Always Be Snelling

Entering last night's game against the Astros, Chris Snelling, 26, had one plate appearance with the Phillies.  He pinch-hit to lead off the ninth with the Phillies down by three runs.  Jose Valverde, the Astros' closer threw him a first-pitch fastball down the heart of the plate and before you could blink, Snelling had driven it into the right field seats.  The homer changed the momentum and the Phillies would go on to win the game 4-3, scoring all of their runs in the ninth inning.

So who is this Snelling guy?  The short version is that Snelling is a native Australian and was a very highly touted prospect in the Mariners organization.  He reached the majors at just 20 years old, but one injury after another, the most detrimental of which were several to his knees, he was robbed of his athleticism.  Traded by the Mariners, he played 2007 with the Washington Nationals and bounced around the waiver wire in the offseason, and given Phillies GM Pat Gillick's weakness for athletes formerly under his charge, it was only a matter of time before the Phillies picked him up.

As if Snelling's perseverance after so many injuries wasn't interesting enough, it turns out he has quite a quirky personality.  Here's what Snelling said he was tempted to do when he joined the Nats last year:

"I actually thought about coming here and acting like Steve Irwin, putting on the Australian accent real thick," he said, smiling in the Nationals clubhouse among 60 or so teammates who still remain largely strangers.

"You know, act like I didn't know what I was doing. Hitting a ground ball in batting practice and running to third."

After checking in with David Cameron of USS Mariner and Fangraphs, it seems as if that is just the tip of the iceberg with Snelling.  Some other antics:

• During one of his rehab sessions down in Peoria [Arizona] he decided to set the world record for consecutive hours bouncing a ping pong ball off the wall, because it was more fun than hanging out in Arizona.
• A few winters ago, he went backpacking in the outback and didn't tell anyone in the Mariners organization.  They didn't hear from him for about 4 months and were concerned that he died.
• He would carry a 3 ft yoda doll with him everywhere he went, even going so far as to purchase a ticket to get back on a plane after leaving it behind.

Eventually, many Mariners fans began to call Snelling "Doyle", partly because it is his middle name, and partly for other reasons.  From USS Mariner:

There’s a superstition that if a newborn is particularly fragile, the parents hold off naming them until they’re sure the child is through the worst — to not draw the attention of evil forces that might find and harm the kid while it is vulnerable. In that tradition, I will say nothing about the player shagging balls before games in the outfield for Tacoma. I will be calling this player Doyle. Or Code Name: Doyle, or Conan Doyle for extra confusion.

Call me crazy, but I think this is a guy Phillies fans can get behind, after all, this guy makes Sal Fasano look bland.  He deserves a Phan club post haste.