Didn’t the late talk show host, chain-smoking Tom Snyder play a little Class D ball during the depression?  Honestly, Stout had spent a number of years living in Europe prior to publishing the novel and my gut feeling is Snyder is merely an amalgam. I even gave the SABR minor league database a quick glance, on the off chance there had been a Snyder on some obscure bush league team in a town where Stout had grown up.

And I’m not convinced this is a CF.  “Leaping…to spear a hot liner like one streak of lightning stopping another one” sounds like an IF to me.  Going on the assumption it’s a NY infielder from the 20s or early 30s, I looked at Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Lineups.  It could be Travis Jackson, Freddie Lindstrom, or Hughie Critz of the Giants.  Tony Lazzeri, Frank Crossetti, and Joe Sewell were all playing for the Yanks during that period; and if we go back a little, we can include Lyn Lary and Joe Dugan.  The Dodgers were never really set at any one position during any length of time, though it could be Tony Cuccinello, Glenn Wright, or Wally Gilbert.  So there you have a list of suspects.  Can we exclude any based on defensive reputation?  Also, I neglected to include 1B (Gehrig and Terry), is that a fair assumption?

There is a guy named Bernie Snyder who was a middle infielder for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1935. Unfortunately, there is no record of him playing any other professional baseball besides that single season.

Don’t have a clue about Snyder, but thanks for the tip on the literature blog. It’s great!

@ Petr

Thanks for finding that picture.  I used to be the clubhouse manager at Bowman Field (which is still in operation), and am excited to see the rest of the book.

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