Leon Snuggs played ball with Bob Nieman, Johnny Temple, Hurricane Hazle, Muscles Shoals, and Wally Post. He pitched to '54 World Series hero Dusty Rhodes(Rock Hill) in the Tri State League in '50, all-time homer champ Hank Aaron(Jacksonville) in the Sally League in '52, and against early '40's Brooklyn Dodger star Kirby Higbe(Montgomery) the same year, but the closest Snuggs ever got to the Show was watching American Association Champ Indianapolis on a class D off day in 1948.
He sure knew how to tell stories, though. Like Bob Nieman (Ogden)beating hell out of some pitcher behind a billboard outside a greasy spoon for playing only Eddy Arnold records. Or minor league legend Muscles Shoals(Columbia) careening through town shellacked as a baseball bat in Corky Valentine's car. 'Three and Two' McPhail boxing another batter into a full count. Even southern fried pitching advice in '48 from Johnny Temple(Ogden): 'He's a negro(not Temple's word), ain't he? Cain't hurt him if you hit his head- drill that black son of a bitch in the damn foot!'
Leon was a lefthanded fireplug who who threw lightning bolts- sometimes even over the plate. His e.r.a. was usually under 3.5, but he never had the eyepopping numbers vital to rapid advancement. The Reds signed him out of high school to an A contract in '47- wherever sent he made 'A' money(two-fifty a month). Consequently, Cincy treated Snuggs as a phenom up to class A, then as a nonprospect once he finally stuck.
When the Reds cut him from double A Tulsa after two weeks of spring training of '53-he never pitched one game- Leon got married and enlisted in the army (playing against Johnny Antonelli in service ball). He got a degree via GI bill from Campbell College and taught phys-ed at the junior high in my town for over 20 years. The best indication of his repute as a teacher and community standing is our high school diamond's name: Snuggs Field.
When I saw that big picture on his 8th grade classroom wall of the 'Columbia Reds- Sally League Regular Season Champs - 1952' I'd found an everyday hero. Since my dad was 65 when I was born, Leon also became kind of a father figure to me. Words can't express what a thrill it was to go through his 4 minor league scrapbooks and pester him daily about inside baseball.
On dress-out days he always wore a Cincinnati Reds cap acquired during one of his several tries with Columbia. I loved that hat, buddy! One day Leon tried to take me and my baseball knowledge down a few pegs by saying if I knew the name inside the sweatband, he'd give it to me. I did, but he didn't and I rode the everliving beejezus out of him for months.
Snuggs was big on family. When his father died in '51 he laid out of O. B. to work the farm, and Leon helped out at 'the homeplace' in Stanly, NC a month or so every summer after leaving the army. It was there he fell off a tractor, and disc harrows killed him in 1978. Sometime after attending the funeral his wife Hilda sent word she wanted to see me. When I got there, she handed me a box. Inside was a 26 year old dry cleaned Reds cap.
Leon always paid his debts.
Dan Taylor
