The Duke of Flatline

Duke Snider, the biggest thing to come out of Compton until Easy-E, has died at the age of 84. The third best center fielder in New York in the 1950s, providing the convenient rhyme with Dubuque, Snider was accustomed to being the other guy, having made his major league debut in the same game where Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. He lacked the cache of Mantle and the athleticism of Mays, but Snider was the only one of the three to hit 40 HRs in 5 straight seasons and led all major leaguers with 326 HRs and 1,031 RBI in the 1950s while leading the Brooklyn Dodgers to 6 pennants in 11 seasons. Snider was the only player to hit 4 HRs in a World Series twice, including the lone championship for Brooklyn in 1955. He also was the last living player who was on the field when the Dodgers finally overcame the New York Yankees and hit the last homer in Ebbets Field before the team left in 1957. While the West Coast welcomed major league baseball, LA Coliseum, with its 440-foot right center field fence – 100 feet deeper than the Brooklyn bandbox – was less inviting and Snider’s production dropped, though he did pick up a second World Series ring in 1959. With the second-year New York Mets stockpiling ex-Dodgers, Giants and Yankees to offer daily Old-Timers Games to bring in fans, in 1963 Snider was back on the East Coast, notching his 400th HR and 2,000 hit, but losing 111 games in the process. Snider closed out his career with an unproductive season with the San Francisco Giants, then managed in the Dodgers and San Diego Padres minor league systems and served as a broadcaster for the Padres and Montreal Expos.