Accomplishments
Hodges batted .273 in his career with a .487 slugging average, 1921 hits, 1274 RBI, 1105 runs, 295 doubles and 63 stolen bases in 2071 games. His 361 home runs with the Dodgers remain second in team history to Snider's 389. His 1614 career double plays placed him behind only Charlie Grimm (1733) in NL history, and were a major league record for a right-handed first baseman until Chris Chambliss surpassed him in 1984. His 1281 career assists ranked second in league history to Fred Tenney's 1363, and trailed only Ed Konetchy's 1292 among all right-handed first basemen. Snider broke his NL record of 1137 career strikeouts in 1964. His 1001 RBI during the 1950s led all National League hitters.
Hodges received New York City's highest civilian honor, the Bronze Medallion, in 1969. On April 4, 1978 (on what would have been Hodges' 54th birthday), the Marine Parkway Bridge, connecting the Marine Park area of Brooklyn with the Rockaways in Queens, was renamed the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Bridge in his memory. Other Brooklyn locations named for him are a park on Carroll Street, a Little League field on MacDonald Avenue in Brooklyn, a section of Avenue L and P.S. 193. In addition, part of Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn is named Gil Hodges Way. A Brooklyn bowling alley, Gil Hodges Lanes, is also named after him. Hodges was also inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 1982.
In Indiana, the high school baseball stadium in his birthplace of Princeton, Indiana, and a bridge spanning the East Fork of the White River in northern Pike County, Indiana on State Road 57 bear his name. In 2007, Hodges was inducted into the Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame. A Petersburg Little League baseball team also bears his name, Hodges Dodgers.
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