Duke Snider: Remembering the Brooklyn Dodgers' Legendary Outfielder

Duke Snider Was a True Dodger Legend

Duke Snider, the famous Dodger center fielder, passed away yesterday at the age of 84. 

Known throughout the 1950s as "The Duke of Flatbush" (Flatbush was the section of Brooklyn in which the Dodgers' home park, Ebbets Field, was located), Snider was one of the greatest players in team history.

Here's a quick look back at the man who hit four home runs in the 1955 World Series, the only championship in Brooklyn Dodgers history. 

From Los Angeles to Brooklyn to Los Angeles

Edwin Donald Snider was born in Los Angeles on September 19, 1926, and raised in Southern California throughout his childhood. By age 20, he was playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers, where he would become a legendary home run hitter for a decade.

Ironically enough, the Dodgers would move back to his hometown in 1958, and although his best days were behind him, Snider was the biggest star in Southern California. 

In the Dodgers' second season in Los Angeles, Snider hit 23 homers.  At the end of that season, in Game 6 of the 1959 World Series against the Chicago White Sox, Snider hit a two-run home run off Hall of Famer Early Wynn to give the Dodgers an early 2-0 lead. The Dodgers won the game 9-3, clinching the World Series in six games.

Willie, Mickey and the Duke

Before the Dodgers (and their rival Giants) moved to the West Coast, New York City had not one, not two but three Hall of Fame center fielders.

When Mickey Mantle wasn't patrolling center field at Yankee Stadium, he was hitting massive home runs from both sides of the plate and winning the Triple Crown in the Bronx, while the incomparable Willie Mays was becoming a legend across town at the Polo Grounds.

Meanwhile, Snider was doing the same in Ebbetts Field. Snider hit 40 or more home runs a season from 1953 to 1957—a period in which the Dodgers won three pennants and a World Series.

As good as he was in the regular season, he was even more clutch in the World Series. In five World Series with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Snider hit .293, drove in 24 runs and tallied 10 home runs, the most ever by a National Leaguer. 

After Baseball

The Duke only spent five seasons playing for the Dodgers in his hometown. By his mid-30s, injuries and decreased production limited Snider's role in the Dodger lineup and he gave way to the rise of Willie Davis. 

But by 1963, he was back in New York City, playing for the expansion Mets. 

He spent just a year there and was back in California the following season with the Giants before retiring in 1964. 

Sixteen years later, he was inducted in Cooperstown, where he joined Willie, Mickey and the rest of baseball's legends.