Dodger struck with ball, September 17, 1958

Snider hurt; L.A. loses 2 Duke hit by line drive, may miss rest of season. Above, Lawrence Welk in stereo with "Swinging Pete Fountain," the clarinetist who once said "Champagne and Bourbon Street don't mix."

By Keith Thursby Times staff writer Scary moment for Duke Snider and the Dodgers. Snider was on third base in the fifth inning of the Dodgers' game at Cincinnati when he was struck by a line drive hit by his teammate, Frank Howard. The Times' Frank Finch wrote that the ball "struck Snider's right shoulder and then his right ear a glancing blow, dropping him as though he'd be shot by an elephant gun." Snider was taken to the hospital but was able to speak to reporters first. Finch noted that "although he'd escaped serious injury--even death--by inches, the dapper Snider insisted on showering before he was driven to the hospital." "I saw the ball coming off Howard's bat and I tried to duck into it so that I would take the blow off my plastic helmet," Snider said. "Boy, he really hit that one." The game was the nightcap of a doubleheader. The Dodgers lost both games. keith.thursby@latimes.com