I grew up in "nose bleed" at Ebbets Field, and Duke Snider was my hero and the hero of Brooklyn. I had his autograph, but my mother tossed it when she (finally) cleaned my room while I was in Vietnam. But I never lost my adoration. Last week I was at batting cages with Jason where Duke Snider's jersey, bat and photos are prominently displayed. The owner and I reminisced for an hour while Jason listened. After, Jason said to me, "He must have been some kind of hero for you to look up to him." At 84, the Duke of Flatbush left our field today, and remains in our hearts.
The New York Post quotes Snider: " 'If I live to be 100 years old,' he said in 2002, 'I'll always be able to remember what it felt to be young and a ballplayer in Brooklyn, N.Y., and I'll always remember what it meant to be a champion of the world there.' "
The Duke lived out his years in Fallbrook, about 20-miles from where I live now. When I was a kid in Brooklyn, after a game, Duke Snider would sometimes come out of the ballpark to play stickball in the street with us kids. The San Diego Union-Tribune recalls:
Duke Snider played center in Ebbets Field and stickball on the streets of Brooklyn....Snider hit .295 with 407 career home runs, played in the World Series six times and won two championships. But the eight-time All-Star was defined by much more than his stats - he was, after all, part of the love affair between Brooklyn and "Dem Bums" who lived in the local neighborhoods....Snider is the Dodgers' franchise leader in home runs (389) and RBIs (1,271). He led all major leaguers in the 1950s with 326 homers and 1,031 RBIs....
Snider hit .309 with 42 homers and a career-high 136 RBIs in 1955. That October, he hit four homers, drove in seven runs and hit .320 as the Dodgers beat the Yankees in a seven-game Series.
For a team that kept preaching "Wait till next year" after World Series losses to the Yankees in 1953, '52, '49, '47 and '41, it was indeed next year. A generation later, long after they'd all grown old, those Dodgers were lauded as the "Boys of Summer" in Roger Kahn's book....
A durable slugger with a strong arm, good instincts on the bases and a regal style, Snider hit the last home run at Ebbets Field in 1957....
A native Californian, Snider became part of Brooklyn's fabric during his playing days. "I was born in Los Angeles," he once said. "Baseballwise, I was born in Brooklyn. We lived with Brooklyn. We died with Brooklyn."
The Duke of Flatbush will always live in the lore of Brooklyn.
