Editing Duke Snider (section)

==Major leagues ==
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=== The Boys of Summer ===
Snider earned a tryout with the [[Brooklyn Dodgers]] during their spring training in 1947. He got his first major league at bat in the second Dodgers game of the 1947 season on April 17 and hit a single. He played in 39 more games that season and became a friend of [[Jackie Robinson]] before he was sent to the St. Paul team in early July. Snider returned to the Dodgers at the end of the season in time for the World Series against the [[New York Yankees]]. Snider (after spring training with the Dodgers) started the 1948 season with Montreal, and after hitting well in that league with a .327 batting average, he was called up to Brooklyn in August and played in 53 games. In 1949, Snider became a regular major leaguer hitting 23 [[home run]]s with 92 [[runs batted in]], helping the Dodgers into the [[World Series]]. Snider also saw his [[Batting average (baseball)|average]] climb from .244 to .292. A more mature Snider became the "trigger man" in a power-laden lineup which boasted players [[Joe Black]], [[Roy Campanella]], [[Billy Cox (baseball)|Billy Cox]], [[Carl Erskine]], [[Carl Furillo]], [[Gil Hodges]], [[Clem Labine]], [[Pee Wee Reese]], [[Jackie Robinson]], and [[Preacher Roe]]. Often compared with two other New York center fielders, fellow [[Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum|Baseball Hall of Famers]], [[Mickey Mantle]] and [[Willie Mays]], he was the reigning "Duke" of [[Flatbush, Brooklyn|Flatbush]].

In 1950, he hit .321 and led the National League with 199 base hits and 343 total bases, earning his first [[1950 Major League Baseball All-Star Game|All-Star Game]] appearance. When his average slipped to .277 in 1951 (a season when the Dodgers lost a 13‑game August lead and finished second to the Giants after [[Bobby Thomson]]'s "[[Shot Heard 'Round the World (baseball)|Shot Heard 'Round the World]]"), Snider was roundly criticized in the newspapers. Snider recalls, "I went to Walter O'Malley and told him I couldn't take the pressure", and, "I told him I'd just as soon be traded. I told him I figured I could do the Dodgers no good." The trade did not happen.<ref>{{cite web|last=Stump |first=Al |title=Duke Snider's Story |url=http://www.thesportgallery.com/blog/sport-articles/duke-snider%E2%80%99s-story/ |work=Sport Magazine Article |publisher=SPORT magazine |access-date=5 December 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120525175620/http://www.thesportgallery.com/blog/sport-articles/duke-snider%E2%80%99s-story/ |archive-date=25 May 2012 }}</ref>

[[File:Duke Snider 1954.png|thumb|170px|Snider in 1954]]
Usually batting third in the lineup, Snider established impressive offensive numbers. He hit 40 or more home runs in five consecutive seasons (1953–1957), and between 1953 and 1956 he averaged 42 home runs, 124 RBI, 123 runs, and a .320 batting average. He led the National League (NL) in runs scored, home runs, and RBI in separate seasons. He appeared in six post-seasons with the Dodgers (1949, 1952–53, 1955–56, 1959), facing the [[New York Yankees]] in the first five and the [[Chicago White Sox]] in the last. The Dodgers won the [[1955 World Series|World Series in 1955]] and in [[1959 World Series|1959]].

Snider's career numbers declined when the team moved to Los Angeles in 1958. Coupled with an aching knee and a {{convert|440|ft|adj=on}} right field fence at the cavernous [[Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum|Coliseum]], Snider hit only 15 home runs in 1958. However, he had one last hurrah in 1959 as he helped the Dodgers win their first World Series in Los Angeles. Duke rebounded that year to hit .308 with 23 home runs and 88 RBI in 370 at bats while sharing fielding duties in right and center fields with [[Don Demeter]] and rookie [[Ron Fairly]]. Injuries and age would eventually play a role in reducing Snider to part-time status by 1961.

In 1962 when the Dodgers led the NL for most of the season (only to find themselves tied with the hated Giants at the season's end), it was Snider and third-base coach [[Leo Durocher]] who reportedly pleaded with manager [[Walter Alston]] to bring in future Hall of Fame pitcher (and Cy Young Award winner that year) [[Don Drysdale]] in the ninth inning of the third and deciding playoff game. Instead, Alston brought in [[Stan Williams (baseball)|Stan Williams]] to relieve a tiring [[Eddie Roebuck]]. A 4–2 lead turned into a 6–4 loss as the Giants rallied to win the pennant. Snider was subsequently sold to the [[New York Mets]]. It is said that Drysdale, his roommate, broke down and cried when he got the news of Snider's departure.

===Final years===
When Snider joined the Mets, he discovered that his familiar number 4 was being worn by [[Charlie Neal]]. Snider wore number 11 during the first half of the season, then switched back to 4 after Neal was traded. He proved to be a sentimental favorite among former Dodger fans who now rooted for the Mets. On April 16, 1963, Snider recorded his 2,000th hit, doing so at [[Crosley Field]] against the [[Cincinnati Reds]] on a single off [[Jim Maloney]] in the 2nd inning.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN196304160.shtml|title=New York Mets at Cincinnati Reds Box Score, April 16, 1963}}</ref> On June 14, he recorded his 400th home run, once again against the Reds, doing so in the first inning off [[Bob Purkey]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN196306140.shtml|title=New York Mets at Cincinnati Reds Box Score, June 14, 1963}}</ref> He was named to the [[1963 Major League Baseball All-Star Game|All-Star Game]] in [[Cleveland]], his eighth and final selection. He entered the game as a pinch hitter for [[Tommy Davis (outfielder)|Tommy Davis]] in the top of the ninth inning. Facing [[Dick Radatz]], he struck out looking.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/allstar/1963-allstar-game.shtml|title=1963 All-Star Game Box Score, July 9}}</ref> For the season with the Mets, he appeared in 129 games while batting a slashline of .243/.345/.401, with 14 home runs, 45 RBIs, 45 walks, and 56 strikeouts. After one season, Snider asked to be traded to a contending team.

Snider was sold to the [[San Francisco Giants]] on Opening Day in 1964. Knowing that he had no chance of wearing number 4, which had been worn by [[Mel Ott]] and retired by the Giants, Snider took number 28. In 91 games played with the Giants, he batted a line of .210/.302/.323 while having four home runs and 17 RBIs. He had no triples for the first and only time in his career. He had 40 strikeouts and 22 walks. He appeared in three different positions for the Giants, playing 26 games in right field and 18 in left field for a combined total of 288.2 innings. He made 44 putouts, two assists with one error for a .979 fielding percentage. He retired at the end of that season.

He finished his major league career with a lifetime .295 batting average, 2,116 hits, 1,259 runs, 407 home runs, and 1,333 RBI. Defensively, he posted a .985 fielding percentage playing at all three outfield positions.

=== 1955 MVP balloting controversy ===
Snider finished second to teammate [[Roy Campanella]] in the 1955 Most Valuable Player (MVP) balloting conducted by the [[Baseball Writers' Association of America]]. He trailed Campanella by just five points, 226–221, with each man receiving eight first-place votes. A widely believed story, summarized in an article by columnist [[Tracy Ringolsby]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/duke-snider-dodgers-an-overlooked-great-of-baseballs-golden-era-022711|title=Ringolsby: Don't forget the Duke|author=Fox Sports|work=FOX Sports}}</ref> holds that a hospitalized writer from [[Philadelphia]] had turned in a ballot with Campanella listed as his first-place and fifth-place vote. It was assumed that the writer had meant to write Snider's name into one of those slots. Unable to get a clarification from the ill writer, the BBWAA considered disallowing the ballot but decided to accept it, counting the first-place vote for Campanella and counting the fifth-place vote as though it were left blank. Had the ballot been disallowed, the vote would have been won by Snider 221–212. Had Snider gotten that now-blank fifth-place vote, the final vote would have favored Snider 227–226.

Sportswriter [[Joe Posnanski]], however, has suggested that this story is not entirely true.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://joeposnanski.si.com/2011/03/02/1955-mvp-a-detective-story/ |title=Joe Posnanski » Posts 1955 MVP: A Detective Story « |access-date=2011-03-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110305070119/http://joeposnanski.si.com/2011/03/02/1955-mvp-a-detective-story/ |archive-date=2011-03-05 }}</ref> Posnanski writes that there was a writer who ''did'' leave Snider off his ballot and write in Campanella's name twice, but it was in first and sixth positions, not first and fifth. Had Snider received the sixth place vote, the final tally would have created a tie, not a win for Snider. Additionally, the position wasn't discarded — everyone lower on the ballot was moved up a spot, and pitcher [[Jack Meyer]] was inserted at the bottom with a 10th place vote.

Snider did win the [[Sporting News]] National League Player of the Year Award for 1955, and the Sid Mercer Award, emblematic of his selection by the New York branch of the BBWAA as the National League's best player of 1955.<ref>''The Duke of Flatbush'' by Duke Snider and Bill Gilbert</ref>