Today in sports history -- Frankie Frisch

On this date 35 years ago, Hall of Fame second baseman Frankie Frisch died in Wilmington, Delaware, succumbing to injuries suffered in a car accident a month earlier. He was 74.

Frisch played for the New York Giants from 1919 to 1926, then was traded to the Cardinals with Jimmy Ring for the great Rogers Hornsby. He spent 11 years in St. Louis, where he was a key player in the great "Gashouse Gang" teams of the 1930s. Frisch won four World Series with John McGraw's Giants, and four more with the Redbirds. For the last of those, in 1934, he was a player-manager. Frisch ended with 2,880 career hits, and was reportedly a wizard with the leather. It took him until his fifth ballot, in 1947, to get enough votes for Cooperstown enshrinement, but he's a legitimate Hall of Famer.

He is, however, personally responsible for the enshrinement of several illegitimate Hall of Famers. Frisch became a member of the Hall of Fame veterans committee in the 1960s, and used the position to get large numbers of his former teammates elected. Dave Bancroft, Chick Hafey, Jesse Haines, George Kelly, Rube Marquard and Ross Youngs were all fine players, but they have no business being on busts in Cooperstown. All put up numbers that were inferior to those of dozens of players who have not been inducted, all played with Frisch in New York or St. Louis, and all were elected by the Veterans Committee when Frisch was a member.

But hey, the man's been dead for 35 years. Let's remember his great career more than we remember his urinating all over the standards of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Today in sports history

Happy 40th birthday, longtime major league first baseman Jack Thomas Snow Jr., aka J.T. Snow.

J.T., the son of former NFL wide receiver Jack Snow, was drafted by the Yankees in 1989 after three years at Arizona, and broke into the majors with that hated franchise in 1992. He was then traded to the Angels (with two other players) for Jim Abbott, and played four years in Anaheim. The Angels dealt him to the Giants for two players you've never heard of, Allen Watson and Fausto Macey.

Snow played nine years in San Francisco, and he had some good years there, even finishing 26th in the MVP voting in 1997. He then finished up with a rough partial season with the Red Sox in 2006. He played in 1,715 games, and never played a defensive position other than first base. A career .268 hitter, he finished with 1,509 hits, 189 home runs and 877 RBIs.

He was a rare animal, a slick-fielding, light-hitting first baseman. He won Gold Gloves in six straight years, 1995 to 2000. And he did once lead the league in an offensive category -- sacrifice flies, with 14 in 2000.

Baseball fans will never forget how Snow may have saved 3-year-old Darren Baker, son of manager Dusty Baker, from injury during Game 5 of the 2002 World Series. Darren was toiling as a bat boy, and on Kenny Lofton's triple that scored Snow, the little guy ran out onto the field to collect Lofton's bat before the play had concluded. Snow picked him up by his jacket and carried him off to safety. The look on Dusty's face was priceless. He was mortified.