Moose Skowron, dead at 81

[Warner2BruceTD]

Skowron was the 1B for the great Yankees teams of the late 50's, early 60's, and was the 1B for the famed '61 Yankees that won the World Series and saw Maris & Mantle chase Ruth. Skowron batted 6th for that team and finished third in HR's behind Maris & Mantle with 28 HR's.

Skowron won four WS with the Yankees, and lost three others. Before the 1963 season, he was traded to the Dodgers for P Stan Williams, to make way for 22-year old 1B prospect Joe Pepitone. Williams went 10-13 for the Yankees over two seasons, and while Skowron had a terrible year for the Dodgers and was largely done as an effective player, he ended up burning the Yankees in the WS by hitting .385 with 1 HR and 3 RBI, as the Dodgers swept the series, and Skowron won his fifth World Championship.

Skowron considered himself a Yankee for life, and was infamous for never wearing his Dodgers WS ring. He hit .282 for his career, with 211 HR's and 1500+ hits, usually flirting with an .800 OPS, sometimes .900. He was also, along with Bob Cerv, one of the veterans charged with the impossible task of controlling Mickey Mantle's wild shenanigans with the women and the alcohol.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/skowrbi01.shtml

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Looking at that awesome picture a bit closer, check out the size of Moose's bat compared to Mantle, and especially Berra. The other three guys have the 90's style thin handles. Moose is rocking the thick handle and the fat barrel.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

They were talking about Skowron before the White Sox game today. He was from Chicago and played for the White Sox at the end of his career. He's probably the only person on the planet who was friends with both Cy Young and Derek Jeter. That's pretty amazing.