Baseball Dodgers’ Great Duke Snider Dies At 84

Baseball Dodgers’ Great Duke Snider Dies At 84
Sunday, 27 February 2011

Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Duke Snider of the Los Angeles Dodgers has died in California at the age of 84.

Edwin Donald Snider's 18-year career spanned the Dodgers' final seasons in Brooklyn and the first years after the team moved to Los Angeles. The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum announced Snider's death Sunday on behalf of his family.

A lifetime .295 hitter, Snider hit 407 home runs during his career and was named to the All-Star team eight times. Seven of his All-Star appearances came with Brooklyn, where Snider was known as “The Duke of Flatbush.” He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1980.

In the late 1950s, Snider was one of three renowned players patrolling the center fields of New York teams, along with Mickey Mantle of the Yankees and Willie Mays of the Giants. He also was the last surviving member of the Dodgers' so-called “Boys of Summer,” the team that won Brooklyn's only World Series title in 1955.