Sunday Evening, February 27, 2011. I had just awoken from a nap, having read myself to sleep on Leavy's The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the ongoing, decades-old argument as to whether Mantle, Willie Mays, or The Duke was the better center fielder or the better batter, or even the better overall player. And, then I awoke to hear the news that baseball had lost Edwin Donald Snider, also known as " The Duke " or even "The Duke of Flatbush," at age 84 .