Duke Snider

Verified Timeline

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 who reportedly could throw the football 70 yards. 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 that year and also for St. Paul in 1947. He earned a tryout with the Brooklyn Dodgers during spring training in 1947. He got a single in his first major league at bat, in the second Dodgers game of the 1947 season on April 17. He played in 39 more games that season, became a friend of Jackie Robinson, and was sent to St. Paul in early July. He returned to the Dodgers at the end of the season in time for the World Series against the New York Yankees. After spring training with the Dodgers, he started the 1948 season with Montreal, and after posting a .327 average was called up to Brooklyn in August and played in 53 games. In 1949, he became a regular, hitting 23 home runs with 92 RBI. He hit .321 in 1950 and led the NL with 199 hits and 343 total bases. He hit 40 or more home runs in five consecutive seasons (1953–1957). 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 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. After one season with the Mets, he was sold to the San Francisco Giants on Opening Day in 1964. 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.

In Their Own Story

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 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 the New York Yankees in the first five and the Chicago White Sox in the last. The Dodgers won the World Series in 1955 and in 1959. Snider's career numbers declined when the team moved to Los Angeles in 1958. Coupled with an aching knee and a 440-foot right field fence at the cavernous Coliseum, 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 with Don Demeter and rookie Ron Fairly.

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 but moved up. 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 his self-confident swagger.
• He was a strong-armed quarterback in high school who could reportedly throw a football 70 yards.
• Snider hit 40 or more home runs in five consecutive seasons from 1953 to 1957.
• He recorded his 2,000th hit on April 16, 1963, and his 400th home run on June 14, 1963.
• Snider finished second in the 1955 MVP voting by just five points, a controversial result.