Duke Snider was a mensch

Ralph Branca met Duke Snider in the spring of 1947, when they were both trying to make the Brooklyn Dodgers club. It was the year that Jackie Robinson was being invited to join the team and break baseball's color barrier. Some Dodger veterans wrote up a petition opposing Robinson's presence on the team, but Branca — in a remembrance of Snider in the New York Times — writes that Snider would have none of it.

His handshake was firm and his eyes were clear. He had a smile and an irresistibly upbeat spirit. We were both 21 and eager to make it in the big leagues.

We began talking baseball, but, typical of Duke, he didn’t discuss himself. He wanted to tell me how, back in Los Angeles, he had seen Jackie excel at football, baseball, basketball and track. He trumpeted Jackie’s athleticism and was thrilled at the prospect of playing with him. Duke never even hinted at his own skills.

That winter, we played exhibition games in the Caribbean against the Montreal Royals, the Dodgers farm club to whom Jackie was signed. As it became clear that Branch Rickey, our general manager, was going to make Jackie a Dodger come opening day, a few veterans circulated a petition arguing that an African-American had no place on our team. Duke was outraged and perplexed.

“Are they crazy?” he said to me. “Besides being a great guy, he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to this team.”

Previously on LA Observed:
Duke Snider, Boy of Summer was 84