Duke Snider
Major League Baseball lost another of its’ major icons on Sunday when Edwin “Duke” Snider passed away at the age of 84. Snider was lucky enough to have played in what is considered baseball’s golden era of the 1940s and 1950s, in what was the hub of the sport at the time, the New York metropolitan area. His team, the old Brooklyn Dodgers, was immortalized in Roger Kahn’s book The Boys of Summer and during their Brooklyn years were affectionately known by their fans as “Dem Bums” . Those fans had a battle cry of “Wait ‘Til Next Year”, as the Dodgers routinely lost in the World Series to the New York Yankees, but in 1955 finally broke through and defeated the Yanks to win the title. Pitcher Johnny Podres was the Series hero, winning the deciding game. In what was typical of his career, Snider hit 4 home runs in the Series, and that stat pretty much flew under the radar. In New York at the time, fans debated which of the local teams’ centerfielders – Snider, the Yankees’ Mickey Mantle, or Willie Mays of the New York Giants – was the best, and Snider routinely was the third choice. Looking back on the careers of the 3 players, rating Snider third is probably the right choice. He didn’t have the speed, range or all-around ability of Mays or Mantle. But the fact is that in the decade of the 1950s, no player hit more home runs or had more runs batted in than Snider. It could be argued that he was the greatest left-handed power hitter of his generation.
Snider was a broadcaster for 14 seasons with the Montreal Expos, and living in Buffalo, I was able to pick up a lot of the Expos games on Canadian television. I remember Snider having a silky, easy-to-listen-to voice and a great passion for the game. He was a perfect choice for broadcasting the sport – he was easy going and made the game interesting with stories from the past and a knack for knowing the strategy of the game.
Snider, Mantle and Mays were, of course, immortalized in Terry Cashman’s song Talkin’ Baseball (Willie, Mickey and the Duke) in the 1980s. Click on the link below to check out the video.
Talkin’ Baseball (Willie, Mickey & The Duke)