The Dook

He was my favorite player growing up. A California boy who found fame in the borough of Brooklyn. He was a graceful outfielder, and a power hitting threat on the great Brooklyn teams of the late 40’s and 50’s. He was the only lefty threat in the lineup that featured Jackie, Gil, Campy, Pee Wee, and Scoonj. And in Brooklyn he was simply “The Dook”.

I got that part from the foreword to Duke’s story in the book, ” The Duke of Flatbush”, by Bill Gilbert, with Duke as his story teller. The forward came his best friend, Carl Erskine, and was in reference to the way Brooklynites pronounced Duke.

Born Edwin Donald Snider on Sept 19, 1926 in Los Angeles, he was nicknamed Duke by his dad when he was 5. His dad’s name was Ward, and his mother was Florence. Duke was an only child. He got the nickname from his swagger as a child. He was raised in Compton, which was a ethnically diverse neighborhood then.

Duke reached 6 feet tall by the time he entered high school. He played baseball, football, basketball, and ran track for Compton. Blessed with a powerful arm, he once threw a 63 yard touchdown pass. He was also the high scorer on a basketball team that also featured future NFL commissioner, Pete Rozelle. On the baseball team he pitched and batted fourth.

Snider performed well at a tryout camp in Long Beach and was offered a contract calling for a 750$ bonus and 250$ a month. Not long after that the Pirates offered him a 15,000 bonus, but Duke honored his commitment to the Dodgers He was invited to spring training in 1944 at Bear Mountain New York. Duke moped, and refused to run laps. He was cold and homesick, and he had not brought a coat.

Following an apology for his bad behavior, he was inserted into a game against West Point and hit a long homer. Rickey praised his arm, his power, and the steel springs in his legs. He was sent to Newport News and played 131 games, hitting .294, with 34 doubles and 9 homers. He also had 25 outfield assists.

Duke’s potential forced the Dodgers to overlook some of his growing pains. He would get frustrated when he did not make contact. Something that would dog him much of his career. He fretted about those strikeouts. Even so, he did spend 2 games with AAA Montreal that year.

After the season, Duke enlisted in the Navy and spent 18 months in the service. In 1946 he played 68 games at Ft Worth, only hitting .250. But Rickey felt Duke was the jewel of the organization.

Duke made the team out of spring as a backup outfielder in 1947 and got his first MLB hit, a single off of Si Johnson of the Braves on April 17th. He was sent down on the 4th of July and hit .316 with 12 home runs in 66 games at St Paul. He was a spectator during their loss to the Yanks in the series and was awarded a quarter share. He then went home to Compton and married his childhood sweetheart, Beverly Null.

In 48, Rickey decided to teach Snider the strike zone in a unique way. Rickey and his hitting coach, HOFer George Sisler, worked incessantly with Duke to cure his tendency to lunge at the plate. He would also have Snider stand in the batter’s box and call out if a pitch was a strike or a ball, and he was not allowed to swing.

Sent to Montreal, he hit 17 homers, and hit .327 in 77 games. He still was insolent and on one occasion refused to bunt and hit a home run. After that episode he apologized to manager Clay Hopper, and was fined and chastised for being insolent. On the 6th of August, Duke was recalled to the Dodgers. He hit the first 5 homers of his career, and hit .244. At the beginning of the next season, Dodger manager Burt Shotton told him he was the starting Center fielder, and # 3 hitter until he proved he could not do the job. For the next 10 years he held that job.

His confidence boosted; Snider began to be an important part of the Dodgers offense. Ebbets was tailor made for Duke. Right field was 297 feet away, and even with the high wall, Duke would regularly deposit the ball onto Flatbush Ave. His first World Series was a disappointment for Snider as he went 3-21 without an RBI. He promised himself he would do better. And he made good on the promise.

His HR totals for the Dodgers from 49 on were 23, 31, 29, 21, 42, 40, 42, 43, and 40. In LA he totaled, 15, 23, 14, 16 and 5. Naturally the totals dropped off drastically when they moved to LA partially because of injuries, and the fact the RF fence at the coliseum was 400 feet away. In fact the first time the Giants faced the Dodgers there in 1958, Willie Mays came up to Duke and said,” You’re dead man” Look how far away that fence is.

Duke also made up for his bad performance in the 49 series by hitting well over .300 in his next 4 series appearances. He is the only player to hit 4 HR’s in a World Series twice. And he hit the most HR’s in the decade of the 50’s. 326. More than Mantle, Mays, or Williams. Gil Hodges added 310. He ended up with 11 World Series homers. Which to this day is 4th on the list, and ahead of players like Gehrig, Reggie Jackson, Joe DiMaggio, and Frank Robinson. Duke did that in 149 PA’s .

Duke is the all-time Dodger HR leader at 389. He had 1271 RBI’s and finished with a .300 average in Dodger Blue. He played in 6 World Series as a Dodger. They won 2.

In 1955 Duke had an MVP worthy season, hitting .309 with 42 Homers and 136 RBI’s. He lost the vote by 5 points to team mate Campanella. But there was a controversy as a Philadelphia writer who was sick and, in the hospital, voted for Campanella twice, once as the #5 and once as the #1. Many felt the ballot should have been tossed out. But it was allowed to stand, and Campy won his 3rd MVP award.

Duke was named player of the year by the Sporting News. Duke had injured his knee the same way Mickey Mantle had done while running in the outfield at Yankee Stadium when he stepped on one of the sprinklers during warmups before game 6 of the 55 Series. He had to leave after 3 innings. He went 0-3 in game 7, but Podres shut down the Yanks and the Bums finally were World Champs.

Duke, despite being a California boy, was sad to see the Dodgers leave Brooklyn. It was indeed a second home to him. He, Erskine, Reese, and Rube Walker all lived on the same street during the season, and they had a lot of friends in the neighborhood.

And he was probably even more depressed when he saw the cavern of a ball park they were going to play in. On a bet, he tried to throw a ball out of the coliseum. On the third try he heard something pop in his elbow. He told Bavasi he could not play, and Buzzie fined him 200$. Not wanting to have to pay the fine again, he told Alston he could play, but he could not throw, so Walt put him in left, and he actually threw a runner out at 3rd.

He told Roebuck to keep the bets until he felt better and he would try again. At the end of a really bad season, he managed to throw a ball out of the coliseum and collected his half of the pot……200$. And in a fit of conscience, Buzzie gave him back his 200$.

Duke was getting older, and playing less. He finally decided to dedicate himself to a winter of change, and after the 60 season, he lost 20 pounds and was in the best shape he had been in in years. Duke got off to a great start, and on April 17th he hit his 370th HR of his career to pass Ralph Kiner on the all time list. His next time up, the pitcher, Bob Gibson, hit him in the elbow breaking it.

In 1962 Duke, Roseboro and Gilliam were the only position players left from the Brooklyn days. He was named Captain by Bavasi. Duke got the first Dodger hit at Dodger Stadium. He did not play much, but still took his duties as Captain seriously. When the Dodgers made their  first trip to the Polo Grounds to play the new Mets, he was given a standing ovation when he hit a BP homer. They had not forgotten.

A couple of things happened during the last playoff game that probably added to the fact that 62 was Duke’s last as a Dodger. Unlike most of the team, Duke had been in the 51 playoffs, and the way game 3 was playing out, Duke had seen this act before. He told Drysdale to go tell Alston he wanted to warm up in case he was needed. Drysdale said he had already done that. Duke said what did he say? Big D answered, he said I am pitching tomorrow. The opening day of the World Series. Tomorrow? We gotta get there first. Snider was not happy, and the staff was pretty worn out from the previous week. If they had won just one of those games, there would have been no playoff.

Roebuck was tiring, and Snider told Big D to talk to Alston again. Same response. Well Alston finally pulled Roebuck and replaced him with Williams and the score at 4-2. Most of us remember what happened next. Williams was wild, and the Giants scored 4 to win 6-4 and go on to meet the Yanks in the series.

Alston also made a move in that inning that had Snider miffed. He moved Wills and Burright towards the RF side thinking Harvey Kuenn would not pull the ball, but punch it to the right side. Duke thought this was a mistake, and sure enough, Kuenn hit the ball right to the spot Wills had vacated.

Duke was sold just before the start of the 63 season to the Mets. His manager was the immortal Casey Stengel. Casey was a real baseball character. A couple of the stories Duke told about his time with Casey bear repeating. Once when they were in Cincinnati, Casey told Duke he was going to take a nap and he was the manager. The score was 3-1. When Casey woke up, Duke told him, Sorry Case, but it is now 9-1. Stengel looked at him and said, don’t worry about it kid. Look at that dugout over there…..Mahogany….look in this dugout….driftwood.

Another time as Duke was coming into the hotel and heading to a room to get some sleep, he heard Casey yell at him from the bar. Hey kid…..so Duke went in, and Casey wanted him to stay and have a drink with him. Duke tried to beg off saying they had a day game and he needed his rest. Casey said, don’t worry, you aren’t playing tomorrow anyway.

So they closed the bar at 2, and Casey said I know a joint that stays open. Then they closed that one at 4 am. So, when Duke got to the ballpark, dragging his heinie that afternoon, he was surprised to see Stengel bright eyed and full of energy. Stengel said, come on, sit next to me and we will talk about the 52 series. Stengel loved talking about his glory years with the Yanks. So Snider went over sat down and said, what about let’s talk about 55. Stengel never did talk about 55 with Duke.

The Mets lost 111 games that year. Duke felt he could not go through that again, and asked the Mets management if they would try to trade him closer to home and to a team that at least had a shot at winning. They obliged and sold him to the Giants.

Although Duke was glad to be heading west, Bavasi was mad. He had told the Mets when he sold Snider to them to keep him for 2 years, but if they decided to sell him, to let Bavasi have the first shot. So he was pretty angry.

Duke was issued #28. His number 4 was retired for some guy named Ott. Duke was in 91 games for the Giants, mostly as a PH. He hit only .210 with 4 homers. The first of those coming at Dodger Stadium off of Joe Moeller. Who was an alumnus of my high school, Mira Costa in Manhattan Beach.

After the season he retired and was hired by Bavasi as a roving hitting coach. When Pete Reiser had a heart attack, Duke became the manager at Spokane. One of the players he was managing was Moeller. His team went 57-90. The next year he was managing Tri City in the Northwest league. They won the league championship. He then went to manage Albuquerque which was in the Texas league and won again. He worked for the Padres as a broadcaster and then went back on the field again to manage in 72 at Albuquerque which was now a Padres farm team, and won another title. After quitting after what he saw as front office meddling, he was unemployed. Then he got a call from Montreal, and he joined their English broadcasting team.

Duke was elected to the Hall of fame in 1980 along with Detroit legend, Al Kaline. He retired from the Expos in 1986. His health was not good. During the 81 strike, the Terry Cashman tune, Willie, Mickey and the Duke came out. It was a hit, and kept Snider in the public mind. He had a heart attack in 87. He lost 25 pounds and had to have valve replacement surgery.

 In the 80’s and 90’s the memorabilia market was exploding and allowed retired players to make money from card shows and autograph signings. Since he was a member of the Hall of Fame, he was much in demand. Duke took some of his fees in cash. And he failed to report those earnings on his tax returns. In 97, he and Willie McCovey were indicted for tax evasion. Both pleaded guilty and Snider cooperated with law enforcement to avoid jail time. He admitted to not claiming 100,000 $ between 1984 and 1993. He was given 2 year probation, fined 5,000$ and ordered to pay 57,000 in back taxes, fines and penalties. After the trial, Duke told the press he had made some bad decisions.

Duke lived out his retirement in Escondido California, and had many malady’s over the last years of his life. He and his wife Bev raised 4 children. Duke died on February 27th 2011 in Escondido. His career stats included 407 homers, 2,116 hits, 1333 RBI’s, and a .295 career average. He is in the top 10 in many career hitting categories as a Dodger. He was indeed, The Dook of Flatbush. His number 4 was retired in 1980.