Duke Snider 1926 - 2011
Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 10:00 pm
If there is a Bedford Avenue in the hereafter, it's time to board up the windows.
Duke Snider, who spent the prime of his major-league career hitting balls over the Ebbets Field right-field wall onto the busy Brooklyn street beyond, died Sunday of natural causes in Escondido, Calif., at age 84.
"The Duke of Flatbush" was the last living everyday regular from "The Boys of Summer," the fabled Dodger teams of the 1950s that included Brooklyn's only world championship team in 1955. Pitchers Carl Erskine and Don Newcombe are among those who survive.
The Dodgers' representative to New York's trio of Hall of Fame centerfielders in the 1950s — Willie, Mickey and the Duke as immortalized in the Terry Cashman song — Snider hit 40 or more home runs for five consecutive seasons in Brooklyn. And his shots over the iconic 40-foot wall/fence onto Bedford Avenue were majestic.
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Duke Snider, who spent the prime of his major-league career hitting balls over the Ebbets Field right-field wall onto the busy Brooklyn street beyond, died Sunday of natural causes in Escondido, Calif., at age 84.
"The Duke of Flatbush" was the last living everyday regular from "The Boys of Summer," the fabled Dodger teams of the 1950s that included Brooklyn's only world championship team in 1955. Pitchers Carl Erskine and Don Newcombe are among those who survive.
The Dodgers' representative to New York's trio of Hall of Fame centerfielders in the 1950s — Willie, Mickey and the Duke as immortalized in the Terry Cashman song — Snider hit 40 or more home runs for five consecutive seasons in Brooklyn. And his shots over the iconic 40-foot wall/fence onto Bedford Avenue were majestic.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball ... dies_N.htm#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;