R.I.P. Los Angeles Dodgers Hall of Famer Duke Snider, 84

R.I.P. Los Angeles Dodgers Hall of Famer Duke Snider, 84

"... especially Willy, Mickey, and The Duke."

If you are a baseball fan, I don't need to tell you how good he was. The Duke of Flatbush had five consecutive 40-homer seasons in an time when only about four National Leaguers did that per year. (In 1956 the Duke was the only one to reach 40.) From 1953-56 he was one of the four best players in the NL (Duke, The Man, The Say-Hey Kid, Campy), and that was correctly reflected in the MVP balloting. If you're scoring at home, that means he was a better ballplayer in those days than Mathews, Banks, Aaron, or Frank Robinson - all great hall of famers. In the 1955 World Series, when his team finally defeated the hated Yankees, Duke carried the team with four dingers. The following year he won the sabermetric double crown, leading the league in both on-base percentage and slugging.

His prime was very short. Perhaps fittingly, given that he was Mr. Brooklyn Dodger, he was never healthy again for a full season after the team left Brooklyn! He did make a massive contribution to the Dodgers' 1959 pennant in L.A. by knocking in 88 runs in only a bit more than half of a season, despite playing in an extremely difficult offensive park. He led the team in RBI despite getting only 370 at-bats.

But that was essentially his last hurrah.

At age 30 he had accumulated more than 300 homers and 1000 RBI, but after that point he was only able to add only 91 more dingers and 300 more RBI. In contrast, Hank Aaron had something like 400 homers and 1100 RBI after his 30th birthday! Take the first half of Snider's career and give him Aaron's longevity, and you have Ruthian stats - 700 homers, 2100 RBI. That never happened, but it gives you an idea of just how good a hitter he was. Oh, yeah, and he played a solid center field as well. Maybe he was only the third-best centerfielder in New York City in that era, but that was still pretty good.

Pretty damned good.