Duke Snider Home Runs 1953-1957: >= 40, 23 in Ebbets Field, 96% off righties.

Claim to fame for Duke Snider: at least 40 Home Runs in five consecutive seasons, the final five that the Dodgers played in Brooklyn before moving to Los Angeles.

Home runs hit in Roosevelt Stadium 1956-1957. Monday, April 21, 2014

(Dodgers) tested the west by playing 15 games in Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, NJ during their final two seasons in Brooklyn ...

It was used for fifteen "home" games ... seven in 1956 and eight in 1957 ... a negotiating tactic with the Borough of Brooklyn, in pursuit of a new stadium to replace Ebbets Field ... Roosevelt Stadium had 10,000 parking spaces compared to Ebbets Field's 700.
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Roosevelt Stadium is mentioned for completeness. It does not impact the overall numbers much. It does, however, produce this fact that is almost completely missed:

Duke Snider hit exactly 23 home runs in Ebbets Field in each of those five consecutive seasons. Since Roosevelt Stadium was technically Snider's home park, the two that he hit there in 1956 are lumped together with the 23 Snider hit in Ebbets Field to produce 25 at "home".

	HR	HR	HR	AB	AB	AB	AB/HR	AB/HR	AB/HR
	Ebb	Roos	Road	Ebb	Roos	Road	Ebb	Roos	Road
1953	23	0	19	294	0	296	12.8		15.6	1953
1954	23	0	17	291	0	293	12.7		17.2	1954
1955	23	0	19	263	0	275	11.4		14.5	1955
1956	23	2	18	247	27	268	10.7	13.5	14.9	1956
1957	23	0	17	222	24	262	9.7		15.4	1957
total	115	2	90	1,317	51	1,394	11.5	25.5	15.5	total

Snider's home run rate (AB/HR (lower is better)) in Ebbets Field is really good. However, what is really astonishing are the percent of homers and at bats (AB) that Snider had in those seasons against right handed pitching.

	HR	AB	AB/HR	HR	AB	AB/HR	HR	AB	AB/HR		HR	AB
	tot	tot	tot	vR	vR	vR	vL	vL	vL		% vR	% vR
1953	42	590	14.0	39	501	12.8	3	89	29.7	1953	93%	85%	1953
1954	40	584	14.6	38	519	13.7	2	65	32.5	1954	95%	89%	1954
1955	42	538	12.8	39	485	12.4	3	53	17.7	1955	93%	90%	1955
1956	43	542	12.6	42	482	11.5	1	60	60.0	1956	98%	89%	1956
1957	40	508	12.7	40	481	12.0	0	27		1957	100%	95%	1957
total	207	2,762	13.3	198	2,468	12.5	9	294	32.7	total	96%	89%	total

In 1956 and 1957 Snider hit only one home run against a lefty.

For 1953-1957 Duke Snider hit 96% of his home runs against righties and had 89% of his AB against righties. Generally, about 72% of pitches are thrown by righties.

Snider was a left handed batter, well protected by the many righty batters in the Dodger lineup in those years. That was documented in this blog in detail a few years ago.

Duke Snider died at 84. Monday, February 28, 2011

The entire (1957) Dodger team hit only 8 homers against lefty pitchers. Snider was very well protected in a heavily right handed hitting lineup, which faced few lefties.

In 1957 Hall of Fame southpaw Warren Spahn won the MLB Cy Young award. He faced the Dodgers only once: Sunday, August 4, 1957 1:32PM, County Stadium. Spahn relieved in the ninth and faced two batters: Don Zimmer and Jim Gilliam, retiring both; Spahn was credited with a save...

Both Snider individually and all Dodgers faced less than 11% lefty pitchers (1953-1957). Contrast that with MLB lefty pitchers percent of plate Appearances (PA):

1953 30.19%
1954 28.03%
1955 28.73%
1956 26.67%
1957 22.87%
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Duke Snider: Brooklyn v. LA Wednesday, March 2, 2011