A Snapp decision

Today marks the 41st anniversary of Wilbur Snapp, the Clearwater Phillies' 65-year-old organist, being ejected from a Florida State League game for playing Three Blind Mice after a questionable call by umpire Keith O'Connor.

So much for umpires having a sense of humor.

Wilbur Snapp at work

Really, though, O’Connor has every right to toss Snapp from the game, having already given him fair warning that such antics are taboo.

“I threw him out immediately and I was backed by the league 100 percent, because I told him earlier in the season that he couldn’t do that,” O’Connor later tells a writer from the Slate.

“From an outsider’s view, it’s funny,” O’Connor says, “(but) it’s a derogatory thing that’s only going to incite the crowd. It’s not cute when you’re the guy on the field and you don’t know what the reaction’s going to be.”

O’Connor ends up working 10 seasons in the minors and eventually becomes an umpire evaluator for Major League Baseball.

As for Snapp, for the rest of his life, which lasts to 2003, he embraces his encounter with O’Connor and the brief national headline he becomes in 1985.

After his ejection by O’Connor, Snapp signs autographs for anyone seeking one – and writes, “Wilbur Snapp, Three Blind Mice organist.”

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