(Updated Jan. 4, 2025)
Duke Snider had one of the most productive performances of his career in the same game Stan Musial achieved a slugging milestone.
On June 3, 1955, Snider went 4-for-5 with five RBI and two runs scored in the Dodgers’ 12-5 victory over the Cardinals at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.
Snider clouted a three-run home run, a RBI-double and two singles, one of which was a squeeze bunt that scored Pee Wee Reese from third.
In the same game, Musial hit his 300th career homer _ a three-run shot off Johnny Podres in the fifth. Musial became the 13th player with 300 homers.
Snider’s big performance against the Cardinals was part of a three-game tear in which he totaled five homers and 13 RBI. Dubbing him “The Duke of Destruction,” Bill Corum of International News Service wrote, “I’ve never seen a hitter quite as dangerous as Duke Snider.” Boxscore
Special talent
A center fielder, Snider hit .300 in his career against the Cardinals, with 60 homers and 189 RBI.
In his book “Stan Musial: The Man’s Own Story,” Musial said, “After he learned the strike zone in the majors, the Duke became one of the great sluggers of our era. He couldn’t hit the high and tight pitch early, but he learned to lay off it. He had great power … He was a fine outfielder with a good arm and good speed.”
In choosing his all-time National League all-star team, Musial selected Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Snider as the outfielders. Musial said with Snider in center, Carl Furillo in right and Andy Pafko in left “the Dodgers had the best-throwing outfield I ever saw.”
In the 1950s, the three center fielders in New York were Mickey Mantle of the Yankees, Mays of the New York Giants and Snider with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
In the book, “We Would Have Played For Nothing,” pitcher Ralph Branca, Snider’s Dodgers teammate, told former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent, “I think Duke was the best outfielder of the three of them. Duke got a great jump on the ball, charged the ground ball, and had the best arm of all three. Not only was he stronger, but he was more accurate.”
Snider wore No. 4 with the Dodgers in tribute to his boyhood favorite, Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig. In the book “Voices from Cooperstown,” Snider said to author Anthony J. Connor, “When that movie ‘Pride of the Yankees’ came out with Gary Cooper playing Lou Gehrig, I saw it maybe 15 times … I still get tears in my eyes watching that show.”
Playing rough
In 1961, Snider was involved in two rough-and-tumble incidents involving Cardinals pitchers Larry Jackson and Bob Gibson.
While facing the Cardinals in a spring training exhibition game, Snider shattered his bat on a pitch from Jackson. The ball struck Jackson on the hip and the bat hit him in the jaw.
In his book “The Duke of Flatbush,” Snider said, “I reached first base, but Jackson was still on the ground, seriously injured. His jaw was broken … I felt awful about it, but that’s one of the occupational hazards of pitching.”
A few weeks later, April 17, 1961, in a game between the Cardinals and Dodgers in Los Angeles, Snider hit a two-run home run against Gibson in the third inning. Boxscore
“I knew what would happen next … Word was already around the league that he had that mean streak that so many good pitchers have,” Snider said.
When Snider came to bat in the fifth, a Gibson fastball struck him in the elbow. Snider told Fay Vincent, “He threw a 95 mph fastball right at my ribs. I put my right elbow down to protect my ribs and it hit me right on the bone.”
When he tried to bat again in the seventh, Snider felt a sharp pain in that right elbow and was lifted for a pinch-hitter.
The elbow was fractured and Snider was sidelined for a month.
“It’s the only time I was ever on the disabled list,” Snider said to Fay Vincent. “I know that Bob Gibson has told people he never threw at a player on purpose. Bob Gibson is a nice guy, but he stretches the truth a little bit once in a while.”
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