Edwin ‘Duke’ Snider, 1926–2011

last updated 8 January 2015

At any other time, in any other city, Duke Snider would have had no rival as the most popular ballplayer in town. As the Brooklyn Dodgers’ center fielder during the 1950s, though, he trailed the New York Giants’ Willie Mays and the New York Yankees’ Mickey Mantle in Gothamites’ perennial game of “Who’s the Best?” But Snider didn’t trail the other two by much. Batting third in the Dodgers’ powerful lineup, he hit 40 or more home runs as a lefty in five consecutive seasons, a feat that Mantle and Mays never matched. And in both 1952 and 1955, he hit four World Series home runs.

Snider crossed the country twice to play for the Dodgers, said The New York Times. Raised in Compton, Calif., Snider was a standout athlete in high school. Upon completing military service, in 1946, he signed a minor-league contract with Brooklyn and played his first game in the majors the following year. In his first at bat, he rapped a pinch-hit single against the Boston Braves. In 1958, with his heyday as a player behind him, he joined the Dodgers in relocating to Los Angeles.

Snider found the constant comparisons to Mays and Mantle wearing, said the Associated Press. Early in his career, he called the harsh, passionate Brooklyn fans “the worst in the league.” He redeemed himself in their eyes by leading the Dodgers—“dem Bums,” to their fans—to their 1955 World Series victory, the Brooklyn club’s sole triumph over its hated crosstown rivals, the Yankees. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1980.