New York Yankees one-time star first baseman Bill Skowron died at 81 this past week. An eight-time All-Star, Skowron held down one of the corner infield positions during the Yanks’ Dynasty of the 1950s under manager Casey Stengel when Mickey Mantle was king. What few know is that in recent years Skowron was closer to the Chicago White Sox, his hometown team.
There’s no question Skowron’s greatest days as a player came with the Yankees during his nine seasons representing the Bronx. He kept good company on the field, from Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek and Clete Boyer filling out the rest of the infield, and Mantle, Roger Maris and Yogi Berra or Hector Lopez in the outfield and either Berra or Elston Howard behind the plate. Between 1949 and 1960, the Yankees won 10 pennants in 12 years and seven World Series crowns.
“There weren’t many better guys than Moose,” Berra said when Skowron passed away from a heart attack while also fighting lung cancer. “He was a dear friend and a great team man.”
Skowron, whose nickname was “Moose,” broke into the majors in 1954 and stayed up for 14 years. He played in seven World Series for the Yankees, and sneaked into a bonus one with the Dodgers in 1963 and collected five championship rings. Skowron was a career .282 hitter, with 211 homers and 888 RBIs over the years.
Near the end of his career, Skowron played four seasons for the White Sox. This was a big deal for him because he was born in Chicago. The family is of polish descent and his dad was a city garbage collector. Moose, who was 5-foot-11 and 195 pounds, did not have the traditional build of a huge guy to engender such a nickname. He acquired it in a silly way when he was a kid. Poor seven-year-old came home with a haircut so terrible that friends said he looked like Mussolini, the Italian dictator. That was not a nickname anyone would want to stick. It got shortened to Moose.
Skowron graduated high school in Chicago before being drafted by the Yankees, but his final all-star campaign, 1965, was played in a Sox uniform. Later in life, long past his playing days, Skowron went to work for the Sox as a community relations representative. Many White Sox fans hate the Yankees for their domination of the American League years ago, but Skowron bridged the gap. He was, after all, a local. Many days he could be seen around U.S. Cellular Park and he would chat about baseball with anyone around. Anyone who started a conversation would be rewarded with a tale baseball of the 1950s and 1960s.
White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who put Skowron to work shmoozing with the community, said Skowron will be missed around the club.
“We have all lost a dear, dear friend today,” Reinsdorf said. “While Moose may have become a star in New York with the Yankees he was a Chicagoan through and through.”
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