Filmed in December 1959, “Home Run Derby” was a groundbreaking weekly television series that pitted baseball’s top sluggers against one another in head-to-head battles for long ball supremacy. The show took place at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles (home of the Pacific Coast League’s Angels), chosen because of its near-symmetrical dimensions. Unlike modern derbies, hitters…
Ranking the Center Fielders Joe DiMaggio made playing center field for the New York Yankees cool. He was graceful and he was a winner (10 pennants in 13 seasons), and helped establish the Yankee mystique. Switch-hitting Mickey Mantle combined power and speed in ways no one ever had before. Other great Yankee center fielders…
▪️1) “I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me. All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” — Jackie Robinson ▪️2) “[Jackie] knew he had to do well. He knew that the future of blacks in baseball depended on it. The pressure was enormous, overwhelming, and unbearable at times. I…
“The field was even greener than my boy’s mind had pictured it. In later years, friends of ours visited Ireland and said the grass there was plenty green all right, but that not even the Emerald Isle itself was as green as the grass that grew in Ebbets Field.” – Duke Snider
Duke Snider Position: CenterfielderBats: Left • Throws: Right6-0, 179lb (183cm, 81kg)Born: September 19, 1926 in Los Angeles, CADied: February 27, 2011 in Escondido, CABuried: Fallbrook Masonic Cemetery, Fallbrook, CAHigh School: Compton HS (Compton, CA)Debut: April 17, 1947 (10,310th in major league history)vs. BSN 2 AB, 1 H, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SBLast Game: October 3, 1964vs. CHC 1 AB, 1 H, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SBHall of Fame: Inducted as Player in 1980. (Voted…
The “Duke of Flatbush”, Hall of Famer Duke Snider dies in Escondido, CA at age 84. Snider was a power-hitting centerfielder for the great Brooklyn Dodgers teams of the 1950s and is immortalized in Terry Cashman’s song “Willie, Mickey and the Duke”.
Shawn Green breaks a franchise record for homers in a season with his 44th home run, the first of his two dingers the Dodger right fielder will hit of Dustin Hermanson in the team’s 7-1 victory over the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. The previous mark had been shared by Duke Snider (1956) and Gary Sheffield (2000).
Mariner Ken Griffey Jr. joins Babe Ruth, Ralph Kiner, Duke Snider, Ernie Banks, Harmon Killebrew, and Mark McGwire as the only players to hit 40 homers in four consecutive seasons.
Al Kaline, Chuck Klein, Duke Snider, and Tom Yawkey are inducted into the Hall of Fame
May 13, 1980 Fred Lynn becomes the 13 Red Sox player to hit for the Cycle. BOSTON (AP) — Fred Lynn has done a lot In his short major-league career. He was the American League’s most valuable player and rookie of the year in 1975 and has led the league in slugging percentage twice…