Snider among Legends of Baseball at Hall of Champions

Duke Snider was among the panelists when the San Diego Hall of Champions hosted its first Legends of Baseball lunch May 10.

An attendance of 310 plus media members made the Legends of Baseball luncheon the highest-ever Sports at Lunch event in the history of the Hall of Champions. Snider was joined by Buzzie Bavasi, Jerry Coleman, and Dave Garcia. The four spoke on some of their experiences as well as on the comparison of baseball in the 21st century to baseball when they played the game.

“I think baseball is still a wonderful game,” Snider said. “I love the game.”

Snider watches Padres games on Channel 4, although he only watches a few innings of those games. “I enjoy watching those young fellows play,” he said of the Padres, for whom he has high expectations.

Snider played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball, during which time he hit 407 home runs in the regular season and 11 home runs in the World Series. The first 16 of those seasons were with the Dodgers, who moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles after the 1957 season. After closing out his playing career in 1964, Snider was a scout and minor league manager in the Dodgers organization for four years before joining the San Diego Padres as an announcer from 1969 to 1971.

“Duke was a great one,” said Bavasi, who was the general manager of the Dodgers from 1951 to 1968 and the president of the Padres when Snider was broadcasting. “We did have three great centerfielders in Brooklyn and New York.”

Those three centerfielders were Snider, Mickey Mantle of the Yankees, and Willie Mays of the Giants. Snider joined the Dodgers in 1947 while Mantle and Mays reached the majors in 1951.

Mantle and Snider were the opposing centerfielders in four World Series matchups. The only one of those won by the Dodgers was in 1955, when Snider batted .320 with four home runs and Mantle hit .200 with one home run. “Now who’s the better ballplayer?” Bavasi said.

In each of those four World Series competitions, Snider batted over .300. Mantle did so once, in 1952, when each centerfielder batted .345.

Although the 1955 Dodgers were the only Brooklyn team to win the World Series, Bavasi and Snider both felt that the 1952 team was better than the 1955 squad. “I think that was the best team that I played on,” Snider said.

Snider was joined in the outfield that year by leftfielder Andy Pafko and rightfielder Carl Furillo, who had been moved from centerfield three years earlier to provide Snider a position in the starting lineup. “We had three centerfielders playing the outfield, and we had three shortstops playing third base, shortstop, and second base,” he said.

Pee Wee Reese was the Dodgers’ shortstop in 1952, Billy Cox played third base, and Jackie Robinson was the second baseman. The first baseman, Gil Hodges, was a converted catcher Snider calls the “human vacuum cleaner,” while Roy Campanella was the 1952 catcher.

“We had a team in ’52 that you could make out your Opening Day lineup Christmas Day of ‘51 if nobody was hurt,” Snider said.

In those days, fans knew the following year’s Opening Day lineup. “This was one of those things that’s frustrating about baseball today,” Snider said. “It’s tough to be a loyal fan when you have everybody moving around all the time.”

Bavasi recalled one Snider incident from the 1952 season in which the Dodgers and Cardinals were tied at one run apiece entering the ninth inning. George Munger was pitching for the Cardinals, and Bavasi shouted at Munger to knock Snider down. Munger did just that, and on the next pitch Snider homered. Bavasi’s wife was puzzled that her husband wanted his own player knocked down.

Bavasi was thinking more strategically. “Duke Snider is the best hitter I ever saw after somebody knocked him down,” Bavasi said.

The Dodgers’ final World Series before leaving Brooklyn was in 1956, when they lost to the Yankees. Snider’s World Series feats include hitting four home runs apiece in the 1952 and 1955 competitions, but he is also known for going hitless in three at-bats in the fifth game of the 1956 World Series.

Snider is not the main figure in that October 8, 1956, game. Don Larsen threw the only perfect game in World Series history that afternoon. “We don’t talk about that day,” Snider said.

Snider was willing to discuss a few details at the Legends of Baseball luncheon. “He went to the no-windup, and nobody had ever seen it before,” he said of Larsen. “It threw us off.”

Snider’s next at-bat against Larsen came in Spring Training the following year. Snider got a hit off Larsen in that at-bat. “I hollered to Buzzie: ‘I want a raise. I got a hit of Larsen.’ He said: ‘You’re seven months late’.”

When Snider first reached the majors in 1947, he was making the $5,000 minimum. Snider was not the only rookie on the Dodgers’ Opening Day roster in 1947; on April 15 Robinson became the first Negro to play Major League Baseball in the 20th century.

“He got all the ink,” Snider said. “I got paid to watch the game.”

Snider made his big league debut two days later.

“I have never seen a better competitor,” Snider said of Robinson. “He put his game face on with that uniform.”

Robinson’s competitiveness helped the team in ways beyond his performance. “We all learned from that,” Snider said.

“I learned from some of the best ever,” Snider said. “It eventually made me a clutch, well-depended-on ballplayer, a Hall of Fame ballplayer, just by being on the same team as those guys.”

The 1947 Dodgers also included several veterans. Infielder Arky Vaughan was 35 and infielder Cookie Lavagetto was 34.

“Arky was one of the nicest guys you’d ever want to meet,” Snider said. “He knew how to play and he showed up every day ready to play.”

Snider’s memories of Lavagetto included a uniform full of tobacco juice. “He was a rough stuff guy, but Cookie Lavagetto was a solid major league ballplayer,” Snider said. “I just had all the respect in the world for all those older players on the Brooklyn ballclub.”

Snider notes that one exception to that was outfielder Dixie Walker. “I didn’t like him too well,” Snider said.

Walker, who played right field, feared losing his job to Snider and was unwilling to give the youngster tips on playing balls off the wall at Ebbets Field. It would be the other rookie who would cost Walker his job with the Dodgers; Walker did not wish to be on a team with a Negro and after the 1947 season he was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Snider earned a starting position with the Dodgers in 1949.

In those days baseball players had to work during the off-season. Snider and Cliff Dapper eventually purchased an avocado grove in Fallbrook, but at one time Snider delivered mail during the Christmas season.

Money has been one of the changes in the game since Snider played. He believes that the emphasis on money has been detrimental to fan loyalty. “The dollar sign rules the game of baseball,” he said.

Snider noted other changes in the game; from time to time the emphasis switches from power to speed and from speed to power. Snider was on the Dodgers in 1962 when Maury Wills stole 104 bases, which he feels changed the game.

“I stole 16 one year accidentally,” Snider said.

Snider stole 16 bases in 1950 and repeated that career high in 1953. He stole a total of 99 bases in his career.

Another difference between then and now was the strength of the Pacific Coast League in an era when Major League Baseball only had 16 teams and none were west of St. Louis. Many players stayed in the PCL rather than accept contracts in the majors for less money.

“Some good ballplayers played in that league,” Snider said.

One of those was Joe DiMaggio, who played for his hometown San Francisco Seals before the New York Yankees purchased his contract. Snider grew up in Los Angeles, and his parents took Snider to that city’s Wrigley Field to see DiMaggio when the Seals came to Wrigley Field for a series. “He was that great of a ballplayer,” Snider said.

“He was the greatest player I ever saw play. He made everything look easy,” Snider said of DiMaggio. “It was fun to see a guy like that play.”

The Pacific Coast League included both the Los Angeles Angels and the Hollywood Stars. Snider’s favorite PCL player was Jigger Statz, who played for the Angels for 18 years as well as for four major league teams over all or part of eight seasons. Statz holds the PCL career records for games played, at-bats, runs, hits, singles, doubles, triples, total bases, outfield putouts, and outfield assists. “He was a great centerfielder,” Snider said of Statz, who lived in San Clemente prior to his death.

Another change in baseball which has occurred since the Dodgers’ move to Los Angeles is airplane travel; Snider and Bavasi both opined that players get to know their teammates better on train trips than during airplane flights.

During the luncheon Snider noted a pair of conflicts involving Bavasi and himself. One of those took place after the Dodgers had moved to Los Angeles and were playing in the Los Angeles Coliseum. Teammate Don Zimmer had made bets that someone could throw a baseball out of the Coliseum, past 87 rows of seats and the upper wall. “Zimmer couldn’t do it,” Snider said.

Zimmer offered Snider $200 to throw a ball out of the Coliseum. “$200 was quite a lot then,” Snider said.

Snider’s first throw reached halfway up the four-feet concrete wall at the top of the Coliseum. His second throw hit the top of the wall. On the third throw the ball slipped off of Snider’s middle finger and something popped in Snider’s right elbow. Snider told Zimmer that he’d throw a ball out of the Coliseum after the final game of the season.

Pitcher Ed Roebuck, meanwhile, was seeking to hit a ball over the Olympic torch at the Coliseum. By this time fans were beginning to fill the stands, and Dodgers manager Walter Alston cautioned his players. “He said: ‘Somebody could get hurt’,” Snider said.

Snider told Alston that he was hurt and likely couldn’t play. Alston removed Snider’s name from the starting lineup.

Bavasi came into the clubhouse looking for Snider and told the outfielder that the action would cost him $200. Snider told Bavasi that he could play. “For $200 I can,” he said.

Bavasi told Snider to get dressed and go home. Snider’s wife inquired why he was home so early. “I told her what happened, and she chewed me out,” Snider said.

The next day he placed his arm in a whirlpool. “I played the next day bad arm and all,” he said.

Snider had two infielder choppers for base hits that day and the Dodgers won the game. After the final game of the season Snider resumed his quest to throw a ball out of the Coliseum and did so on the first attempt. “I got my $200 back,” he said.

After that game Bavasi gave Snider the $200 he had taken. “I made $400 on the deal,” Snider said.

The other incident with Bavasi occurred when Bavasi was the Padres president and Snider and Jerry Gross were broadcasting for KOGO. “One night we had about 3,500 people,” Snider said of the Padres’ home attendance. “It was like a morgue.”

Snider asked KOGO engineer Skip Conover if he could provide some crowd noise, and Conover complied. “It sounded like we had 100,000 people at the ballpark. It became a game,” Snider said.

Bavasi, however, wanted the radio listeners to know that more than 40,000 seats were available in the ballpark. He gave Snider and Gross three minutes to get the crowd noise off the air.

Snider’s comments at the luncheon included advice to young ballplayers. “My advice to the young players is to play as much as possible, learn the game,” he said. “You have to know how to play the game and what it takes to be a complete ballplayer.”

He noted that the pressure now placed on many young ballplayers is not good for the players. “You’ve got to have a lot of fun when you play the game,” he said.

“It’s a wonderful game,” Snider said. “It’s a game that once you fall in love with. It will never leave you.”

“Duke lives by those words,” Bavasi said.