By Mark Liptak
White Sox Historian
White Sox fans may think the right field situation and the team’s inability to figure it out is a recent problem but history shows it isn’t.
The hole in right field has been around off and on for years. For example, the Sox thought they had it solved when they made a trade with Cleveland for power hitter Cory Snyder before the start of the 1991 season.
Alas it didn’t work out and shockingly Snyder was traded even before that season ended.
Sometimes though the reason something didn’t work isn’t obvious and there was far more than met the eye in this one as I found out when I interviewed Cory in 2002.
It showed the power of then White Sox hitting coach Walt Hriniak.
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His stay in Chicago wasn’t a long one. It wasn’t by his choice, and to this day, Cory Snyder wonders "what if?" What if his opportunity with the White Sox had been longer? What if he had been able to play on the 1993 Western Division Champion and the team leading the division at the time of the strike in 1994?
Snyder played nine years in the Major Leagues with Cleveland, the White Sox, Toronto, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He was a tremendous athlete with an arm that enabled him to tie for the lead in outfield assists in the American League from 1987 through 1990 with 61. He was an exceptional defensive outfielder only making one error in 310 chances in 1989. He had pop in his bat as well, stroking 115 home runs in his four and a half years with the Tribe. When the Sox got him in the off season after 1990, for pitchers Eric King and Shawn Hillegas, Sox fans thought the ‘black hole’ in right field was finally figured out.
Unfortunately, Snyder’s stay on the South Side lasted only three and a half months when he was dealt to Toronto for outfielder Shawn Jeter. It’s a sad story of a good player being forced to do things...