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

pinch-hitter In baseball, a pinch hitter is a substitute batter. Batters can be substituted at any time while the ball is dead (not in active play); the manager may use any player who has not yet entered the game as a substitute. Unlike basketball, America ...

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the ( home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the ca ...

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 eigh ...

during the season. Following this brief baseball career he became a successful mycologist who worked primarily at Brown University 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 t ...

, he played football and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

Brockton High School Brockton High School, established in 1870, is a high school located in Brockton, Massachusetts. It is a part of Brockton Public Schools. As of 2016 Brockton High School, with 4,029 students, is one of the largest high schools in the United States ...

, graduating in 1907. He then attended

Phillips Andover Academy ("Not for Self") la, Finis Origine Pendet ("The End Depends Upon the Beginning") Youth From Every Quarter Knowledge and Goodness , address = 180 Main Street , city = Andover , state = Ma ...

for two years, graduating in 1909, before enrolling at Brown University. 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 ...

in academics and a catcher for four years on the varsity baseball team under coach Harry Pattee. In 1913, he was signed by the Philadelphia Athletics owner

Connie Mack Cornelius McGillicuddy (December 22, 1862 – February 8, 1956), better known as Connie Mack, was an American professional baseball catcher, manager, and team owner. The longest-serving manager in Major League Baseball history, he holds untoucha ...

, 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 and one stolen base 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. 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 off

Cleveland Naps The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive ...

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 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 The New England League was a mid-level league in American minor league baseball that played intermittently in five of the six New England states (Vermont excepted) between 1886 and 1949. After 1901, it existed in the shadow of two Major League B ...

(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, ...

. 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. 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 ''Mycologia'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes papers on all aspects of the fungi, including lichens. It first appeared as a bimonthly journal in January 1909, published by the New York Botanical Garden under the editorship of ...

'' and ''Phytopathology''. His research delved in areas as diverse as forest tree diseases, decay in building timbers, toxicity of

creosote Creosote is a category of carbonaceous chemicals formed by the distillation of various tars and pyrolysis of plant-derived material, such as wood or fossil fuel. They are typically used as preservatives or antiseptics. Some creosote types were ...

s 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 entheogen ...

, 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. ...

bolete {{refimprove, date=July 2020 A bolete is a type of mushroom, or fungal fruiting body. It can be identified thanks to a unique mushroom cap. The cap is clearly different from the stem. On the underside of the cap there is usually a spongy surf ...

s and

hydnum ''Hydnum'' is a genus of fungi in the family Hydnaceae. They are notable for their unusual spore-bearing structures of teeth rather than gills. The best known are the edible species ''Hydnum repandum'' and '' H. rufescens''. There are no known t ...

s (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 ...

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