It is hard for me to let the day pass without nodding to the news of the death today of Edwin Donald “Duke” Snider.
Snider was a huge figure in my childhood. He was not only a star of the Brooklyn Dodgers (he’d been key in beating the dreaded Yankees in the World Series) and the L.A. Dodgers, but he was also our neighbor.
I knew this because my dad would frequently point out in the late 50s and early 60s Snider’s house, just blocks from our own and directly across the street from Lynwood High School, where my dad taught.
Snider retired and was eclipsed in my memory by other Dodger greats like Sandy Koufax. And over time, I began to figure out that my dad sometimes gave expedient answers to his inquisitive oldest child rather than factual ones. Yeah, there were some things that turned out to be not quite like my dad had described them. And for many years, I thought Duke Snider’s home on Carlin Avenue in Lynwood was just another one on my dad’s list.
Then, almost 20 years ago, a shocking revelation one morning in the newspaper: Duke Snider had indeed lived in Lynwood, and exactly where my dad said he had!
Now this is the house I remember my dad pointing out as Snider’s, but I’m unable to verify it. (This one is on the southeast corner of Carlin Avenue and Bullis Road.)
So here’s to Duke Snider, who hammered the Yankees for four home runs in the 1955 World Series, who is in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and who restored a kid’s trust in his father’s word.