Up on the blog today, the newest "Legend" we add to my 1971 "Minor League Days Legends Edition", Duke Snider of the Brooklyn Dodgers:
Before
becoming one of the great power-hitting players in the National League
in the 1950s, Snider put in some time with the Montreal Royals of AAA in
1947, hitting .327 with 17 homers and 77 runs batted in over 77 games,
giving the Dodger fans a better idea of what to expect after a brief Big
League call up the previous year when he played in 40 games, hitting
.241 as a 20-year-old.
All
he would do from then on was hit, finishing his career with the San
Francisco Giants in 1964, capping off a great 18-year Major League
career that
saw him make eight All-Star teams while post six seasons where he
finished in the top-10 for N.L. MVP.
Snider
was an absolute beast of a hitter through the 1950's with the Dodgers,
driving in over 100 runs six times, 30+ homers six times including five
straight seasons of 40 or more, five years of scoring over 100 runs and
seven seasons of .300 hitting or better.
A
HUGE cog in the Brooklyn Dodger machine of the 1950s, he was also part
of the "Holy Trinity of New York center-fielders of the era, along with
Willie Mays of the New York Giants and Mickey Mantle of the New York
Yankees.
What a time it must have been to be a young baseball fan!
