J T Snow

An Angel career filled with more peaks and valleys than Yosemite came to an end Wednesday when first baseman J.T. Snow was traded to the San Francisco Giants for pitcher Allen Watson and double-A pitcher Fausto Macey. The deal should bolster the Angel rotation--Watson, 26, went 8-12 with a 4.61 earned-run average in 1996, but General Manager Bill Bavasi believes the left-hander will eventually develop into a No.

San Francisco Giant fans might be gloating over the team's new home, Pac Bell Park, but it doesn't mean the players will be entirely pleased with it. Three-time Gold Glove winner J.T. Snow, for one, will find his range more limited, according to Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Examiner.

J.T. Snow stopped to grab an apple in the food line when he noticed a sudden flurry of movement. Reporters were being shooed away. The clubhouse doors were quickly locked. This was weird. The entire Angel team had just settled into spring-training camp a few days ago, and now Manager Buck Rodgers was calling a team meeting. Boy, someone must have done something wrong. Snow started feeling sorry for that poor soul. Snow began replaying the day's events in his mind. Then it hit him.

The most difficult season of San Francisco Giant first baseman J.T. Snow's life has taken a turn for the better. Strange as it seems, it may have taken a tragic event--the death of his mother--for Snow to begin to resemble the player who tore up the National League in 1997. While Merry Carole Snow, 54, was fighting a lengthy battle against cancer, J.T. was fighting many losing battles against opposing pitchers.

There are no fans flocking around him these days for autographs. No reporters swarm him before and after the game. No calls for commercial endorsements. "It's kind of like people forget all about you," Vancouver first baseman J.T. Snow said by phone from Albuquerque, N.M., "but if you want to know the truth, I think this is really what I needed. It's been good for me, because I've been able to work on things without worrying about all of the other things.

Champagne hasn't visited the Angels' clubhouse since 1986, a thousand final scores and seven years ago, so Luis Polonia was forced to improvise. Palm a towel, fill it with shaving cream and break through a postgame media huddle to carry out a hit on J.T. Snow. "Who did that?" asked Snow. A snitch squealed. "His initials are L.P." Snow nodded. In this room, that could only mean one man, Lance Parrish having been cut last season. "Being a young rookie, you got to take stuff like this," Snow said.

Outfielder Dwight Smith completed a workout before Saturday night's game against the Dodgers at Anaheim Stadium and said his strained calf muscle "felt real good." As a result, the Angels optioned first baseman J.T. Snow to the club's triple-A affiliate in Vancouver. The move was not official until the Angels made the announcement at 8:30 Saturday night, but Snow, who said last week that he hoped to be traded, seemed resigned to his fate before Saturday's game.

The small basketball hoop tacked up between the lockers of J.T. Snow and Gary DiSarcina is down now. The laughter and the giggles are only echoes, and the Angel clubhouse became a little colder Monday night with the team's 10th consecutive loss and the post-game roster moves, headed by Snow being optioned to triple-A Vancouver. Despite a .

He is loath to admit it, but J.T. Snow carries a heavy burden of expectation with him each time he steps to the plate. Can he duplicate his torrid hitting of April, 1993? If so, when? If not, why? No matter how much he tries to bury the past, he can't escape from it. Perhaps only by showing others there is a present and future to consider can the first baseman truly put it behind him. With each passing hit, he attempts to make last year, as he said Saturday, "last year."

The young man sitting on the dugout steps flashed a familiar smile. It was good to be back, J.T. Snow said Saturday afternoon. He had just flown in from Colorado Springs, Colo., landing at noon and leaving only enough time at his Corona del Mar home to grab a sandwich before bolting for Anaheim Stadium. "I couldn't wait to get here," he said. Older, wiser, maybe even a bit more cynical, Snow made his return to the Angels, determined to adhere to a new directive from Manager Marcel Lachemann.

The method wasn't important to J.T. Snow, only the outcome. Snow hit two homers and drove in five runs, powering the San Francisco Giants to a 9-1 victory over the Reds on Monday night at Cincinnati. The Giants moved 1 1/2 games ahead of the idle Dodgers in the National League West, their biggest margin in eight days. San Francisco has been in first place since May 11, leading by as many as six games as recently as July 6. That meant more to Snow than a big night. "Wins, wins.

The rosters of major league baseball teams today are awash with the second generation of the rich and famous. The prowess of the fathers is passed on to the sons. It's almost like the Hapsburgs or the Romanoffs. A dynasty. The divine right of kings. There never was any Babe Ruth Jr. or Ty Cobb II. There isn't even a Gehrig scion abroad in the lineups, but there is a Ken Griffey Jr. and a Barry Bonds who is really a Bobby Bonds II and there is a Jose Cruz Jr. And there is a J.T. Snow.

Maybe somebody from marketing ought to rethink this American League versus National League stuff--at least when the Angels are involved. If the Giants' 4-1 victory Sunday at Anaheim Stadium looked like the same old tedious baseball that followers of the AL have grown accustomed to, blame it on the Angels. By day's end, a crowd of 30,404 was treated to 18 hits, 13 walks, nine pitchers, five runs--all in a less-than-riveting 3 hours 28 minutes.

J.T. Snow did his best to downplay the moment. But how can you downplay hitting a game-winning home run against your former team--as Snow did in the Giants' 4-1 victory over the Angels Sunday--even if it came in the fourth inning? Easy.

J.T. Snow stepped into the batter's box against live pitching for the first time since a March 11 beaning by Randy Johnson that broke his left eye socket. The San Francisco first baseman, wearing clear plastic goggles for protection but otherwise showing no signs of the injury, had four hits in 11 at bats in a simulated game at the team's minor league camp in Scottsdale, Ariz. * The Boston Red Sox in the National League?

San Francisco Giant first baseman J.T. Snow was hit in the face with a pitch by Seattle Mariner left-hander Randy Johnson during an exhibition game Tuesday. The game was delayed 29 minutes while Snow, who did not lose consciousness, was treated at home plate. He then was taken to Scottsdale Memorial Hospital in an ambulance, and is expected to be discharged today.

J.T. Snow did his best to downplay the moment. But how can you downplay hitting a game-winning home run against your former team--as Snow did in the Giants' 4-1 victory over the Angels Sunday--even if it came in the fourth inning? Easy.

If the Angels had hitters like Cal Ripken Jr. at shortstop and Roberto Alomar at second base, there wouldn't be as much pressure on first baseman J.T. Snow and third baseman Eduardo Perez to produce offensively. But the last time it was checked, Cooperstown wasn't calling for any Gary DiSarcina or Damion Easley bats, so Snow and Perez must hit if the Angels are to have a chance in the American League West this season--and if the infielders are to remain in Anaheim.

A National League scouting book sits in his locker, and J.T. Snow spends part of each day learning about his new league. The former Angel first baseman, acquired by the San Francisco Giants for pitcher Allen Watson in November, says he has turned the page in another way as well. "I have no ill feelings toward the Angels," said the two-time Gold Glove winner, who attended Los Alamitos High in the shadow of Anaheim Stadium.

J.T. Snow is dealing with the trade that sent him from the Angels to the San Francisco Giants. He had no control over it. A family split, however, was apparently of his own choosing. Snow has not talked to his parents, former Ram star Jack Snow and his wife, Mary Carol, in almost 2 1/2 years. "It's a family thing, a personal thing, and I don't want to comment on it," J.T. Snow said. Said Jack Snow from his home in St. Louis, "J.T. asked us to stay out of his life and we're adhering to that.