A golden age of centerfielders
Only Willie remains.
In New York in the 1950s, the perpetual debate was: Who's the best centerfielder in town, and therefore in all baseball? Willie, Mickey or the Duke? Terry Cashman's sentimental 1981 tribute to the national pastime, "Talkin' Baseball," used that phrase repeatedly, with a catchy tune that fans of a certain age still hum.
The Yankees' Mickey Mantle died in 1995. Now the passing of Edwin Donald "Duke" Snider of the Dodgers leaves only the Giants' Willie Mays still striding among us. But the argument will last as long as there are baseball fans who lived through that era of New York baseball sovereignty.
It turned out to be a fleeting one. Two-thirds of the teams moved to California before the 1950s ended. Mays finished his career as a Met, and Snider, in a shock to Dodger fans, as one of the hated Giants. Only Mantle played his whole big-league career for the same team.
We won't try to settle the argument here. But the Duke more than held his own, driving a lot of baseballs out of tiny Ebbets Field and into Bedford Avenue, and gracefully gliding over the grass on defense. Like Mays and Mantle, he's a Hall of Famer.
This much is sure: Baseball won't have another romantic era like that one-city, three-team dominance. And the Duke was at the heart of it.