Goodbye, J.T.
You know how you have those old, comfy slippers that at one point were the latest in slipper accessories but they started to get kind of old and ratty and full of holes and you realize that there's way better slippers out there but you just can't get rid of those slippers because they're just so comfy and they always bring warm and fuzzy memories? Well, those slippers are J.T. Snow. And you just threw them out. Because late Wednesday night the Giants announced that they were not going to offer J.T. arbitration and so bid him adieu. To replace him, the Giants are set to sign ex-Padres 1B Mark Sweeney, a player we are excited about not one whit.
Look, we know, J.T.'s numbers were never really that great. And he was a bit of an offensive liability, especially these past couple of years. But call us sentimental because we'll miss the guy. Not only that, we liked the guy and are sad to see him go.
With him and Woody gone, the last remnants of the great Giants run are pretty much gone. In fact, with the exception of Barry, Jason Schmidt and Pedro Feliz, there's nobody left from the 2002 team (well, Worrell is back, but he doesn't really count because he left for a couple of years). It really is the end of an era. At nine years with the team, he also matched the immortal Willie McCovey as the longest tenured first baseman in Giants' history.
J.T. urges the ball to go fair in the 2000 playoffs
J.T. was an integral part of those teams. Think about it, almost every big moment of the late 90s, early 00s team somehow involved J.T. He hit that Carlton Fisk-like homer in the bottom of the ninth against Armando Benitez in Game 2 of the 2000 Divisional Series that still might be the most dramatic home run hit in Pac Bell, SBC, AT&T Park even though the Giants lost the game. In 2002, he was the one who grabbed Darren Baker while running home in Game 5, the laugher game that looked like the pre-party to the winning the World Series party. And in 2003, it was him who crashed into Pudge Rodriguez at home plate to end that series. We can't remember anything big he did in 1997, but it was his best year statistically and he was a crucial component of it.
That was J.T., he was always in the center of everything, whether it was the big defensive play to stop a rally or the clutch hit in an important game, hitting .407 in the 2002 Series. And yeah, his offensive stats never quite measured up to his 1997 year, but his defense at first base was extraordinary, way above and beyond what's required of first baseman. Defense is always the underappreciated art (stat heads hate it because they can't accurately measure it) but his glove was worth the slaphappy hitting.
We'll miss his steady glove, his class in handling the often-dickly way Giants treated him, and his over-eager Eagle Scout demeanor. Our favorite thing was his reaction whenever a ball got by the catcher, the way he'd step out of the batter’s box and let everyone know whether to go or not.
We wish J.T. luck wherever he goes and hope he doesn't go to the Royals, as rumored. He’s still a great defensive player and still good for the occasional clutch hit and think he'd thrive being a role player for the Sox or Yankees. They couldn’t do much better.