... And The Duke

Here in 1955, Duke Snider is challenging Babe Ruth's record whether he wants to or not

WRIGLEY FIELD - August 7, 1955

The Sports Time Traveler has been back in time virtually, following the 1955 Dodgers day-by-day since spring training. I never expected that on this day, August 7, 1955, the newspapers across the country would be talking about Babe Ruth. After all the Babe had retired 20 years ago, and had been sadly gone since 1948.

Why was the Babe in the news?

Yesterday afternoon, the Dodgers and Cubs game was delayed by a 1 hour and 15 minutes due to weather. When there was a break in the rain they began play. Just 11 minutes later the rain came back with a vengeance and the game was called off.

With nothing to do, reporters had lots of time to interview Duke Snider. The Duke, along with the Cubs’ young slugger, 24-year-old shortstop, Ernie Banks, and the Reds’ burly 1st baseman Ted Kluszewski, are making an assault on Babe Ruth’s hallowed number of 60 home runs - the exalted single season record the Sultan of Swat set 28 years ago in 1927.

Here’s what the 1955 major league home run list looks like as of this morning (8/7/1955):

38 Duke Snider
37 Ernie Banks
36 Ted Kluszewski
34 Willie Mays
29 Eddie Mathews
28 Wally Post
24 Mickey Mantle

At first glance they appear to have a long way to go to 60. But sportswriters have some historical statistics available to them, even here in 1955, and they know that Babe Ruth did not hit No. 38 until his 115th game of the 1927 season.

Snider has 38 home runs in just 108 games! He’s more than a week’s worth of games ahead of Ruth.

Banks has 37 home runs in 112 games. That puts Banks ahead of the Bambino’s pace too. Ruth didn’t hit his 37th home run until his 114th game.

And the Chicago Tribune pointed out this morning that Banks has hit 19 home runs just since July 1st, including 3 in one game on August 4th. That puts Banks on a clear trajectory to catch Ruth.

And Ted Kluszewski also has a case. He has 36 home runs in 109 games. Ruth didn’t hit No. 36 until his 110th game.

All 3 of these sluggers are AHEAD of Babe Ruth’s 60 HR pace from 1927.

And that was big news today across America.

The New York Times ran an article at the top of page 83 of the Sunday paper with the headline, “Dodgers Snider Admits Dilemma.” Beat writer Roscoe McGowen interviewed Duke. Here’s what Roscoe wrote, “the possibility of breaking Babe Ruth’s 1927 record of sixty homers got into the conversation, with Snider making an unusal statement. ‘I hope nobody ever breaks Babe’s record,’ said the Duke. ‘Of course, if it does happen, I’d like to be the fellow who does it.’

‘But,’ he added, ‘I really hope it is never broken. Ruth was baseball and all of us today are profiting by what he did. He made the game for the kids and for all of us.’”

The New York Daily News ran an article titled, “Snider Hoping Ruth’s Mark Stands.” Dick Young of the Daily News recounted what McGowen wrote and added this, “Snider revealed that he and Ted Kluszewski, Cincy’s entry in the new Ruth derby, sometimes discuss the record target, and the influence of ballparks on their chances of breaking it.

‘Ted said,’ reports Duke, ‘that if he faced as much right-handed pitching as I do, he’d have a good shot at the record. I agree with that, but I told him that if I played in his park, and still saw as much righty pitching as we get, I’d probably beat him to it.’”

The two players were referring to the fact that as the only big lefty hitter in the Dodgers’ lineup, opposing managers often pitch only righty pitchers against the Dodgers. Just this past week, the Braves skipped lefty Warren Spahn in the rotation against the Dodgers just so he wouldn’t have to face all those righty bats.

Snider was also contending that the fence in right-center in Cincinnati actually comes in creating a very short shot for hitting home runs.

Even in Salisbury, North Carolina, the Salisbury Post ran an article with a headline, “Snider, Banks Ahead of Babe Ruth’s Pace.” This was an Associated Press piece that opened with this line, “Brooklyn’s Duke Snider and Ernie Bank of the Chicago Cubs - both pushing ahead of Babe Ruth’s home run record for one season - have created new interest in the National League.”

And yesterday in Chicago, for a brief time fans could see both Duke and Ernie. Here they posed for a picture:

Duke Snider is finally getting the national recognition he deserves.

NOTE From The Sports Time Traveler

I interrupt this article with a note from the present time. For the past 40+ years I’ve always loved hearing the song, “Talkin Baseball,” by Terry Cashman. In the chorus of the song is the now iconic phrase, “Willie, Mickey and the Duke.”

Cashman was referring to the 3 great centerfielders on the 3 New York teams of the mid-1950s. It was a golden era in New York baseball, and each team was, in a way, defined by their great centerfielders.

By 1955, 24-year-old Willie Mays was already a legend. He was the “Say Hey Kid.” He had won the 1954 NL MVP, and made “The Catch” in game 1 of the 1954 World Series. “The Catch,” generally regarded as the greatest catch in history, inspired the Giants to sweep the 111 win Cleveland Indians for the title - one of the most shocking World Series upsets ever.

By 1955, 23-year-old Mickey Mantle already had won 3 World Series titles with the Yankees, amply taking over centerfield from Joe DiMaggio, and continuing the dynasty. He had also hit the famous “tape measure shot,” in 1953, one of the longest home runs ever recorded. Mickey was the clear successor to the Bambino and Joltin’ Joe, an iconic figure who would keep the Yankees as the perpetual team to beat for another decade.

Duke Snider was their equal. In fact on paper, in 1955, he was superior. Snider was 29 in 1955. He was coming off 6 straight sensational seasons from 1949 - 1954 and was in the midst of a 7th in 1955. On August 7, 1955, Snider led the majors in HRs, RBIs, and was among the leaders in batting average. He was a true triple crown threat.

But Snider had no World Series title. The Brooklyn Dodgers had never won a World Series in their franchise history going into 1955. And so the Duke was by default the 3rd man of the trio in stature. It’s Willie, Mickey, and The Duke is a distant 3rd in the pantheon of New York baseball.

Now back to 1955.

As mentioned before, yesterday’s game was rained out, but the day prior, on August 5th, in the first game of the series, the Dodgers and Cubs played one of the most entertaining games I’ve ever read about.

First of all, how crazy is this. A day earlier, on August 4th, both the Dodgers and the Cubs won games by a score of 11 - 10. I wonder how often that has ever happened.

And both teams won in late inning come from behind rallies after being ahead early in the game.

In the Cubs case, they blew a 9 - 2 lead and found themselves down 10 - 9 in the 8th. It took 3 home runs from Ernie Banks, the last of which turned out to be the game winner, to seal the victory over the Pirates.

As a result, Ernie Banks came into the August 5th game tied with Duke Snider for the major league lead at 36.

The Duke quickly broke the tie in the top of the 1st inning when he slammed his 37th. It was a tremendous shot. Roscoe McGowen of the New York Times wrote, "(the) smash nearly reached the back barrier of the right-centerfield bleachers."

In the bottom of the 1st, Banks evened the score again depositing a Johnny Podres pitch deep into the left-centerfield seats for his No. 37, and his 4th home run in his last 6 at bats.

In the top of the 5th, Duke Snider swung at the first pitch from Warren Hacker and, "The Duke sent it screeching into the street behind the right field for No. 38," as described by Irving Vaughan in the Chicago Tribune.

As a Dodgers fan you have to love it when the other cities' beat writers refer to Snider as "The Duke."

Snider had pulled Brooklyn within a run at 7 - 6 in this high scoring affair.

The Cubs had a 10 - 8 lead going into the 9th inning. The Dodgers were down to their last at bats, but they had Duke Snider leading off. Russ McGowen of the New York Times wrote, "The Duke opened the ninth with a tremendous drive." But the wind, which had shifted in the middle of the game, held the ball in the park and it was caught by Eddie Miksis up against the right field wall.”

Duke had come oh so close to a 3 homer game, just like Banks had done the day before.

After Snider made the 1st out, the Dodgers managed to put 2 runners on base and a few minute later Carl Furillo hit a drive way back in deep centerfield. But the wind held this one up as well and it was caught to end the game. The Cubs won 10 - 8.

Dodgers' coach Billy Herman told Jack Lang in the Staten Island Advance after the game, "There's no park in baseball where the wind makes such a difference."

Even though the Dodgers (74 - 34) lost the game, they retained a whopping 15.5 game lead over the Braves who also lost to the last place Pirates.

And while the Dodgers - Cubs game was rained out yesterday, the 2nd place Braves were shutout at home by Bob Friend of the Pittsburgh Pirates. That means the Dodgers now have a 16 game lead on the National League with 46 games left to play.

If the Dodgers play just .500 ball the rest of the way, they would finish 97 - 57, and the Braves, with a record of 58 - 50, would need to post a 40 - 6 record the rest of the way to beat them.

FINISHING NOTE From the Sports Time Traveler

In case you’d like to hear Talkin’ Baseball and that famous line, “Willie, Mickey and the Duke,” you can listen to it at this YouTube link:

The Sports Time Traveler will continue following the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers and the race to top Babe Ruth’s 60 HR record.