- published: 30 Nov 2010
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Edwin Donald "Duke" Snider (September 19, 1926 – February 27, 2011), nicknamed "The Silver Fox" and "The Duke of Flatbush", was a Major League Baseball center fielder and left-handed batter who played for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers (1947–62), New York Mets (1963), and San Francisco Giants (1964).
Snider was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980. He appears in Roger Kahn's acclaimed memoir, The Boys of Summer.
Born in Los Angeles, Snider was nicknamed "Duke" by his father at age five. Growing up in Southern California, Snider was a gifted all-around athlete, playing basketball, football, and baseball at Compton High School, class of 1944. He was a strong-armed quarterback, who reportedly could throw the football 70 yards. Spotted by one of Branch Rickey's scouts in the early 1940s, he was signed to a baseball contract out of high school in 1943. He played briefly for the Montreal Royals of the International League in 1944 (batting twice) and for Newport News in the Piedmont League in the same year. After serving in the military in 1945, he came back to play for the Fort Worth Cats in 1946 and for St. Paul in 1947. He played well and earned a tryout with the Brooklyn Dodgers later that year. He started the next season (1948) with Montreal, and after hitting well in that league with a .327 batting average, he was called up to Brooklyn for good during the middle of the season.
Duke Snider Interview Part 1/5 - Baseball Hall of Fame
STL@NYM: Snider hits three-run homer, Mets walk off
Home Run Derby S01 E11 Hank Aaron vs Duke Snider
1952 WS Gm6: Duke Snider hits two solo home runs
Duke Snider- Brooklyn Dodgers Hero- The Duke of Flatbush!
Duke Snider Induction Speech - Baseball Hall of Fame
What's My Line? - From Los Angeles (no regular panelists): Duke Snider; Bob Cummings (Jan 12, 1958)
Duke Snider career film
What's My Line? - Sal Maglie & Duke Snider; Jack Carter [panel] (Sep 5, 1954)
NYM@CIN: Snider connects on career hit No. 2,000