I apologize if this has been posted already, but Dodger great Duke Snider has passed away the age of 84.  Vin Scully had a great quote that couldn't ring any more true in an article i read.

He said "Although it's ironic to say it, we have lost a giant."

I am not old enough or lucky enough to have seen Duke play, but from highlights and stories, he was a helluva ballplayer and a man.  He will be missed and as corny as it may be to say, he will live forever in baseball fans hearts and on their What if Sports teams.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/So-long-Duke-Snider-Brooklyn-Dodgers-great-die?urn=mlb-327021

He was Casper the ghost's favorite player.

Last of the regular position players on the Boys of Summer to pass.   RIP Duke.

Snider’s real peak, which was from 1953 to 1956 – in those four years, he accumulated a ridiculous +35.8 WAR, or almost exactly half his career total. In four years.

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After that he blew out his knee, had a pretty bad surgeon try to fix him up, and moved out of Ebbetts Field.

Think how otherworldly Mantle was to play after he wrecked his leg at age 19... Duke wasn't quite that good.

Very few were that good.  Mantle had incredible raw talent.  Played on a wrecked knee, played drunk, famously played with a bleeding abscess in his hip and still hit 54 HR's the year he and Maris chased Ruth.  Still love the Mantle anecdote about playing hung over and seeing three baseballs coming toward the plate and swinging at the middle one.  Remarkable that even in his prime the Duke was probably only the third best centerfielder in New York.