Duke Snider

Lore & Background

Snider was born in Los Angeles. He was nicknamed "Duke" by his father at age 5 as the result of a self-confident swagger. He played basketball, football, and baseball at Compton High School, class of 1944. He was a strong-armed quarterback. He was signed out of high school in 1943. He played briefly for the Montreal Royals in 1944 and for the Newport News Dodgers in the same year. After serving in the U.S. Navy in 1945 and part of 1946, he played for the Fort Worth Cats and St. Paul. He earned a tryout with the Brooklyn Dodgers during spring training in 1947. He got a single in his first major league at bat on April 17, 1947. He became a regular in 1949. He hit 40 or more home runs in five consecutive seasons (1953–1957). He led the NL in runs scored, home runs, and RBI in separate seasons. He appeared in six World Series with the Dodgers (1949, 1952–53, 1955–56, 1959). The Dodgers won the World Series in 1955 and 1959. Snider's career numbers declined when the team moved to Los Angeles in 1958. He was sold to the New York Mets after the 1962 season. He recorded his 2,000th hit on April 16, 1963, and his 400th home run on June 14, 1963. He was named to the All-Star Game in 1963, his eighth and final selection. He was sold to the San Francisco Giants on Opening Day in 1964 and retired at the end of that season. He finished with a lifetime .295 batting average, 2,116 hits, 1,259 runs, 407 home runs, and 1,333 RBI.

In Their Own Story

At Ebbets Field, Duke Snider didn't just hit home runs; he pulled them toward the right-field bleachers where Flatbush fans hung off the railings. The crack of his bat was a familiar rhythm for Brooklynites. When he connected on that low porch, it wasn't merely a play—it was an affirmation that power belonged to the underdog city.

Reader's Guide

Snider finished second to teammate Roy Campanella in the 1955 MVP balloting, trailing by five points, 226–221, with each man receiving eight first-place votes. A widely believed story holds that a hospitalized writer from Philadelphia turned in a ballot with Campanella listed as his first-place and fifth-place vote, and that if the ballot had been disallowed, Snider would have won 221–212. However, sportswriter Joe Posnanski has suggested this story is not entirely true, writing that a writer left Snider off his ballot and wrote in Campanella's name in first and sixth positions, and that the sixth-place vote was not discarded. Snider did win the Sporting News National League Player of the Year Award for 1955 and the Sid Mercer Award.

Did You Know?

• Snider was nicknamed "Duke" by his father at age 5 because of a self-confident swagger.
• He hit 40 or more home runs in five consecutive seasons (1953–1957).
• He was the NL MVP runner-up in 1955, losing to teammate Roy Campanella by five points.
• He recorded his 400th home run on June 14, 1963, off Bob Purkey of the Cincinnati Reds.