An Uncommon Snow Sighting

When Detroit’s Danny Bautista sent a second-inning popup into foul territory down the right-field line, Angel catcher Don Slaught didn’t think right fielder Tim Salmon or second baseman Randy Velarde would have a play on the ball. And first baseman J.T. Snow? “I wasn’t even looking at him,” Slaught said.

Snow, after sprinting about 120 feet down the line, made an over-the-shoulder catch, the kind of play that helped him win the Gold Glove award in 1995.

In the eighth inning, Snow made an even more astonishing play--he dropped Cecil Fielder’s foul pop for an error.

Snow initially went back on the ball, but the swirling wind above Tiger Stadium knocked it back toward home plate. Snow raced in, but the ball bounced off the inside of his right wrist and to the ground.

Fielder then flied to center, the error causing more damage to Snow’s fielding percentage--and ego--than to the Angels. “The wind blew it back in and I just dropped it--I didn’t even get a glove on it,” Snow said. “But luckily it didn’t hurt us.”