Dodgers Dugout: The 25 greatest Dodgers of all time, No. 5: Duke Snider

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell as we continue the top-25 countdown.

Readers voted in droves, submitting 15,212 ballots by email, Twitter and Facebook. Voters were asked for their top 10 Dodgers in order from 1 to 10, with first place receiving 12 points, second place nine points, third place eight, all the way down to one point for 10th place.

The last time we did this was in 2018, and there were some changes in the rankings.

So, without further ado:

The 25 greatest Dodgers, No. 5: DUKE SNIDER (624 first-place votes, 70,229 points)
2018 rank: 4th

Edwin Donald “Duke” Snider was born Sept. 19, 1926 and was a four-sport star at Compton High. After performing well at a tryout camp in 1944, the Dodgers offered him a contract. He was temperamental, once walking off the field after being given the take sign, but the Dodgers saw his potential and looked away most of the time when he misbehaved. It ties into his nickname, “Duke,” given to him by his father because of the way he strutted around the house as a kid.

Snider missed the 1945 season and most of 1946 when he enlisted in the Navy. He first played for Brooklyn in 1947, the same year another rookie, Jackie Robinson, debuted, which caused Snider to go overlooked by many.

Snider’s hair began going gray not long after joining the Dodgers and he requested a trade after the 1951 season. Snider said, “I went to Walter O’Malley and told him I couldn’t take the pressure.” The Dodgers wisely refused, but teammate Pee Wee Reese told him the rest of the players were tired of his outbursts and his constant complaining. He seemed to calm down a bit after that.

He played 16 seasons with the Dodgers, helping them win two World Series (1955 and 1959).

He came close to winning what would have been his only MVP award in 1955, but one writer put teammate Roy Campanella first and fifth on his ballot (some sources say first and sixth) instead of Campanella first and Snider fifth (or vice versa). Unable to contact the writer in time to see what he meant to do, the balloting committee gave Campanella the first-place vote and moved everyone else on that writer’s ballot up one spot, leaving Snider off the ballot entirely. If he had been given the fifth-place vote, he would have won the award by one point over Campanella. If the entire ballot had been disallowed, Snider would have won by nine points. Instead he finished second. Both were great players that season. Snider led the league in runs and RBIs.

Snider hit 40 or more home runs for five straight seasons, from 1953 to 1957, and came west with the Dodgers in 1958. Though his average remained strong, his power was all wrong for the Coliseum, which had a cavernous right and center fields. He went from 40 homers in 1957 to 15 in 1958.

When the Dodgers moved to Dodger Stadium in 1962, Snider went with them. In fact, if you want to win a bar bet, ask people who got the first hit for the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Snider is the answer. Snider didn’t play much in 1962, and the Dodgers sold him to the New York Mets before the 1963 season.

The Mets sold him to the San Francisco Giants before the 1964 season, and Snider played his final season with the Dodgers’ archrivals.

Snider broadcast games for the San Diego Padres and Montreal Expos, then retired from that after the 1986 season. He ran into legal trouble after failing to report income from memorabilia sales. Snider apologized and said he made some bad decisions.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1980, and the Dodgers retired his No. 4.

Snider died Feb. 27, 2011 at the age of 84. He was the last living Brooklyn Dodger who was on the field when the team won its first title in 1955.

Previously

No. 6: Don Drysdale

No. 7: Roy Campanella

No. 8: Tommy Lasorda

No. 9: Pee Wee Reese

No. 10: Fernando Valenzuela

No. 11: Maury Wills

No. 12: Zack Wheat

No. 13: Gil Hodges

No. 14: Walter Alston

No. 15: Steve Garvey

No. 16: Branch Rickey

No. 17: Walter O’Malley

No. 18: Don Sutton

No. 19: Orel Hershiser

No. 20: Mike Piazza

No. 21: Don Newcombe

No. 22: Mookie Betts

No. 23: Dazzy Vance

No. 24: Kirk Gibson

No. 25: Eric Gagné

Some numbers

A look at how the Dodgers did with two out and runners in scoring position this season (minimum 10 plate appearances):

Freddie Freeman, .397/.470/.672, 23 for 58, 4 doubles, 4 homers, 35 RBIs
J.D. Martinez, .367/.433/.783, 22 for 60, 4 doubles, 7 homers, 39 RBIs
Kiké Hernández, .321/.387/.536, 9 for 28, 3 doubles, 1 homer, 15 RBIs
Mookie Betts, .319/.437/.625, 23 for 72, 7 doubles, 5 homers, 39 RBIs
Will Smith, .313/.431/.500, 15 for 48, 3 doubles, 2 homers, 19 RBIs
Trayce Thompson, .273/.429/.818, 3 for 11, 2 homers, 9 RBIs
David Peralta, .250/.291/.327, 13 for 52, 4 doubles, 17 RBIs
Chris Taylor, .239/.375/.435, 11 for 46, 3 doubles, 2 homers, 20 RBIs
James Outman, .236/.364/.382, 13 for 55, 1 triple, 2 homers, 19 RBIs
Miguel Rojas, .226/.281/.245, 12 for 53, 1 double, 9 RBIs
Amed Rosario, .208/.208/.208, 5 for 24, 5 RBIs
Miguel Vargas, .167/.300/.310, 7 for 42, 4 doubles, 1 triple, 11 RBIs
Max Muncy, .134/.284/.269, 9 for 67, 3 doubles, 2 triples, 18 RBIs
Jason Heyward, .114/.244/.143, 4 for 35, 1 double, 6 RBIs
Austin Barnes, .067/.263/.067, 1 for 15, 2 RBIs
Team, .257/.359/.440, 38 doubles, 2 triples, 28 homers, 274 RBIs

A look at how the main Dodgers hitters fared against left-handers and right-handers:

vs. right-handers
Freddie Freeman, .330/.414/.548
Mookie Betts, .309/.403/.546
Jason Heyward, .276/.347/.471
Kiké Hernández, .291/.318/.476
J.D. Martinez, .270/.312/.568
Will Smith, .268/.361/.434
Amed Rosario, .264/.304/.434
Chris Taylor, .255/.332/.380
David Peralta, .254/.290/.384
James Outman, .247/.351/.484
Max Muncy, .237/.363/.518
Austin Barnes, .219/.292/.297
Miguel Rojas, .210/.268/.278

vs. left-handers
Freddie Freeman, .335/.399/.609
David Peralta, .314/.333/.343
Mookie Betts, .300/.424/.673
Miguel Rojas, .286/.331/.406
J.D. Martinez, .274/.343/.406
James Outman, .254/.357/.308
Amed Rosario, .250/.299/.389
Will Smith, .240/.354/.446
Kiké Hernández, .215/.293/.339
Chris Taylor, .210/.317/.478
Jason Heyward, .192/.250/.500
Max Muncy, .155/.263/.378
Austin Barnes, .080/.164/.100

NLDS schedule

Game 1: at Dodgers, Saturday
Game 2: at Dodgers, Monday
Game 3: at Milwaukee or Arizona, Wednesday, Oct. 11
Game 4: at Milwaukee or Arizona, Thursday, Oct. 12
Game 5: at Dodgers, Saturday, Oct. 14

All games will be on TBS. Start times have not been announced, but if the TBS website is to believed, it looks like the games will start at either 5 or 5:30 p.m.

And finally

Duke Snider takes on Hank Aaron on the old “Home Run Derby” TV show. Watch and listen here.