Duke Snider's Brooklyn teammates protected him from southpaws.

Duke Snider circa 1953
By Bowman Gum [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

From the previous post:

Percent plate appearances (PA) by lefty batters against lefty pitchers:

Snider 14.20%
Ted Williams 20.87%
Eddie Mathews 22.36%
Willie McCovey 24.23%
Carl Yastrzemski 24.41%
Todd Helton 28.91%
Wade Boggs 29.05%
Rod Carew 31.41%
Barry Bonds 32.90%
George Brett 33.27%
Tony Gwynn 37.93%

Duke Snider had a low percentage because he was the lone real lefty threat in a Brooklyn Dodger lineup with dominant righty power.  See this post:


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

During his five consecutive 40 HR seasons (1953-1957) Snider hit these HR against lefty pitchers: 3, 2, 3, 1, 0.  1957: 40 homers, all against righty pitchers, probably a record.  For perspective, all 1957 Dodgers against lefties: 294 AB / 8 HR = 36.75 AB per HR.  The entire 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.

...  (1953-1957) Both Snider individually and all Dodgers faced less than 11% lefty pitchers

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