Hall of Famer Duke Snider, 84, dies
http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/news/story?id=6164805
Duke Snider, the Hall of Fame center fielder for the charmed "Boys of Summer"
who helped the Dodgers bring their elusive and only World Series crown to
Brooklyn, died Sunday. He was 84.
Snider died at the Valle Vista Convalescent Hospital in Escondido, Calif.,
said the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, which announced the death
on behalf of the family. Snider had been ill for months. His family said he
died of natural causes.
"The Duke of Flatbush" hit .295 with 407 career home runs, played in the
World Series six times and won two titles. But the eight-time All-Star was
defined by much more than his stats -- he was, after all, part of the love
affair between the borough of Brooklyn and "Dem Bums" who lived in the local
neighborhoods.
Ebbets Field was filled with stars such as Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella and
Gil Hodges during that 1955 championship season. Yet it is Snider's name that
refrains in the ballpark favorite "Talkin' Baseball."
"Willie, Mickey, and the Duke," goes the popular song, which marks its 30th
anniversary this year.
Snider wore No. 4 in Dodger blue and was often regarded as the third-best
center fielder in New York -- behind Willie Mays of the Giants and Mickey
Mantle of the Yankees -- during what many fans considered the city's golden
era of baseball.
"The newspapers compared Willie, Mickey and I, and that was their thing,"
Snider said several years ago. "As a team, we competed with the Giants, and
we faced the Yankees in the World Series. So we had a rivalry as a team, that
was it. It was an honor to be compared to them, they were both great players."
Mantle died in 1995 at age 63. Mays, now 79, threw out a ceremonial ball last
fall before a playoff game in San Francisco.
Commissioner Bud Selig called Snider an "integral part of Dodger history" and
part of an "unparalleled triumvirate of center fielders" in New York.
"Then the Los Angeles native went home and helped usher in a new part of
baseball history with great class," he said in a statement.
Former teammate Don Zimmer played with Snider for five years.
"Duke never got the credit of being the outfielder that Mays and Mantle were.
... But Duke was a great outfielder. He was a great player," he said.
Snider hit at least 40 home runs in five straight seasons and led the NL in
total bases three times. He never won an MVP award, although a voting error
may have cost him the prize in 1955. He lost to Campanella by a very narrow
margin -- it later turned out an ill voter left Snider off the ballot,
supposedly by mistake.
Carl Erskine was Snider's roommate for 10 years and the two shared a house at
spring training in Vero Beach, Fla., with their families.
"Duke played so great when I pitched," he recalled. "He just made so many
plays in the World Series for me, and he seemed to play his best when I
pitched."
Snider hit .309 with 42 homers and a career-high 136 RBIs in 1955. That
October, he hit four homers, drove in seven runs and hit .320 as the Dodgers
beat the Yankees in a seven-game Series.
For a team that kept preaching "Wait till next year" after World Series
losses to the Yankees in 1953, '52, '49, '47 and '41, it was indeed next
year. A generation later, long after they'd all grown old, those Dodgers were
lauded as the "Boys of Summer" in Roger Kahn's book.
"He was the true Dodger and represented the Dodgers to the highest degree of
class, dignity and character," Dodger Hall of Fame Manager Tommy Lasorda said.
Orlando Cepeda, a Hall of Famer with the Giants, said Snider provided one of
his biggest thrills when he broke into the majors in 1958.
"When I came to first base, the opening game, he said to me, 'Orlando, good
luck, good luck,'" Cepeda said. "He was one of my idols. I almost fainted."
Born Edwin Donald Snider, he got his nickname at an early age. Noticing his
son return home from a game with somewhat of a strut, Snider's dad said,
"Here comes the Duke."
The name stuck. So did Snider, once he played his first game in the majors in
1947, two days after Jackie Robinson's historic debut.
A durable slugger with a strong arm, good instincts on the bases and a regal
style, Snider hit the last home run at Ebbets Field in 1957.
Snider's swing gave the Dodgers a lefty presence on a team of mostly
righties. He often launched shots over the short right-field wall at the
Brooklyn bandbox, rewarding a waiting throng that gathered on Bedford Avenue.
"The Duke's up," fans in the upper deck would shout to those on the street.
Snider had a wild swing that was harnessed by Branch Rickey, who made him
practice standing at home plate with a bat on his shoulder calling balls and
strikes but forbidden to swing.
Snider stayed with the Dodgers when they moved to Los Angeles in 1958 and won
another World Series ring the next year. Prematurely gray, "The Silver Fox"
returned to New York with the bumbling Mets in 1963 and finished his career
in 1964 with the Giants.
"Above it all, he was a fan favorite for his style of play, personality,
accessibility, and fondness for playing stickball with kids in the street of
Brooklyn," Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson said.
Snider was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1980 on his 11th try. He was a
broadcaster for the Montreal Expos for several seasons -- he played in the
city as a minor leaguer in the Brooklyn farm system -- and later was an
announcer with the Dodgers.
"He had the grace and the abilities of DiMaggio and Mays and, of course, he
was a World Series hero that will forever be remembered in the borough of
Brooklyn," Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully said. "Although it's ironic to
say it, we have lost a giant."
Marty Brennaman, also a Hall of Fame broadcaster, added: "If you met him, you
would never had any idea that he carved out the kind of career for himself
that he did."
In 1995, Snider pleaded guilty to federal tax charges and was sentenced to
two years' probation and fined $5,000. He admitted not reporting more than
$97,000 in cash from autograph signings, card shows and memorabilia sales.
Snider was sentenced at the Brooklyn federal courthouse, a few miles from
where he had starred. The judge said Snider had been "publicly disgraced and
humiliated ... here in Brooklyn, where you were idolized by a generation ...
of which I was one."
Snider apologized. He said he began making autograph appearances because he
had little in savings and had made several bad business decisions. The judge
said Snider paid nearly $30,000 in back taxes and noted he had diabetes,
hypertension and other illnesses.
A native Californian, Snider became part of Brooklyn's fabric during his
playing days.
"I was born in Los Angeles," he once said. "Baseballwise, I was born in
Brooklyn. We lived with Brooklyn. We died with Brooklyn."
The Duke, however, had some early problems with the boisterous Brooklyn fans.
Once, in the early 1950s, he was quoted as calling them the worst in the
game. He came to the park after the quote was published and was greeted with
a chorus of boos. But he enjoyed one of his better nights, and silenced the
fans for good.
"The fans were something," Snider said. "They were so close to you. You got
to know them, some of them by name."
During his playing career, Snider became an avocado farmer and lived many
years in Fallbrook, Calif.
He is survived by his wife, Beverly, whom he married in 1947.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
Zimmer lamented another Dodger gone.
"They're all passing away," he said. "There's not many left."
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