Frederick Carlisle Snodgrass, nicknamed “Snow,” was born October 19, 1887 in Ventura, California.
The feisty, quick-tempered Snodgrass was a regular on three consecutive Giant pennant winners, from 1911 through 1913. Despite his solid contributions to the three pennant-winning clubs, the tenacious center fielder will forever be remembered for his infamous “muff” in the final game of the 1912 World Series.
Welcome to the Baseball History Podcast: Featuring This Week in Baseball History, baseball dictionary and a tour of baseball cities. I’m your game announcer Bob Wright.
This is game 43 of the 2009 baseball season
In the first inning let’s take a look at This Week in Baseball History for the 3 week of October.
October 16
1912 Giant center fielder Fred Snodgrass’s error in the 10th inning leads to the Red Sox scoring two runs en route to a 3-2 World Series deciding game victory.
Frederick Carlisle Snodgrass, nicknamed “Snow,” was born October 19, 1887 in Ventura, California.
The feisty, quick-tempered Snodgrass was a regular on three consecutive Giant pennant winners, from 1911 through 1913. Despite his solid contributions to the three pennant-winning clubs, the tenacious center fielder will forever be remembered for his infamous “muff” in the final game of the 1912 World Series.
In a 1940 interview Snodgrass had this to say about the play: “Hardly a day in my life, hardly an hour, that in some manner or other the dropping of that fly doesn’t come up, even after 30 years. On the street, in my store, at my home . . . it’s all the same. They might choke up before they ask me and they hesitate–but they always ask.”
Catching for the St. Vincent’s College baseball team in Los Angeles California, his hustle caught the eye of John McGraw while the Giants were training in Los Angeles during the spring of 1907. Fred also caught McGraw’s ear by arguing with him throughout one game in which McGraw acted as umpire. In Los Angeles the following winter, McGraw inquired after Snodgrass and offered him a contract. Fred joined the Giants after the school year ended in June 1908, making his debut as a catcher but collecting only four at-bats the entire season.
In 1909 it became apparent that Chief Meyers was going to succeed Roger Bresnahan as the Giants catcher, so McGraw tried the speedy Snodgrass all over the diamond, finally settling on the outfield. Snodgrass logged only 70 at-bats that season but hit .300, stole 10 bases, and demonstrated a willingness to unleash his quick temper on opposing teams rather than his manager.
In 1910 Snodgrass played most of the time in center field and quickly established himself as a coming star. His average peaked at .377, and as September began he led the National League at .362 and was in contention for a Chalmers automobile to be presented to the major leaguer with the highest batting average. In over his head while trying to keep pace with Ty Cobb and Nap Lajoie, Snodgrass stopped hitting and faded to .321, still good enough to rank fourth in the National League.
Snodgrass remained McGraw’s center fielder for half a dozen years. Winners of three straight pennants from 1911-13, the team was built around speed; in 1910 Snodgrass stole 33 bases and was fourth on the team. In 1911 Snodgrass was second with 51 steals, his career high. That was his best full season, as he also finished third on the team with 83 runs scored and 77 driven in. He made solid contributions to the next two pennant-winners, scoring 91 runs in 1912 and hitting .291 in 1913.
Unfortunately, Snodgrass ran into major problems in the World Series, beginning in 1911. In Game Three, he led off the bottom of the 10th inning in a 1-1 game with his favorite maneuver, intentionally getting hit by a pitch. The umpire didn’t buy it, but he did draw a walk, and after a sacrifice bunt he tried to advance on a short passed ball. The throw to Frank Baker at third base beat Snodgrass easily, so he leaped at Baker, hitting him spikes first as the tag was applied. He had done the same thing earlier in the Series, but this time he inflicted a wound that took several minutes to treat.
Baker had the last laugh when he homered in the 11th inning to win the game, but all of Philadelphia was scandalized by what they saw as a deliberate attempt by Snodgrass to injure Baker. The next day, after Game Four was rained out in Philadelphia, Snodgrass felt the fans’ wrath. As the rains and abuse continued, McGraw sent Snodgrass back to New York amid rumors that he had been shot. When play resumed after a week of postponements, Snodgrass went hitless in the final three games, batting only .105 for the Series as the Athletics won in six games.
It only got worse for Snodgrass in the 1912 World Series, when he made one misplay that became his legacy. With the Giants leading 2-1 in the bottom of the 10th of the deciding game, Fred dropped an easy fly ball by leadoff batter Clyde Engle for a two-base error. The ball was hit more toward right fielder Red Murray, but on the Giants the center fielder was supposed to call for everything he could reach. Snodgrass made the call, Murray stepped aside, and, as Snodgrass explained in later years, “because of over-eagerness, or over-confidence, or carelessness, I dropped it.”
He was forever blamed for the winning rally that ensued, but two other events also contributed to the downfall of the Giants. The next batter, Harry Hooper, drilled a long shot that Snodgrass speared for a spectacular catch. In a just world, he would’ve caught the first ball and the second would’ve gone for a double, yielding the same outcome.
The key to the inning was a high foul pop by Tris Speaker on which Christy Mathewson made the mistake of calling for catcher Chief Meyers to make the catch. Meyers couldn’t reach the ball, while first baseman Fred Merkle, who could have caught it easily, stood still as directed by Mathewson. Given a reprieve, Speaker singled to score the tying run and set up the Series-winner.
Giants manager John McGraw was not among those who blamed Snodgrass for the loss. In his book My Thirty Years in the Game, McGraw remarked, “Often I have been asked what I did to Fred Snodgrass after he dropped that fly ball in the World Series of 1912…I will tell you exactly what I did: I raised his salary $1,000.” Just the same, the error became known as “Snodgrass’s Muff” and also, the “$30,000 Muff.”
Snodgrass stayed with the Giants until a mid-1915 trade to Boston, where he had been involved in a rhubarb the previous season. During a Labor Day showdown for first place, Braves pitcher Lefty Tyler knocked Snodgrass down four pitches in a row, then mocked his muffed catch. Snodgrass mouthed off, and when the fans kept on him he thumbed his nose at everyone, bringing Boston mayor James M. Curley onto the field to demand an ejection. McGraw stood by Snodgrass that day, but a prolonged batting slump landed him in Boston in 1915.
Fred’s contract expired after the 1916 season. Rather than sign for much less, he went home to California, spent 1917 in the Pacific Coast League, and retired to go into the appliance business.
In his 8 year Major League career, Snodgrass batted .275 with 215 stolen bases
If Snodgrass was hounded through the years by reminders of his biggest failure, it didn’t prevent him from thriving in life. A successful businessman and banker in Oxnard, he was elected to the City Council in 1930 and served three terms before being appointed mayor early in 1937. He held the office for 11 months before resigning to move to Ventura, where he bought a ranch, grew lemons and walnuts, and continued to prosper.
In the early 1960s, a half-century after his infamous dropped ball, Snodgrass recounted the error in an interview with author Lawrence Ritter. The interview was included in Ritter’s renowned baseball book The Glory of Their Times, which featured oral accounts by 26 of the game’s oldest surviving players.
Fred Snodgrass died on April 5, 1974 at age 86 in Ventura, CA.
His error in the 1912 World Series, however, remained with him to the end. When he died his obituary in the New York Times was headlined “Fred Snodgrass, 86, Dead; Ball Player Muffed 1912 Fly.”
A large part of this biography comes from the SABR Baseball Biography Project written by Gabriel Schechter. It can be found online at http://bioproj.sabr.org
In this inning we’ll open up the Baseball Dictionary
Under the letter: P
Fadeaway
1. A screwball,
First attributed to Christy Mathewson, who is credited with its invention and naming around 1908. The term apparently derives either from the fact that the pitcher seems to fall off the mound after he has delivered the ball or that the ball loses speed suddenly as it approaches the batter and falls, or “fades” away at an unnatural angle.
Douglass Wallop in his book Baseball: An Informal History, writes referring to Mathewson: “Big Six, he was called, the man who gave the nation a new word-’the fadeaway,’ a perverse curve never before mastered by a right-handed pitcher, one that broke down and toward a right-handed batter.”
2. A slide in which the baserunner throws his body sideways to avoid being tagged.
For those of you that want to stick around, here’s an
Extra Inning
Catching up on some mail,
The first one is a comment left at BaseballHistoryPodcast.com by Joe Castaneda. Joe writes about Big Ed Delahanty:
What a tragic story! It’s horrible when anyone is overcome by any addiction, but seems especially true when it’s a person which such obvious talents and potential. I was really touched by your presentation on him, thanks for bringing it to light. (by the way, thanks to user Tom Howley on the song recommendation!) Keep up the great work Bob.
I also received this follow up email from Joe, he wrote:
Bob:
Last month I finally took my trip with 6 buddies to see 6 games in 5 stadiums on the East Coast. What a great experience (incidentally, you can still read about our shananigans on our web site: www.baseballroadie.info)! I wanted to take just a moment to share with you the incredible experience we had at Nationals Park in DC. This was the third stop on tour (Mets was first, Phillies second and Nationals third).
Truthfully, I hadn’t circled this particular venue on my calendar as one to really look forward to. We hit it on Friday and I was already looking forward to Redsox / Yankees on Sunday. We showed up at the Stadium two hours early to pick up 6 of the 500, $5 tickets they release two hours before game time. We got in, found some nice seats in Left field and took in the view while shagging a few ball from batting practice. First of all, the stadium is awesome for baseball. It was well designed with few obstructions, has wide open concourses and great standing room views all the way around. The food wasn’t great, but the friendly staff and great viewing made up for it. =) Also, the stadium does an amazing job of capturing baseball history and this from a team, in one sense, that has very little. [incidentally, that was probably the most disappointing part of the new Mets stadium. So much great history and they really capitalized on it so little. The Jackie Robinson rotunda is great, but wasn't Jackie really a Dodger? You had to search to find anything in the stadium on the Miracle Mets and that crazy '86 team. I was very disappointed with that. But I digress.]
Needless-to-say, the Nats aren’t drawing a big crowd, so even though our $5 seats were 300 level, left field corner nose bleeds, we moved down to about 25 rows up, third base line, 100 level. During the 2nd inning we got permission from a very friendly usher (His name was Rick and it turned out he was actually the head guy over the entire section) to move down to about 12 rows up from the field, just a section down from third base and Nat’s star Ryan Zimmerman. Hard to believe these were $5 seats!
As the game moved on we got to talking to Rick about our journey from the West Coast and how we are slowly checking off every major league stadium from our roadie list. Not only was Rick a great usher, but he is also an avid baseball fan and knew how big this was to us Oregonians. At the 5th inning he moved us down to field level…literally. We were right on the fence, just barely into the left field side of third base. Suddenly our $5 seats gave us the best view in the house and to make things even better, Ryan Zimmerman made three amazing plays (not just good, they truly were amazing!) at third and hit a key home run in a come-from-behind win against the Diamondbacks. It was a great game. The fireworks show after was nice (although not as nice as the one the Halos do on their Friday night home games) and I really believe I could enjoy these Nats if I lived in the DC area. In fact, the game was so good we decided to stick around an extra day and instead of traveling to NY on Saturday afternoon, we watched another Nats game (those $5 tickets only got us to about the 10th row…Rick offered OUR — hee hee — front row seats to another group of rabid baseball fans), saw them come from behind for another win and even though we got into NY at 3am, the baseball experience was well worth the middle of the night travel.
If you or any of your listeners is ever in the DC area during the season, Nats stadium is a must! Keep up the good work Bob, thanks for your work week in and week out.
Joe Castaneda
__________
And this email from Jimmy:
Hi Bob!
Well, my reaction to your e-mail asking to use my blog post on Walt Bond, word for word, was “WOW!” And my reaction to hearing BHP 0939 was, of course, “WOW!”
Thanks for plugging my web site, www.diamond-replays.com. I hope your listeners enjoy my recreations of classic baseball seasons.
Take care and keep up the good work!
Jimmy
Well Jimmy, how about that, you got in another plug for your site. I would like to point out that I really love all of the contributions to BHP. Thanks to everybody, like Jimmy, that have added content to BHP
And this email from listener Bill Achbach
Bob,
Just a note to let you know how much I enjoy Baseball History Podcast. I started listening about a year ago. Now I’ve downloaded all episodes and am gulping them down, from the beginning, about five at a time, just about every time I’m in the car. Good stuff and I learn something every episode!
I’m a retired teacher (history & econ) and now work part-time for the Rockies (let me know if you’re ever in Denver and would like to take in a game at Coors Field). Being around the game a lot more these past few years has given me both the time and the motivation to dig into and enjoy the history of the game. I grew up a Reds fan, in the 50′s & 60′s, and thought I might do a piece on Frank Robinson for you to look at and maybe use in a future game.
Keep up the good work. There are plenty of both commercial and private podcasts available for news and analysis of the game, but you’re doing something different and special for the fan who loves the less immediate, analytical and technical side.
Well Bill, I will definitely take you up on your Coors Field offer. I have never been their but would like to go; maybe next season.
And this final email from Adolfo:
I was very pleased to heat about Charlie Hough in your recent podcast. I have enjoyed many of your bios on some great and not-so-great players. I have refreshed some knowledge and added plenty more during my countless hours listening to the BHP podcast. But Charlie Hough’s bio really touched home.
You see, I was in a couple of the games you mentioned. I worked for the expansion Florida Marlins in the PR department for a long time and I had the opportunity to deal directly with Charlie during his couple of years there. He was, and am sure still is, a true gentleman. One of the few guys that you remember with a smile in your face. He was always happy, upbeat and never shied from the opportunity to share a word of wisdom with a young guy. Charlie was always available to the media, never hid in the lounge room in the clubhouse and always gave his best, despite the limitations of competing with guys half his age.
One of my greatest moments in baseball, was that very first pitch in Marlins history: April 5, 1993 It was a knuckleball strike to Jose Offerman caught by Benito Santiago. We won that game. Ican’t recall the score right now, maybe 5-3 or 6-4. Jeff Conine when 4×4 and Bryan Harvey scored the save. I also remember Charlies last game. He did not get an out. When Rene Lachemann came to get him, my boss told me: “we’ve just seen him pitch his last game”. A couple days later it was official. he had a hip issue and was done.
One more thing on Charlie, and I remember it clearly because it happened during his Marlins days. He is the only pitcher in history to start and relieve in 400 games.
Thanks for your podcasts.
Adolfo Salgueiro
Aventura, Florida
Thanks for the update on Charlie Hough
If you would like to a part of Baseball History Podcast, submit your written contribution for the tour segment. I will only be doing the tour when one is sent in by a listener. You can do the segment on any stadium or team; past or present; Minor League, Major League, Negro League or any league outside of the US. Write about 1 page in a conversational tone, send it to me, I will record it, and you will get the credit.
You can email me at baseballhistory@gmail.com.
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Look for the new BHP web site at Baseball History Podcast at baseballhistorypodcast.com.
Well, that’s it for today’s game of Baseball History Podcast. I’ll see you later at the ballpark.
