Gallagher: Snyder headed drive to secure franchise for Montreal with no owner in tow
Former Montreal city councillor Gerry Snyder, who helped bring Major League Baseball to Canada, was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame on Wednesday.
February 16, 2025
By Danny Gallagher
Canadian Baseball Network
Back on Jan. 17, historian and SABR Quebec Chapter leader Patrick Carpentier asked me in a Facebook Direct Message if I had been in contact with Gerry Snyder's children.
I said no. He said he would figure out a way to get ahold of them.
Now, I see why he asked me. Snyder was elected into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame on Feb. 12 as a builder.
Carpentier is a member of the Hall of Fame's veterans committee and suggested to other committee members Snyder was deserving to join the hall, considering his role in bringing a major-league franchise to Montreal.
In the end, it was the selection committee that made the decision in favour of Snyder, who died in 2007. Snyder was nominated many years ago for the regular ballot but after being rejected on a number of occasions, his name was relegated to the veteran‘s committee.
This year's ballot wasn't supposed to include builders. The hall had recently changed its strategy, saying builders would be elected every other year. So, this year, no builders were supposed to be elected but I'm sure glad Snyder got in anyway.
Snyder was a Montreal city councillor, who worked hand in hand with mayor Jean Drapeau for years on different matters. On many occasions, Snyder attended National League meetings to promote Montreal as a viable city for the major leagues among the many team owners.
"Snyder was not only Drapeau's right-hand man but also his go-to guy for fostering projects that may not come to fruition. They were the kind of projects Drapeau was for but didn't want to get attached to, in case they failed and they became political liability in the short-run,'' Carpentier told me. "But if they paid off, Drapeau could take credit. But Snyder delivered each time. He was good at persuading people. I guess he got it from his father who was a shoe salesman.
"People out of Montreal think that Drapeau got us the Expos. Wrong. It was Snyder. Snyder wouldn't have started his effort without Drapeau's approval, that's for sure. But Drapeau had inclinations toward music and art, not sports.
"It took Snyder to convince Drapeau of the good of the project and get results at the end. But most people don't, which is why it was important for Snyder to get the recognition he deserved. Good selection and long overdue if you ask me, since Snyder was far more instrumental in gaining the franchise than mayor Drapeau.''
I remember Snyder telling me in the 1990s that most media in Montreal laughed off his efforts to try and obtain a franchise for Montreal.
"Nobody believed me. The people in radio and TV thought it was a joke,'' Snyder said. "I was getting criticized from all quarters. The reporters were saying there was no hope in hell that the league would expand to a foreign country.’’
Then on May 27, 1968 at Chicago's Excelsior Hotel, the National League announced Montreal was getting a franchise along with San Diego. Accompanying Snyder on the trip was his brother-in-law Jack Varnas -- and La Presse reporters Marcel Desjardins and Gerry Champagne.
Absent from the Montreal delegation was a prospective owner showing any interest. Imagine. Snyder singlehandedly won the franchise for Montreal. Charles Bronfman got involved later as a majority owner.
Snyder had begun attending NL meetings in 1962 and when the news came Montreal was getting a franchise, it was a wonderful feeling for him. He said it was the greatest achievement of his life in sports.
"No question,'' he said. "I brought major-league baseball to Canada. I didn't bring the Expos to Montreal. What the Expos did after that was not my responsibility.''
Snyder was also involved in getting investors to join Montreal's baby franchise and he introduced future team president John McHale to Bronfman.
"Bronfman didn't know McHale from a hole in the ground and neither did I,'' Snyder told me. "I'd found out about McHale from this guy, William Daley, who was the chairman of the board of the Pennsylvania Railroad and he was a half investor in the Seattle Pilots and he was a former investor in the Cleveland Indians.''
With McHale aboard, Snyder was hoping to land a job with the Expos but it never came to pass. He heard from different sources McHale did not want to hire Snyder.
"It was a typical American thing. And typical American, he brought in half a dozen Americans to work for him,'' Snyder said. "Over the years, McHale didn't want to see me. He wasn't my type of guy. When we'd meet, he'd say how glad he was to see me and then he was gone.''
Without Snyder, though, Montreal would not have been granted a franchise, at least not in 1968.
Danny Gallagher’s next Expos book will be published in 2026 by Dundurn Press.