Walter Henry "Doc" Snell (May 19, 1889 – July 23, 1980) was a pinch-hitter/

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

who played briefly for the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

during the season. Following this brief baseball career he became a successful

mycologist Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungus, fungi, including their genetics, genetic and biochemistry, biochemical properties, their Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and ethnomycology, their use to humans, including as a so ...

who worked primarily at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

for the next 60 years.

Baseball career

Snell was a college three-sport athlete turned scientist. Besides

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

, he played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

at Brockton High School, graduating in 1907. He then attended Phillips Andover Academy for two years, graduating in 1909, before enrolling at

. At Brown, Snell was both a scholar and an athlete, as a

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

in academics and a catcher for four years on the varsity baseball team under coach

Harry Pattee Harry Ernest Pattee (January 17, 1882 – July 17, 1971) was a professional baseball player who played second base for the 1908 Brooklyn Superbas. He went to college at Brown University Brown University is a private research university ...

. In 1913, he was signed by the

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oaklan ...

owner Connie Mack, but broke his hand in a game at Brown and was dealt to the Red Sox. In a six-game career, Snell was a .250 hitter (3-for-12) with one

run Run(s) or RUN may refer to: Places * Run (island), one of the Banda Islands in Indonesia * Run (stream), a stream in the Dutch province of North Brabant People * Run (rapper), Joseph Simmons, now known as "Reverend Run", from the hip-hop group ...

and one

stolen base In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base to which they are not entitled and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe or ...

without RBI or

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s. In two catching appearances, he committed one error in 13 chances accepted for a .923

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putouts and assists, div ...

. Snell hit a

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

in his first major league

at bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...

off Cleveland Naps

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

Nick Cullop on August 1, 1913. He was one of five catchers the Red Sox used during the 1913 season. Following his majors career, Snell continued to play some minor league baseball while studying for his master's degree, playing in 1914 and 1915 in the

International League The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Baseball ...

with the

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...

(1914) and

Rochester Hustlers The Rochester Red Wings are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. They are located in Rochester, New York, and play their home games at Innovative Field, located in down ...

(1915), and for the

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

team of the New England League (1915), becoming a

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

in his last baseball season.

Doctoral career

After receiving his master's degree from Brown in 1915, Snell began to pursue his doctoral studies in 1916 at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

. He earned a Ph.D. degree in

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

and went on to a distinguished career as a college professor and athletic coach both in baseball and football at Brown University for 39 years. In the summer of 1923, he managed the Hyannis town team in the

Cape Cod Baseball League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over one thousan ...

. After retiring as a professor in 1959, he had written numerous professional papers on research in his field, published in scientific journals such as '' Mycologia'' and ''Phytopathology''. His research delved in areas as diverse as forest tree diseases, decay in building timbers, toxicity of creosotes to wood-destroying fungi, language of

mycology Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and their use to humans, including as a source for tinder, traditional medicine, food, and entheogens, as ...

, and

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

of boletes and hydnums (types of mushrooms and fungi).

Personal life

Snell married twice. His second wife, Esther A. Dick (later Esther Dick Snell), was a fellow mycologist who co-wrote ''A Glossary of the Fungi'' with him, among other works.Walter H. Snell and Esther D. Snell Mycology Collection
/ref> Snell died at the age of 91 in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

References

External links

Baseball Reference

SABR Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Snell, Wally 1889 births 1980 deaths American mycologists Boston Red Sox players Major League Baseball catchers Brown Bears athletic directors Brown Bears baseball coaches Brown Bears baseball players Brown Bears football coaches Cape Cod Baseball League coaches Manchester Textiles players Phillips Academy alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni Baseball players from Massachusetts People from West Bridgewater, Massachusetts Sportspeople from Plymouth County, Massachusetts