsorship agreement with Qatar Airways.Well done to the Swans for tapping into such a lucrative deal. But it does raise the question of hypocrisy when on the one hand the club was all in for taking part in the Pride Game against St Kilda last month, only to accept a few days later sponsorship from the national airline of a country where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by going to prison.We wait to see whether the Saints will nominate a different opponent for the fixture next year. Lets hope they do.Managers lining up to secure female talentWomens football is a golden nest egg waiting to hatch following the commercial success of the exhibition match last weekend, according to player agent Anthony McConville.The Melbourne-Western Bulldogs clash at the Whitten Oval attracted an average audience of 387,000 - the best Saturday night figure for the season.And with female football participation rates exceeding 400,000 - about a quarter of total registered players nationally - tapping into the potentially lucrative market of womens football is high on the agenda for leading player managers.The television ratings from Saturday night suggest that theres a lot of interest in female, male and junior, McConville told ESPN.Obviously its a new frontier the AFL is embarking on and theres a huge participation rate that is increasing by the week, by the year.In terms of marketability, in terms of fresh opportunities for product placement, people out there looking to align their companies with a female audience, I think there will be a lot of opportunities businesses looking to align their trade with a female audience.McConville, who already manages Melbourne recruit Melissa Hickey, expects the average salary - roughly $5000 - to increase, along with the marquee pay packet of $25,000, following the inaugural season in 2017.It will be interesting in the next couple of years to see what their salary cap might look like, he said.Future broadcast rights and big money agreements like that could give us a better indication of what theyre able to learn and then quite possibly that would open the door for a negotiation outside of the marquee players.AFL Players Association boss Paul Marsh, whos already locked in a long-running player payment impasse with the league, says the proposed womens deal falls short of the associations expectations.We are still negotiation with the standard playing contract with the AFL and at this point we are some distance apart, Marsh said.These athletes have worked incredibly hard to get to this level and we strongly believe they should be provided with the same opportunities in this game as the men.Crocmedia set to be big winner in radio rights dealThe radio rights saga has been drawn-out because of threats made by prominent AFL broadcaster SEN to withdraw its offer, as the lucrative contract is expected to be awarded to content provider Crocmedia.The Craig Hutchison-owned outlet is likely to be announced as the big winner of a new multi-year deal, which will commence from next season.ESPN understands Crocmedia, a radio and TV distribution company, will have majority control of the rights and will sub-license the coverage of matches through its partners across the country.Not everyone is delighted by the new arrangement. It certainly seems to have caused some angst between Caroline Wilson (a 3AW regular) and Hutchison, co-panellists on Channel 9s Footy Classified, over the past month.Under the deal, Crocmedia will have the capacity to on-sell matches to rivals 3AW, Triple M and SEN, in a radical radio shake-up.The ABC will continue as the games national broadcaster.SEN, which has an established partnership with Crocmedia by broadcasting its shows like the Saturday morning program Off the Bench, is believed to have threatened to walk away from negotiations should the AFL honour Crocmedias bold bid.This would have been detrimental to Crocmedias audacious proposal, leaving it in a financial black hole.But the dummy spit is believed to have been resolved, with all radio parties involved in lengthy discussions with the AFL over the finer details of the new deal. An announcement is imminent. ' ' '
