NATIONAL POST: Minor-league organist Wilbur Snapp died on Saturday. An umpire guaranteed he will be remembered for more than music
John Lott - National Post
Thursday, September 11, 2003
Wilbur Snapp's' death from leukemia last week would have attracted little notice but for a familiar ditty he played in 1985 during a minor-league baseball game.
"Wilbur Snapp, the only organist ever ejected from a professional baseball game, has been playing the Kawai at Phillies' spring training games for 18 years. For a decade, he also played at the Clearwater Phillies' minor-league games, 70 nights each summer. He is an institution in an age of canned ballpark music.
'I'm self-taught,' he says. 'I don't read music. I've never had a lesson in my life. I play about 2,000 songs.'
The one many people remember most is Three Blind Mice, which he played one evening in 1985 after 'the worst umpire's call I've ever seen in hundreds of baseball games.'
He remembers every detail. Ricky Jordan was on first base for the Clearwater Phillies when someone hit a sinking liner to right field. The outfielder made a shoestring catch and Jordan quickly retreated to first, sliding in on his stomach, grabbing the bag with both hands well before the throw arrived. At least that's how Wilbur, the home fans and the Clearwater manager saw it.
The umpire called Jordan out.
So Wilbur played Three Blind Mice and the umpire walked up to the screen, pointed straight at him and gave him the thumb.
'It hit the news wires clear around the world,' he says with a smile. 'And I had 22 interviews the next day. Marv Albert called me from New York and had me on his show, live.'
Wilbur has told the story countless times and he never tires of it. He has a scrapbook of newspaper clippings that chronicle his unique ejection and his $100 fine, later forgiven.
'There isn't a day that goes by that somebody doesn't ask me to play Three Blind Mice,' he says."
John Lott - National Post
Thursday, September 11, 2003
Wilbur Snapp's' death from leukemia last week would have attracted little notice but for a familiar ditty he played in 1985 during a minor-league baseball game.
"Wilbur Snapp, the only organist ever ejected from a professional baseball game, has been playing the Kawai at Phillies' spring training games for 18 years. For a decade, he also played at the Clearwater Phillies' minor-league games, 70 nights each summer. He is an institution in an age of canned ballpark music.
'I'm self-taught,' he says. 'I don't read music. I've never had a lesson in my life. I play about 2,000 songs.'
The one many people remember most is Three Blind Mice, which he played one evening in 1985 after 'the worst umpire's call I've ever seen in hundreds of baseball games.'
He remembers every detail. Ricky Jordan was on first base for the Clearwater Phillies when someone hit a sinking liner to right field. The outfielder made a shoestring catch and Jordan quickly retreated to first, sliding in on his stomach, grabbing the bag with both hands well before the throw arrived. At least that's how Wilbur, the home fans and the Clearwater manager saw it.
The umpire called Jordan out.
So Wilbur played Three Blind Mice and the umpire walked up to the screen, pointed straight at him and gave him the thumb.
'It hit the news wires clear around the world,' he says with a smile. 'And I had 22 interviews the next day. Marv Albert called me from New York and had me on his show, live.'
Wilbur has told the story countless times and he never tires of it. He has a scrapbook of newspaper clippings that chronicle his unique ejection and his $100 fine, later forgiven.
'There isn't a day that goes by that somebody doesn't ask me to play Three Blind Mice,' he says."
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