THE DUKE AND ME
By Kenneth Uva
When I was a very young boy in Brooklyn, I never heard an argument about politics. The subject of debate, both friendly and not so friendly, was baseball. New York had three baseball teams at the time, the New York Yankees, the New York Giants, and the Brooklyn Dodgers. Since my father was a die hard Dodgers fan, so was I even though I had little knowledge of the game and the players. Dodgers’ fans were taunted by the fans of the other two teams for never winning a World Series. “Wait till next year” was the slogan of futility after the Dodgers lost the World Series to the Yankees in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, and 1953. Finally, in 1955, the Dodgers beat the Yankees and became world champs. My father told me that Duke Snider hit four home runs. So, when I was just a few months short of six-years old, the Duke became my favorite ballplayer for the rest of my life. I even made the pilgrimage to Cooperstown to see Duke inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980.
I have been interested in baseball stats since I was six years old. I have studied them all my life. Lately, I have become interested in the nuances of those numbers. Pete Reiser of the old Brooklyn Dodgers was a brilliant player but he was carried off the field ten times after crashing into the outfield walls. Due to his injuries, we will never know what he could have accomplished had he had a full career. What would Ted Williams’ lifetime totals have been if he did not lose five prime seasons due to service in World War II and Korea? Conversely, Pete Rose, who holds the record of the most hits, also has the records for most games and most at bats. When Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s career home run record, he did so with 50% more times at bat than the Babe. When we determine the greatness of a player, his totals count, but also the totals in proportion to his longevity.
Duke Snider played 18 seasons but he stopped being an everyday player after age 31 and played seven seasons as a part time player. Mickey Mantle of the Yankees was known to play hurt and for losing time due to injuries yet he had 1700 more plate appearances than the Duke. So, while Duke was a leader in his era, he lost playing time in his prime years so his total numbers do not paint the whole picture.
My affinity to the Duke has grown over the decades when I began to understand the impact of his injuries and regardless of injuries, how many times he was close to an achievement but just missed for one reason or another. We are lucky if our lives have more positive aspects than negatives, as did Duke’s and as did my own. Yet, there were many “what ifs.”
Disclaimer # 1. While I played sports, that was never a major part of my life and even as an amateur, I never considered sports to be a career path. My affinity to Duke’s story was not about that kind of connection.
Disclaimer # 2. My life had its share of achievements and recognition. In some cases, I was in the right place at the right time. There were, however, also a few situations where a slight change of an event or circumstance would have provided a better result for me. This is not uncommon in our lives as it was also for the Duke. And to be clear to my readers, this essay is not a litany of how I was mistreated by life because that wasn’t the case.
What is it about the Duke’s career that resonates so much? For starters, as a player, he did not get the recognition he deserved. When he became the regular centerfielder for the Dodgers in 1949, Joe DiMaggio, the legend (ask Paul Simon), was still the Yankees centerfielder. Joe was eventually replaced by Mickey Mantle. During the mid 1950s, New York had three eventual Hall of Fame centerfielders, Duke, Mantle, and Willie Mays of the Giants. They got differing press coverage largely due to how their teams promoted them. Mantle was handsome, blonde, fast and powerful. His Yankees team did not have other players with his star quality so he received a large amount of publicity by the team. The Giants had no stars other than Mays so Willie was the darling of the New York press. Meanwhile the Dodgers had Pee Wee Reese (the Captain), Roy Campanella (great catcher, powerful hitter and nice guy), Gil Hodges (strong and quiet) and Jackie Robinson, who needs no further description. The word on Duke was that he was moody and was portrayed as a crybaby despite his talent in the field and at the plate. It didn’t help that after a bad day, he said Brooklyn fans were the worst in baseball, or a magazine article that appeared about how he said he played baseball for money, not for fun. In short, the other two centerfielders got more and better publicity than the Duke. It was long after his playing days that I learned that he led the majors in home runs and runs batted in during the 1950s. It was no small achievement considering the greats who played in that decade but this fact didn’t seem to come up when he was still a player.
Close but not enough. There were several instances where one play kept him from being the star. In the final game of the 1950 season, the Dodgers and the Phillies were battling for the National League pennant. In the bottom of the ninth in a tie game, and with Cal Abrams in scoring position, Duke singled to center. Instead of scoring the pennant winning run, Abrams was thrown out at the plate. Whether the issue was Abrams’ speed or the coach’s decision to send him home, Duke almost had the pennant winning hit. The Phillies won with a home run in the 10th.
In 1951, the Dodgers and Giants were tied at the end of the season, necessitating a two out of three games playoff series. Duke was 5 for 11 in those three games. The story, however, was Bobby Thomson of the Giants hitting a three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth giving the Giants a come from behind victory and the pennant. “The shot heard round the world” was one of the most famous in baseball history and negated Duke’s fine performance in that series.
In the 1952 World Series, the Dodgers once again faced the Yankees. Duke hit four home runs in the first six games. His two homers in game 6 were the Dodgers’ only runs in a 3-2 loss. In that series, he tied the home run record, and set the then records for total bases and extra base hits. He was responsible for 8 of the Dodgers 18 runs batted in while Campanella, Hodges, Furillo, and Robinson batted in 4 between them. A key hit or two from one or more of those great hitters before or after Duke’s hits could have won it for the Dodgers and Duke would have been the hero instead of a great performer in a losing cause.
The 1954 season saw close competition for the batting title. Duke finished four points behind Willie Mays, the league leader. At least this time, Duke’s performance was his own and he was not denied due to the performance of others.
The 1955 World Series was the “next year” Brooklyn fans were waiting for. The Dodgers beat the Yankees in seven games. Duke again hit 4 home runs and powered the team’s offense. The starring crown of the series was given to Johnny Podres, who pitched two great games. The Duke’s performance was hardly talked about. To compound his not getting the credit he deserved, he was runner up in the 1955 Most Valuable Player vote. There was controversy involved due to one writer dying before he could fill out his ballot. Duke only needed to be placed highly on that ballot to win. This was after a season where he led the majors in runs batted in and runs scored. He was compensated somewhat by being named the Sporting News Player of the Year.
The year 1956 was a mix of pluses and not pluses. In the final game of the season, once again when the Dodgers would win or lose on the last day, Duke hit 2 homeruns and batted in 4, giving the Dodgers an 8-6 victory in a game the team had to win to stay out of a tie-breaking playoff. He led the league in HRs, walks, slugging, and on base average, yet was only tenth in the MVP voting in year when many of the Dodgers hitters had sub par seasons.
In 1957, due to an injured knee, Duke missed about ten percent of the games. He hit 40 home runs for the fifth year in a row but writers pointed out his “dubious distinction” of being the first player to hit 40 without batting in 100 runs. First of all, would 39 homers have been better? Also, he had fewer at bats than in any of his other full seasons and his was the highest HR/AB percentage that year. Mantle hit 40 without 100 RBI in two of the next three seasons without criticism. Many players have done the same since but Duke was the first and received flak. Fittingly, Duke hit the last two homers at Ebbets Field before he whose name is not to be mentioned moved the team to Los Angeles.
In the Dodgers’ first year in LA, they played in the Los Angeles Coliseum, a football stadium. The dimensions were not suited for baseball. There was a very long distance to right center where Duke usually hit his homeruns. Due to the abomination of a “ballpark” and his knee, Duke only hit 15 while playing about 60% of a normal season. The press wrote about the loss of his power due to his home field but not about his .312 batting average or the fact that his was the first Dodgers hit at the Coliseum.
After he helped the Dodgers win the 1959 World Series by leading the team in batting average and RBI while not playing every day, he spent the next three years playing less than half the time due to his injured knee. In 1962, once again, Dodgers and the now San Francisco Giants were tied at the end of the season and had to play a best of three playoff series. The Dodgers were ahead in the final game until they blew it in the 9th inning. Just like 1951, the Dodgers lost the pennant when their opponents came from behind in the last inning. Duke was 2 out of 3 in that game, including a double, but the pitcher could not hold the lead. Close but not enough.
98/99. A perusal of Duke’s stats shows an amazing number of times that he just missed the next benchmark. In 1950, 53, and 54, he had 199, 198, and 199 hits, respectively. He was just four hits from having three 200 hit seasons. He had 38 doubles in 1953 and 39 in 1954, just short of the 40 level. In 1956, he led the league with 99 walks, his on base average was .399 and his slugging average was .598. One more hit would have taken him to the next threshold in both the latter categories. And to add one more number he stole 99 bases in his career.
Yin/Yang. While Duke often fell just short of a threshold based upon his play, and fell short of victories due to the play of others, he did get his recognition. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980 after being on the ballot for 11 years. On Ranker.com, a website where fans rank players in various categories, he is ranked 10 of the greatest left-handed batters and 6th of the greatest centerfielders although even I would not rank him above Mays.
A tremendous talent, he fell just short a number of times. Long after he played, somehow that hit home with me. I never heard him whine about bad luck or criticize players who came after him. He stayed in baseball many years as a coach and as a broadcaster. Duke was truly a credit to the game, though like all of us, imperfect. Less imperfect than most, however. I am sorry I never met him to have a talk about all of this.
I had an eerie moment one day at the gym. I selected an empty locker number 136. I knew I could easily remember that since that was Duke’s RBI total when he led the league in 1955. A few minutes later while I was on a treadmill, the TV monitor posted a story that Duke had died. I always felt a connection between the Duke and me. This was the final proof.
