| Duke Snider | |
|---|---|
 Snider with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1953 | |
| Center fielder | |
| Born:(1926-09-19)September 19, 1926 Los Angeles, California, U.S. | |
| Died: February 27, 2011(2011-02-27) (aged 84) Escondido, California, U.S. | |
Batted: Left Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| April 17, 1947, for the Brooklyn Dodgers | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| October 3, 1964, for the San Francisco Giants | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .295 |
| Hits | 2,116 |
| Home runs | 407 |
| Runs batted in | 1,333 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
| Member of the National | |
 Baseball Hall of Fame | |
| Induction | 1980 |
| Vote | 86.5% (11th ballot) |
Edwin Donald "Duke"Snider (September 19, 1926 – February 27, 2011), nicknamed "the Duke of Flatbush", was an American professionalbaseball player. Primarily acenter fielder, he spent most of hisMajor League Baseball (MLB) career playing for theBrooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers (1947–1962), later playing one season each for theNew York Mets (1963) andSan Francisco Giants (1964).
Snider was named to the National League (NL) All-Star roster eight times and was the NLMost Valuable Player (MVP) runner-up in 1955. In his 16 seasons with the Dodgers, he helped lead the team to sixWorld Series, with victories in 1955 and 1959. He was elected to theNational Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980.
Born in Los Angeles, Snider was nicknamed "Duke" by his father at age 5 as the result of a self-confident swagger that caused his parents to say he carried himself like royalty.[1] Growing up in Southern California, Snider was a gifted all-around athlete, playing basketball, football, and baseball atCompton High School, class of 1944. He was a strong-armedquarterback, who reportedly could throw the football 70 yards.
Spotted by one ofBranch Rickey's scouts in the early 1940s, he was signed to a baseball contract out of high school in 1943.[1] He played briefly for theMontreal Royals of theInternational League in 1944 (batting twice) and for theNewport News Dodgers in thePiedmont League in the same year. After serving in the U.S. Navy in 1945 and part of 1946, he came back to play for theFort Worth Cats that year, and also forSt. Paul in 1947.
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Snider earned a tryout with theBrooklyn Dodgers during their spring training in 1947. He got his first major league at bat in the second Dodgers game of the 1947 season on April 17 and hit a single. He played in 39 more games that season and became a friend ofJackie Robinson before he was sent to the St. Paul team in early July. Snider returned to the Dodgers at the end of the season in time for the World Series against theNew York Yankees. Snider (after spring training with the Dodgers) started the 1948 season with Montreal, and after hitting well in that league with a .327 batting average, he was called up to Brooklyn in August and played in 53 games. In 1949, Snider became a regular major leaguer hitting 23home runs with 92runs batted in, helping the Dodgers into theWorld Series. Snider also saw hisaverage climb from .244 to .292. A more mature Snider became the "trigger man" in a power-laden lineup which boasted playersJoe Black,Roy Campanella,Billy Cox,Carl Erskine,Carl Furillo,Gil Hodges,Clem Labine,Pee Wee Reese,Jackie Robinson, andPreacher Roe. Often compared with two other New York center fielders, fellowBaseball Hall of Famers,Mickey Mantle andWillie Mays, he was the reigning "Duke" ofFlatbush.
In 1950, he hit .321 and led the National League with 199 base hits and 343 total bases, earning his firstAll-Star Game appearance. When his average slipped to .277 in 1951 (a season when the Dodgers lost a 13‑game August lead and finished second to the Giants afterBobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World"), Snider was roundly criticized in the newspapers. Snider recalls, "I went to Walter O'Malley and told him I couldn't take the pressure", and, "I told him I'd just as soon be traded. I told him I figured I could do the Dodgers no good." The trade did not happen.[2]
Usually batting third in the lineup, Snider established impressive offensive numbers. He hit 40 or more home runs in five consecutive seasons (1953–1957), and between 1953 and 1956 he averaged 42 home runs, 124 RBI, 123 runs, and a .320 batting average. He led the National League (NL) in runs scored, home runs, and RBI in separate seasons. He appeared in six post-seasons with the Dodgers (1949, 1952–53, 1955–56, 1959), facing theNew York Yankees in the first five and theChicago White Sox in the last. The Dodgers won theWorld Series in 1955 and in1959.
Snider's career numbers declined when the team moved to Los Angeles in 1958. Coupled with an aching knee and a 440-foot (130 m) right field fence at the cavernousColiseum, Snider hit only 15 home runs in 1958. However, he had one last hurrah in 1959 as he helped the Dodgers win their first World Series in Los Angeles. Duke rebounded that year to hit .308 with 23 home runs and 88 RBI in 370 at bats while sharing fielding duties in right and center fields withDon Demeter and rookieRon Fairly. Injuries and age would eventually play a role in reducing Snider to part-time status by 1961.
In 1962 when the Dodgers led the NL for most of the season (only to find themselves tied with the hated Giants at the season's end), it was Snider and third-base coachLeo Durocher who reportedly pleaded with managerWalter Alston to bring in future Hall of Fame pitcher (and Cy Young Award winner that year)Don Drysdale in the ninth inning of the third and deciding playoff game. Instead, Alston brought inStan Williams to relieve a tiringEddie Roebuck. A 4–2 lead turned into a 6–4 loss as the Giants rallied to win the pennant. Snider was subsequently sold to theNew York Mets. It is said that Drysdale, his roommate, broke down and cried when he got the news of Snider's departure.
When Snider joined the Mets, he discovered that his familiar number 4 was being worn byCharlie Neal. Snider wore number 11 during the first half of the season, then switched back to 4 after Neal was traded. He proved to be a sentimental favorite among former Dodger fans who now rooted for the Mets. On April 16, 1963, Snider recorded his 2,000th hit, doing so atCrosley Field against theCincinnati Reds on a single offJim Maloney in the 2nd inning.[3] On June 14, he recorded his 400th home run, once again against the Reds, doing so in the first inning offBob Purkey.[4] He was named to theAll-Star Game inCleveland, his eighth and final selection. He entered the game as a pinch hitter forTommy Davis in the top of the ninth inning. FacingDick Radatz, he struck out looking.[5] For the season with the Mets, he appeared in 129 games while batting a slashline of .243/.345/.401, with 14 home runs, 45 RBIs, 45 walks, and 56 strikeouts. After one season, Snider asked to be traded to a contending team.
Snider was sold to theSan Francisco Giants on Opening Day in 1964. Knowing that he had no chance of wearing number 4, which had been worn byMel Ott and retired by the Giants, Snider took number 28. In 91 games played with the Giants, he batted a line of .210/.302/.323 while having four home runs and 17 RBIs. He had no triples for the first and only time in his career. He had 40 strikeouts and 22 walks. He appeared in three different positions for the Giants, playing 26 games in right field and 18 in left field for a combined total of 288.2 innings. He made 44 putouts, two assists with one error for a .979 fielding percentage. He retired at the end of that season.
He finished his major league career with a lifetime .295 batting average, 2,116 hits, 1,259 runs, 407 home runs, and 1,333 RBI. Defensively, he posted a .985 fielding percentage playing at all three outfield positions.
Snider finished second to teammateRoy Campanella in the 1955 Most Valuable Player (MVP) balloting conducted by theBaseball Writers' Association of America. He trailed Campanella by just five points, 226–221, with each man receiving eight first-place votes. A widely believed story, summarized in an article by columnistTracy Ringolsby,[6] holds that a hospitalized writer fromPhiladelphia had turned in a ballot with Campanella listed as his first-place and fifth-place vote. It was assumed that the writer had meant to write Snider's name into one of those slots. Unable to get a clarification from the ill writer, the BBWAA considered disallowing the ballot but decided to accept it, counting the first-place vote for Campanella and counting the fifth-place vote as though it were left blank. Had the ballot been disallowed, the vote would have been won by Snider 221–212. Had Snider gotten that now-blank fifth-place vote, the final vote would have favored Snider 227–226.
SportswriterJoe Posnanski, however, has suggested that this story is not entirely true.[7] Posnanski writes that there was a writer whodid leave Snider off his ballot and write in Campanella's name twice, but it was in first and sixth positions, not first and fifth. Had Snider received the sixth place vote, the final tally would have created a tie, not a win for Snider. Additionally, the position wasn't discarded — everyone lower on the ballot was moved up a spot, and pitcherJack Meyer was inserted at the bottom with a 10th place vote.
Snider did win theSporting News National League Player of the Year Award for 1955, and the Sid Mercer Award, emblematic of his selection by the New York branch of the BBWAA as the National League's best player of 1955.[8]
Following his retirement from baseball, Snider became a popular and respected TV/radio analyst and play-by-play announcer for theSan Diego Padres from 1969 to 1971 and for theMontreal Expos from 1973 to 1986. He was characterized by a mellow, low-key style.
Snider occasionally took acting roles, sometimes appearing in television or films as himself or as a professional baseball player. He played himself in "Hero Father" (1956) in the Robert Young television seriesFather Knows Best, made one guest appearance on theChuck Connors television seriesThe Rifleman, and played Wallace inThe Retired Gun (1959). Other appearances include an uncredited part as a Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder inThe Geisha Boy (1958), the Cranker inThe Trouble with Girls (1969), and a Steamer Fan inPastime (1990). As recently as 2007, he was featured inBrooklyn Dodgers: Ghosts of Flatbush.[9]
In 1995, Snider andWillie McCovey pleaded guilty to federal tax fraud charges after they had failed to report income from sports card shows and memorabilia sales.[10][11] Snider admitted to intentionally failing to report $100,000 of income between 1984 and 1993, and said he did it because he needed the money after failed investments depleted his savings.[12] Snider paid $30,000 in back taxes and a $5,000 fine, and was sentenced to two years of probation.[13] McCovey also paid a fine and was sentenced to probation.[13] In 2017, PresidentBarack Obama issued pardons for Snider and McCovey.[12]
Snider was featured, along withMickey Mantle andWillie Mays, in the 1981 song "Talkin' Baseball" byTerry Cashman.
He was elected to theBaseball Hall of Fame in 1980. That same year, in a ceremony atDodger Stadium, Snider's jersery number 4 was retired by theLos Angeles Dodgers.[14] In 1999,The Sporting News placed Snider at number 83 on their list of "100 Greatest Players".[15] He was a nominee for theMajor League Baseball All-Century Team.
Snider married Beverly Null in 1947; they had four children.
Snider died on February 27, 2011, at age 84 of an undisclosed illness at the Valle Vista Convalescent Hospital inEscondido, California.[16] He was the last living Brooklyn Dodger who was on the field for the final out of the 1955 World Series.
In 2013, theBob Feller Act of Valor Award honored Snider as one of 37 Baseball Hall of Fame members for his service in theUnited States Navy duringWorld War II.[17]
Some of Snider's MLB achievements:
Links to related articles | |
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