Duke Snider

American professional baseball player, nicknamed "The Silver Fox" and "The Duke of Flatbush". Usually assigned to center field, he spent most of his Major League Baseball (MLB) career playing for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers (1947–1962), later playing one season each for the New York Mets (1963) and San Francisco Giants (1964). He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980. Snider was named to the National League (NL) All-Star roster eight times and was the NL Most Valuable Player (MVP) runner-up in 1955. In his 16 out of 18 seasons with the Dodgers, he helped lead the Dodgers to six World Series, with victories in 1955 and 1959. Following his retirement from baseball, Snider became a popular and respected TV/radio analyst and play-by-play announcer for the San Diego Padres from 1969 to 1971 and for the Montreal Expos from 1973 to 1986. He was characterized by a mellow, low-key style. Snider occasionally took acting roles, sometimes appearing in television or films as himself or as a professional baseball player. In 1995, Snider and Willie McCovey pleaded guilty to federal tax fraud charges. According to the charges, they had failed to report income from sports card shows and memorabilia sales. Snider was also an avocado grower. He, along with a business partner, had a 60-acre avocado farm south of Los Angeles. Snider married Beverly Null in 1947; they had four children. He died on 27 February 2011 at age 84 of an undisclosed illness in Escondido, California. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less