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Duke Snider played center in Ebbets Field and ball on the streets of Brooklyn. He was immortalized in a strain recalling a golden era in baseball and was erst conception of digit of the sport's enthusiastic debates.

Snider, the uranologist of Famer for the loving "Boys of Summer" who helped the Dodgers bring their artful and exclusive World Series take to Brooklyn, died Sunday. He was 84.

"Duke was a fine man, a terrific batsman and a enthusiastic friend, modify though he was a Dodger," Giants uranologist of Famer Willie ballplayer said, remembering his across rival.

"The Duke of Flatbush" died at the Valle Vista Convalescent Hospital in Escondido, Calif., according to the National Baseball uranologist of Fame and Museum, which announced the modification on behalf of the family. Snider had been stricken for months. His kinsfolk said he died of uncolored causes.

Snider impact .295 with 407 occupation bag runs, played in the World Series sextet times and won two championships. But the eight-time All-Star was defined by much more than his stats — he was, after all, conception of the fuck intimacy between borough and "Dem Bums" who lived in the topical neighborhoods.

Ebbets Field was filled with stars such as Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella and Gil Hodges during that 1955 championship season. Yet it is Snider's study that refrains in "Talkin' Baseball."

"Willie, Mickey, and the Duke," goes the favourite stadium song, which marks its 30th anniversary this year.

Snider wore No. 4 in Dodger blue and was ofttimes regarded as the third-best center fielder in New royalty — behindhand ballplayer of the Giants and Mickey Mantle of the Yankees.

"Today, I see that I impact forfeited a love friend," ballplayer said in a statement. "He was a hero to the fans in borough and a enthusiastic Dodger."

To Snider, the rivalry with ballplayer and Mantle was prefabricated up.

"The newspapers compared Willie, Mickey and I, and that was their thing," Snider said individual eld ago. "As a team, we competed with the Giants, and we faced the Yankees in the World Series. So we had a rivalry as a team, that was it. It was an take to be compared to them, they were both enthusiastic players."

Mantle died in 1995 at geezerhood 63. Mays, today 79, threw discover a affair ball terminal fall before a playoff mettlesome in San Francisco.

"Willie, Duke and Mickey. They were enthusiastic players in digit city, digit town. Duke never got the assign of existence the outfielder that ballplayer and Mantle were," former associate Don Zimmer said Sunday. "But Duke was a enthusiastic outfielder. He was a enthusiastic player."

Commissioner Bud Selig called Snider an "integral conception of Dodger history" and conception of an "unparalleled triumvirate of center fielders" in New York.

"Then the Los Angeles autochthonous went bag and helped take in a new conception of baseball history with enthusiastic class," Selig said in a statement.

Snider impact at least 40 homers in five straightforward seasons and led the NL in amount bases three times. He never won an participant award, though a voting nonachievement haw impact outlay him the accolade in 1955. He forfeited to Campanella by a very narrow margin — it after turned discover an stricken citizen mitt Snider soured the ballot, supposedly by mistake.

Snider is the Dodgers' franchise leader in bag runs (389) and RBIs (1,271). He led every major leaguers in the 1950s with 326 homers and 1,031 RBIs.

Carl Erskine was Snider's roommate for 10 eld and the two mutual a concern at spring training in Vero Beach, Fla., with their families.

"Duke played so enthusiastic when I pitched," he recalled. "He meet prefabricated so some plays in the World Series for me, and he seemed to endeavor his prizewinning when I pitched."

Snider impact .309 with 42 homers and a career-high 136 RBIs in 1955. That October, he impact quaternary homers, crowd in heptad runs and impact .320 as the Dodgers vex the Yankees in a seven-game Series.

For a aggroup that kept preaching "Wait till incoming year" after World Series losses to the Yankees in 1953, '52, '49, '47 and '41, it was indeed incoming year. A procreation later, long after they'd every grown old, those Dodgers were lauded as the "Boys of Summer" in Roger Kahn's book.

"He was the genuine Dodger and represented the Dodgers to the maximal honor of class, comportment and character," uranologist of Fame Dodgers trainer Tommy Lasorda said.

Orlando Cepeda, a uranologist of Famer with the Giants, said Snider provided digit of his large thrills when he poor into the conference in 1958.

"When I came to prototypal base, the inaugural game, he said to me, 'Orlando, beatific luck, beatific luck,'" Cepeda said. "He was digit of my idols. I almost fainted."

Born king Donald Snider, he got his soubriquet at an primeval age. Noticing his son convey bag from a mettlesome with somewhat of a strut, Snider's dad said, "Here comes the Duke."

Even though his mom desirable Ed, the study stuck. So did Snider, erst he played his prototypal mettlesome in the conference in 1947, two life after Jackie Robinson's historic debut.

A imperishable pugilist with a brawny arm, beatific instincts on the bases and a regal style, Snider impact the terminal bag separate at Ebbets Field in 1957.

Snider's stroke gave the Dodgers a someone presence on a aggroup of mostly righties. He ofttimes launched shots over the brief right-field wall at the borough bandbox, gratifying a inactivity throng that concentrated on Bedford Avenue. "The Duke's up," fans in the bunk embellish would shout to those on the street.

Snider had a wild stroke that was harnessed by Branch Rickey, who prefabricated him training standing at bag bag with a wink on his margin occupation balls and strikes but proscribed to swing.

Snider stayed with the Dodgers when they touched to Los Angeles in 1958 and won another World Series anulus the incoming year. Prematurely gray, "The Silver Fox" returned to New royalty with the butterfingered Mets in 1963 and finished his occupation in 1964 with the Giants, where he and ballplayer were teammates.

"Above it all, he was a follower selection for his call of play, personality, accessibility, and emotionality for activity ball with kids in the streets of Brooklyn," uranologist of Fame President Jeff Idelson said.

Snider was elected to the uranologist of Fame in 1980 on his 11th try. He was a journalist for the Montreal Expos for individual seasons — he played in the municipality as a secondary leaguer in the borough farm grouping — and after was an announcer with the Dodgers.

"He had the grace and the abilities of DiMaggio and ballplayer and, of course, he was a World Series hero that module forever be remembered in the borough of Brooklyn," uranologist of Fame journalist Vin Scully said. "Although it's humorous to say it, we impact forfeited a giant."

In 1995, Snider pleaded blameable to federal set charges and was sentenced to two years' probation and punished $5,000. He admitted not news more than $97,000 in change from sign signings, bill shows and memorabilia sales.

Snider was sentenced at the borough federal courthouse, a whatever miles from where he had starred. The judge said Snider had been "publicly ashamed and ashamed ... here in Brooklyn, where you were worshipped by a procreation ... of which I was one."

Snider apologized. He said he began making sign appearances because he had little in savings and had prefabricated individual bad activity decisions. The judge said Snider paid nearly $30,000 in back taxes and noted he had diabetes, hypertension and another illnesses.

A autochthonous Californian, Snider became conception of Brooklyn's fabric during his activity days.

"I was dropped in Los Angeles," he erst said. "Baseballwise, I was dropped in Brooklyn. We lived with Brooklyn. We died with Brooklyn."

The Duke, however, had whatever primeval problems with the boisterous borough fans.

Once, in the primeval 1950s, he was quoted as occupation them the worst in the game. He came to the tract after the quote was publicised and was greeted with a chorus of boos. But he enjoyed digit of his meliorate nights, and suppressed the fans for good.

"The fans were something." Snider said. "They were so near to you. You got to undergo them, whatever of them by name."

During his activity career, Snider became an aguacate creator and lived some eld in Fallbrook, Calif.

He is survived by his wife, Beverly, whom he married in 1947.

Funeral arrangements were pending.

Zimmer lamented another Dodger gone.

"They're every expiration away," he said. "There's not some left."

___

Contributing to this report were AP Sports Writers Janie heroine in San Francisco; Tom Withers in Goodyear, Ariz.; archangel Marot in Indianapolis; Fred Goodall in Tampa, Fla.; Steven Wine in Jupiter, Fla.; and Dave Skretta and Ronald Blum in New York.

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