One Grounder Didn’t Ruin It All

He was a Gold Glove first baseman who made numerous highlight-reel defensive plays, but it was a ground ball J.T. Snow couldn’t corral that Angel fans may remember most about 1995.

The Seattle Mariners had a 1-0 lead and the bases loaded in the seventh inning of the one-game playoff to determine the American League West championship Oct. 2 when Luis Sojo came up against Angel pitcher Mark Langston.

Sojo hit a broken-bat grounder down the first-base line that caromed off a seam in the Kingdome turf and bounced past Snow, whose backhanded stab at the ball was off target.

The grounder traveled into the Angel bullpen in foul territory as two runs scored, and two more runs scored on the play when Langston’s relay throw bounced past catcher Andy Allanson. A 1-0 game suddenly was 5-0, and the Mariners were on their way to a 9-1 victory.

Though Snow said he could have caught the grounder--it was ruled a double--he is not haunted by the play.

“It wasn’t like an error that went through my legs,” Snow said. “Watching the replay, that ball was really spinning and it shot off the seam where the turf meets the dirt. I was pretty hurt for a couple of days, but after that I let it go.”

Snow explained the play to several waves of reporters in the Kingdome clubhouse, after which Manager Marcel Lachemann took him aside, put both arms around Snow’s shoulders and had a lengthy chat with his first baseman.

“He told me that play didn’t win or lose the game, that I’ve been the best in the league all season long, and that if it was a makable play I would have made it,” Snow said. “He told me not to let others make me feel like I’d lost the game, because I had too good a year for that. That was pretty important to me. It gave me a lot of confidence.”