News Updates :Duke Snider Dies: Hall Of Fame Brooklyn Dodger Dead At 84

Duke Snider, center fielder Hall of Fame of Charm "Boys of Summer" that helped the Dodgers their only World Series title and elusive in Brooklyn, died Sunday. He was 84.

Snider died on Valle Vista Convalescent Hospital Home in Escondido, Calif., said the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, which announced the death on behalf of the family. Snider had been ill for several months. His family said he died of natural causes.

The Duke of Flatbush "hit .295 with 407 career home runs, played in the World Series six times and won two titles, but the eight-time All-Star has been defined by much more than statistics. - It was, after all, part of the love affair between the Brooklyn and "Dem Bums" who lived in neighborhoods.

Ebbets Field was full of stars as Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella and Gil Hodges during the 1955 season in the league. Yet Snider and the name is a suspension of a baseball field preferred 'Baseball Talkin'. "

"Willie, Mickey and the Duke" Pop Goes.

Snider wore No. 4 in Dodger blue and was often considered the center fielder to third choice in New York - behind the Giants Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle Yankees - in what many fans consider the golden age of baseball city .

"The newspaper compared Willie, Mickey and me, and that was his thing," Snider said several years ago. "As a team, we competed with the Giants, and we face the Yankees in the World Series. So we had a team of rivalry, that was it. It was an honor to be compared to them, both were great players."

Mantle died in 1995 at age 63. Mays, 79, threw a ceremonial last fall before a playoff game in San Francisco.

"Willie, Mickey and the Duke - were major players in one city, one of the city," said former teammate Don Zimmer, who played five years Snider. "Duke has never received the honor of Mays and outfielder who were mantle. First of all, it was a small ballpark, Ebbetts Field. But the Duke was a great Outfielder. It was a good player."