With the wispy blonde hair from his moustache in his outstanding 1989 Donruss card, Cory Snyder fit the bill as a swashbuckling power hitter in his early career with the Cleveland Indians. At that point in his career, Snyder had led a charmed early baseball career, from earning a full scholarship to Brigham Young University to being named to the first United States national baseball team which earned a silver medal in the 1984 Summer Olympics. Not only that, he was drafted in the first round of the 1984 Major League Baseball Draft after a successful college career when he was on the College Baseball All-America Team.

The 1989 Donruss set is one of the best that Donruss put out in the entire decade. Maybe in its history. The color gradients, the team logo and the inclusion of the player’s position are all welcomed. The player font is futuristic…at least for 1989. And when you would put several cards of this set side by side, with the same color gradients, they would run together and be almost seamless, like they were connected. With this Snyder card specifically, I like the photography, and how they capture his eye black and blazing red batting gloves as well as the belt in front. And please let’s not forget Snyder’s wispy moustache and his hair spilling out from the back of the batting helmet. Overall a great looking card, like many of the 1989 Donruss set.

Justifiably, expectations were pretty high for Snyder as he started his pro career and he only spent a season at Double-A in 1985 and then 49 games at Triple-A in 1986 hitting .302 before getting called up to the major leagues. After hitting 28 homers in his first full pro season at Double-A, Snyder took to the big leagues immediately, smashing 24 homers in just 103 games for Cleveland. Not only that, Snyder played mostly in right field, but also spent time at shortstop and third base. For this, he finished fourth in the 1986 American League Rookie of the Year voting.

The 1985 Cleveland Indians were a lousy 60-102 but with Snyder and a bunch of young, talented players like Joe Carter and Brett Butler, in 1986 Cleveland surged to 84-78. In 1987, the baseball world was expecting big things from Snyder and Cleveland, so one of the more infamous Sports Illustrated covers was made featuring Snyder and Carter.

Although Cleveland went back to being lousy in 1987 with a 61-101 record, Snyder hit 33 homers to lead the team, one of three players to hit 30 homers along with Carter and third baseman Brook Jacoby who both had 32. The only thing is, 1987 featured the “rabbit ball” where something funky happened to the baseball which led to a spike in home runs throughout baseball. Largely because of this, Snyder’s WAR for 1987 is a paltry -0.4.

Which takes us to 1988, and the season that is featured most recently on the back of Snyder’s 1989 Donruss card, his third. This was likely Snyder’s best season, where he hit 26 homers and struck out the least he’d had in his three years with 101. He had the highest OBP so far, and what would ultimately be his second highest in his career at .326. All of this contributed to the highest WAR he’d put up for a season in his career at 2.7. He tied for his best batting average at .272 and scored 71 runs while playing virtually all of his games in right field where he led the American League with 14 outfield assists in right field and led all outfielders with 16 assists total.

That 1988 season would prove to be Snyder’s height as a player. Unfortunately, he’d get injured in 1989 and his batting average tanked to .215 and then in 1990 it wasn’t much better at .233. He was a league average player for WAR in 1989 and -0.6 WAR in 1990, though he still had a bit of pop, hitting at least 14 homers in each season. But Cleveland would trade Snyder to the White Sox in 1991 where he only lasted half a season before being traded again to Toronto. He hit a whopping .175 between the two teams. In 1992 he signed with the San Francisco Giants and had a nice comeback year, hitting .269 with 14 homers and a 1.2 WAR playing in 124 games. He was a free agent again in 1993 and signed a two year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers and had a productive year. In 1994, however, the strike hit, and Snyder decided to just go home. He concluded his career with a 0.7 WAR and 149 home runs with a .249 batting average and this beauty of a 1989 Donruss card!

Posted by JD

ARTICLE REFERENCES:

• Snyder developed an adverse relationship with Cleveland management at the end of his tenure there: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-06-26-sp-7270-story.html
• Snyder didn’t get along with the White Sox hitting coach or manager Jeff Torborg in 1991. Also, he talks about his time with the Giants and Dodgers.: https://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/cory_snyder_interview.shtml
• Cory Snyder’s Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Snyder