“With two runners on base and the Dodgers leading 5–4 in the 12th inning, Willie Jones drove a 405-footer up against the left-center-field wall. Duke isn’t a look-and-run outfielder like Mays. He prefers to keep the ball in view all the time if possible, and he was judging this one every step of his long run to the wall. There it seemed he was climbing the concrete ‘on his knees,’ as awed Dodger coach Ted Lyons put it. Up and up he went like a human fly to spear the ball, give a confirming wave of his glove and fall backward to the turf. The wooden bracing on the wall showed spike marks almost as high as his head. It was such a catch that, although it saved the game for Brooklyn, admiring Philly fans swarmed the field by the dozens. Duke lost his cap and part of his shirt and almost lost his belt.”
– Al Stump, Sport
Edwin Donald Snider gets third billing in the Terry Cashman song, “Willie, Mickey, and the Duke”—a placement that seems to celebrate as well as diminish his legacy. Snider was one of the greatest center fielders of all time, up there with Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, but he was forever proving himself to the Dodgers and to baseball history.
“Duke was so talented, and he had a grace about him,” said his Dodgers roommate for 10 years, Carl Erskine. “They talk about [Joe] DiMaggio and how he carried himself on the field.… His outfield play and his running the bases and his trot for the home run, he just looked class, man.
“The thing that bothered Duke was, no matter how well he did, the coaches [and] managers always said, ‘He can do better than that.’ They always kind of made Duke feel no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t satisfy everybody. It was bothersome for him.”
Longtime Dodgers center fielder Duke Snider greets invited guests to the “sneak peek” of the new Dodger Stadium on April 9, 1962. “The Duke of Flatbush” played his final season at Dodger Stadium, was the franchise leader in home runs at 389, and played on two Dodgers world championship teams in 1955 and 1959. Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Times Collection, UCLA Library Special Collections.
Snider, a Compton High School graduate from Los Angeles, even had a love-hate relationship with Ebbets Field fans, as Maury Allen writes in Brooklyn Remembered. “Snider always wore his emotions on his sleeve,” Allen said. “A home run in a key spot would produce that Hollywood handsome grin. A strikeout with the bases loaded and the Brooklyn fans booing his very name announcement the next day would result in a week of sulkiness.”
Ultimately, like the way he climbed that Ebbets Field wall to save the game against the Phillies, Snider reached magnificent heights. He had eight full seasons and two partial seasons with TAvs of .300 or better, more than any other Dodger ever. He had at least 40 homers in the Dodgers’ five final seasons in Brooklyn, and a career .295 batting average, .380 on-base percentage, and .540 slugging percentage. He hit an all-time Dodgers record 389 homers.
In a 1955 article, Sports Illustrated chose Snider over Willie Mays: “In every sense, the contemporary hero of Flatbush, prematurely gray at the temples in his 29th year, is a picture player with a classic stance that seldom develops a hitch. Next to [Ted] Williams, Snider probably has the best hitting form in the game. And, like Williams, he has amazing eyes—large, clear, calm, and probing. With each oncoming pitch, Snider tenses and then throws his full 195 pounds into it, if he swings, with a smooth, lashing motion.”
The Duke was much, much more than a name in a song.
15-Love
May 21, 1952: Just another lovely night at Ebbets Field, the Dodgers facing the Cincinnati Reds. Billy Cox leads off the bottom of the first by grounding out, but Pee Wee Reese walks and Duke Snider homers over the right-field scoreboard. Would that be enough?
Maybe this would help: Jackie Robinson speeds to a double on a Texas leaguer, then after an Andy Pafko walk, scores on a George Shuba single. Pafko was thrown out at third on an attempted double steal, but perhaps a 3–0 lead would suffice.
Just in case it wouldn’t, the Dodgers eke across…12 more runs. The next 14 Dodger batters all reach base on seven singles, five walks, and two batters hit by pitches. Reese alone notches a single and two walks in the inning. Finally, with the bases loaded, Snider takes a curveball from Frank Smith, the fourth Reds pitcher, for a called strike three, and the Dodgers settle for a 15–0 lead, the biggest first-inning onslaught in big league history.
And yes, pitcher Chris Van Cuyk, who went 4-for-5 at the plate, is able to make the lead stand up for a 19–1 Dodger victory.