Jack Thomas "J. T." Snow, Jr. (born February 26, 1968 in Long Beach, California) is a former Major League Baseball player. He played all but two games in his career as a first baseman, and played nine of his 13½ seasons with the San Francisco Giants. He was known for his exceptional defense.
Biography[]
Early years[]
Snow is the son of former NFL Los Angeles Rams Pro Bowl wide receiver Jack Snow.
Snow attended Los Alamitos High School in Los Alamitos, California and played baseball and football and basketball with future teammate Robb Nen. After high school, Snow played three seasons at the University of Arizona. He was drafted by the New York Yankees in the fifth round of the 1989 baseball amateur draft. Snow broke into the Majors with the Yankees at the end of the 1992 season.
After his father's death in 2006, Snow wore his father's number 84 in his honor. Snow is married and resides in Hillsborough, CA year-round.
California Angels (1993–96)[]
Traded to the California Angels that year as part of the Jim Abbott deal, Snow played for them from 1993 to 1996 where he won his first two of what would be six career Gold Gloves.
San Francisco Giants (1997–2005)[]
He was traded to the Giants after the 1996 season for left-handed pitcher Allen Watson and minor league pitcher Fausto Macey.
While a switch-hitter earlier in his career, Snow batted exclusively left-handed after 1998. In 2000 he led the league in sacrifice flies with 14. After a two year injury-riddled stretch from 2002-2003 where his batting average was .246, Snow rebounded in 2004 with a .327 average, hitting .387 after the All-Star break (which ranked second only to Ichiro Suzuki in the Major Leagues).
Three memorable moments with the Giants[]
In the 2002 World Series as Snow was scoring in Game 5 off a Kenny Lofton triple, he swooped up by the back of the jacket and carried off the batboy, 3-year-old Darren Baker. The young batboy and son of then Giants’ manager Dusty Baker was at home plate to collect Lofton's bat before the play was completed. This turned into a touching and memorable incident, but easily could have resulted in disaster with a small child wandering into the path of Snow and David Bell as they both barreled home to score. Following the incident with Darren Baker, Major League Baseball required batboys and girls to be at least 14 years of age.
In the 2000 National League Division Series against the New York Mets, with the Giants trailing 4–1 in the bottom of the ninth, Snow hit a three-run pinch-hit homer against Mets reliever Armando Benitez. However, the Giants failed to capitalize on their momentum, eventually falling in the 10th inning and going on to lose the series.
On June 26, 1999, Snow tagged out Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Carlos Perez using the "hidden ball trick", the last successful execution of the play in the 20th Century. The Giants nevertheless lost the game 7-6, off of a 3-run home run by Todd Hundley in the 9th inning.
J.T. Snow was known to be a class-act, in one instance he delayed a game in order to let a young fan find a pen for his autograph.
Boston Red Sox (2006)[]
Snow's tenure with the Giants effectively ended when the team declined to offer him salary arbitration before the 2006 season. He signed a one-year, $2 million contract with the Boston Red Sox on January 6, 2006. He served primarily in a platoon with Kevin Youkilis at first base until he requested to be designated for assignment due to a lack of playing time. He was granted his designation June 19, and was officially released eight days later.
Retirement[]
At the end of the 2006 season, Snow retired from baseball and began doing radio broadcasts with the San Francisco Giants in the 2007 season. He also serves as a special assistant to the team, an advisor to the Giants' general manager, Brian Sabean, and as a roving minor league instructor for the Giants.
When he returned for a visit to AT&T Park at the end of the 2006 season, Snow received a standing ovation when he was featured on the Jumbotron.
2008[]
On September 24, 2008, the Giants signed Snow to a one-day contract, and he took the field on September 27 against the Dodgers, but was replaced before the first pitch. It was a move that allowed Snow to retire as a Giant. Eugenio Vélez, Omar Vizquel, and Rich Aurilia threw balls in the dirt to mess with Snow, but Snow still made the plays.[1] Because he did not bat or play a full inning in the field, however, Snow's appearance was not an official appearance by MLB standards.
Salary[]
| Year | Team | Salary (US$) |
|---|---|---|
| 1993 | California Angels | $110,000 |
| 1994 | California Angels | $200,000 |
| 1995 | California Angels | $225,000 |
| 1996 | California Angels | $725,000 |
| 1997 | San Francisco Giants | $1,825,000 |
| 1998 | San Francisco Giants | $2,750,000 |
| 1999 | San Francisco Giants | $3,000,000 |
| 2000 | San Francisco Giants | $4,750,000 |
| 2001 | San Francisco Giants | $5,750,000 |
| 2002 | San Francisco Giants | $5,900,000 |
| 2003 | San Francisco Giants | $6,850,000 |
| 2004 | San Francisco Giants | $1,500,000 |
| 2005 | San Francisco Giants | $2,000,000 |
| 2006 | Boston Red Sox | $2,000,000 |
| 2008 | San Francisco Giants | $2,131 (One game) |
See also[]
References[]
External links[]
- Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube