Top 106 Baseball Players: #81 - Duke Snider

Duke Snider

Duke Snider was the star centerfielder for the Dodgers in the 1950's, at a time when it was a very prestigious position in New York City, with Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays manning the position for the other 2 teams at the time.

Snider reached the Major Leagues with Brooklyn in 1947, the same season that Jackie Robinson joined the team, but spent a lot of time in the minors over his first 2 seasons. He became the full-time centerfielder in 1949, and in 1950 he led the league with 199 hits, which would be his career high.

He was a pretty good player for a few years, then had his coming out party in the 1952 World Series, when he hit .345 with 4 home runs and 8 RBI's in a losing effort against the Yankees. Even though he did not quite get the title that year, it was the beginning of his time as a superstar in the league.

For the next few years he just kept getting better, surpassing 120 runs scored and batted in for 3 straight seasons, and he was the league leader in runs scored in all 3 of those seasons, and he also reached at least 40 home runs in each while finishing in the top 4 of the MVP voting.

In 1955 he was able to get his revenge on the Yankees, as he led the Dodgers to their only title in Brooklyn, this time hitting .320 with 7 RBI's and another 4 home runs as they won it all. In doing so, he became the first and so far only player ever to hit 4 home runs in a single World Series twice.

In 1956 his production dropped just slightly, with the exception of his home runs total,which was a career high 43, good enough to lead the league for the first time. The next season was the final one for the Dodgers in Brooklyn, and Snider was the last person ever to hit a home run at Ebbets field.

He followed the Dodgers to Los Angeles, but he had already reached the downhill side of his career, and while he was still a good player, he was not the superstar he had been on the other side of the country. He did win another World Series in LA in 1959, but wasn't as dominant as before.

Snider played 18 seasons in the majors, leading the league once each in RBI's, walks, hits, and home runs, along with the 3 straight seasons of leading the league in runs scored. He made the World Series 6 times with the Dodgers, winning it all twice, and was usually at his best in the postseason, which is why he belongs on this list of the all-time greats.