Roy Emil Frederick "Snipe" Hansen (February 21, 1907 – September 11, 1978) was a left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. In a five-season major league career, he played for the Philadelphia Phillies and the St. Louis Browns. He was officially listed as standing and weighing .
After opening his minor league career in the Chicago Cubs system, Hansen was purchased by the Phillies in 1930, playing for them that season and from 1932 to 1935. He won 22 games and lost 44 for the Philadelphia club, posting a 4.84 earned run average in 599 innings and splitting time between the starting rotation and the bullpen. Late in his major league career, he played a short time for the Browns, losing one game before returning to the minors at the end of his career.
Early years
Roy Emil Frederick Hansen was born in Chicago on February 21, 1907. He acquired his nickname during his first spring training with the Chicago Cubs, when the team prepared for the season on Catalina Island, southwest of Los Angeles. Jim Vitti, author of The Cubs on Catalina, told of Hansen's trip to the bottom of a canyon on the island, led by two teammates who gave him a burlap bag and disappeared, ostensibly to flush out the snipe. Hours later, he returned to the hotel "where he found the entire Cub team waiting for him in the lobby, falling over with laughter". The "Snipe" moniker remained with him for the remainder of his career.
Minor leagues
Hansen was signed by the Cubs for a tryout in 1927, described by the Miami News as "the first native son hurler to reseive a tryout in a long time". Chicago assigned him to their double-A affiliate, the Reading Keystones, where he appeared in 34 games during the 1927 season. Notching the team's third-worst winning percentage (.111) with one win against eight losses, he amassed a 6.99 earned run average (ERA), allowing 99 runs in 94 innings pitched. Hansen was reported to be on the Reading staff again during 1928's spring training, with the Keystones still anticipating his arrival as late as mid-April, but he played the entire 1928 season for the unaffiliated Elmira Colonels, posting a 12–17 win–loss record in 229 innings (37 games; tied for most pitching appearances on the club). Hansen led the Colonels in runs allowed, earned runs, and walks, allowing 241 hits on the season and collecting a 4.14 ERA.
In 1929, Hansen re-surfaced with Chicago on the way to spring training at Catalina, and spent that season in the minor leagues with the Dayton Aviators, where he accumulated a 5.16 ERA (105 earned runs in 150 innings), winning seven games and losing eleven. He struck out 78 batters that season against 68 walks, allowing 166 hits. After spending the first three months of the 1930 season with the Richmond Roses, where he posted an 11–9 record and a 4.50 ERA in 162 innings, Hansen was purchased by the Philadelphia Phillies.
Major leagues
1930: Major league debut
Hansen made his first Phillies appearance on July 5, 1930, pitching five innings in the first game of a doubleheader against the Boston Braves. He allowed three runs (one earned) in his first contest, striking out four batters and walking two. His next four games, however, all resulted in defeats; Hansen gave up the losing run to the New York Giants out of the bullpen on July 7, and started his next three contests, losing all three to drop his major league record of 0–4. In two more July contests, he lost one more game, raising his ERA for the month to 5.25.
In August, Hansen posted his first scoreless major league appearance, but lost one more game in four starts and allowed a season-high 14 hits in innings on August 29. Hansen's ERA continued to climb in September, reaching a season high of 6.80 on September 23 after he allowed 16 runs in 7 September appearances. After a scoreless appearance in his final game of the season, Hansen's final statistics for the major league portion of his 1930 season consisted of an 0–7 record, a 6.72 ERA, and 25 strikeouts against 38 walks.