COLLEGE: Ex-Giant J.T. Snow visits with Nevada baseball players

RENO - J.T. Snow has spent his life clinging to a small piece of advice from his father when he was little.

"Don't burn your bridges," Snow recalled Wednesday night.

Drafted in the fifth round of the 1989 amateur draft by the New York Yankees, the six-time Gold Glove winner politely walked out of the Yankees organization when coaches asked if he would play winter ball and convert from a first baseman to outfield. They didn't respond well and released him days later.

But after the 1996 season, Snow went from the California Angels to the San Francisco Giants where he spent nine seasons with the Bay Area club. And the man who gave Snow a chance with the Giants happened to one of the key player development scouts, who helped the Yankees return to prominence in the early 1990s.

If Snow burned that bridge with the Yankees, then Brian Sabean might have looked for a different first baseman to fill Will "The Thrill" Clark's shoes.

"New York wanted me to play outfield," said Snow, who was the keynote speaker for the 27th annual Bobby Dolan Baseball Dinner, a fundraiser for the Nevada baseball team. "I got to see the business side in Triple A."

After a three-year career at the University of Arizona, Snow went on to star with California and then spent the bulk of his time in San Francisco, batting behind Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent. The Giants declined to sign Snow after the 2005 season, but he played for the Red Sox for a quarter-season in 2006 before hanging it up. He retired as a Giant, though, when he signed in 2008 and dressed for one game.

Snow was part of one of the best offensive machines in the game.

Snow recalls the Giants 1-2 punch that was one the best in baseball and provided for some entertainment both on the diamond and in the dugout. Bonds and Kent were the offensive spark to the Giants, especially in 2002, and both would even get into each other's faces in the dugout. But once they were on the field, it was different.

"With Barry and Jeff, it was the perfect setup. Barry took pressure off everyone else," Snow said. "All the focus was on Barry. We got to slide in and do our thing. They kind of fed off one another. I hit behind Jeff and got to pick up his scraps. It was fun but once the game started and everyone crossed the white line, everyone was on the same page."

Snow made it to one World Series in his playing career but was brought back to the Giants as a special assistant and roving instructor with the minor league players. He spent all last year's postseason with the team as the Giants won their first Series since moving from New York.

"In 2002, I was playing. I was in the fire," Snow said, comparing the two World Series. "It was a great World Series (lost to the Angels in seven). I didn't have that ring on my finger. (In 2010), I got to travel with the team for the whole postseason. It wasn't the same as being a player, but it was the next best thing."

Snow, a lefty, served up batting practice during the postseason and took a little credit for the Giants solving Cliff Lee, which drew a loud laughter at the press conference at the Silver Legacy. But Snow was there in Texas trying to help Pat Burrell through his struggles and the plate and had a feeling that Edgar Renteria was due.

"I told Edgar, who had a rough year with the Giants, you're going to have a big it," Snow said. "It was a lot of fun because no one gave the Giants a chance."

Rentaria then hit a game-winning three-run homer off Lee to win Game 5 and bring the crown to San Francisco.