Sunday, April 29, 2012

To Absent Friends: Bill "Moose" Skowron

Bill Skowron passed away this past Friday at the age of 81.  Skowron had a very good, solid major league career that covered 14 seasons, 1954-67. The first nine of those seasons were with the New York Yankees, and all but one of them were spent in the American League.

Growing up in a National League city in the pre-cable TV, pre-ESPN era, Skowron was just a player that you never saw except on baseball cards and in the World Series, and he did manage to play in seven of those with the New York Yankees, including 1960 against the Pirates, wherein he hit a home run in the seventh game (he had 2 HR's and 6 RBI's against the Bucs in that Series).

As I said, Skowron had a very solid career, and his best years were with the Yankees where he was no doubt overshadowed by more famous teammates such as Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Roger Maris, and Whitey Ford.

I remember reading a book, and I can't remember which book it was, this story about Skowron.  Following the 1962 season, the Yanks traded Skowron the the Los Angeles Dodgers.  It was to be his only season in the senior circuit, but he struck gold in that the Dodgers won the pennant that year and then defeated the Yankees in four games in the World Series.  Skowron had a nice Series against his former team, batting .385 with a home run and 3 RBI's.  However, the part of the story I remember is that Skowron loved being with the Yankees, never thought of himself as anything but a Yankee, and took no particular joy in winning that World Series over his former team.

By the way, in 39 games in eight World Series, Moose Skowron hit .293 with 8 HR's and 29 RBI's.  Pretty damn nice baseball legacy, I would say.

RIP Bill "Moose" Skowron.

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