[洋基] Former Yankees Bill Skowron dies at 81

[Tukiyomi (月讀)]

http://goo.gl/eyKNx

Bill ‘Moose’ Skowron, hero of the Yankees’ 1958 World  Series team, dead
at 81 after battle with lung cancer

Skowron, the Yankees regular first baseman from 1955-62, was a five-time
All-Star

Bill “Moose” Skowron, the hulking and popular Yankee first baseman of the
1950s and ‘60s and the hero of their come-from-behind 1958 World Series
triumph over the Milwaukee Braves, died Thursday night in Chicago from
congestive heart failure after a long battle with lung cancer. He was 81.

Skowron, a five-time All-Star, was the Yankees’ regular first baseman from
1955-62, averaging 21 homers and 75 RBI and finished his career with a .282
average, 211 homers and 888 RBI. He was especially lethal in the World Series
in which he compiled a .293 average, eight homers and 29 RBI in 39 games over
eight Fall Classics.

In the 1956 World Series for the Yankees, Skowron had been held hitless by
the Dodgers until the seventh game when he came to bat with the bases loaded
in the seventh inning and hit a grand slam homer into the left field stands
to break the game open. Two years later, Skowron spurred the Yankees to a
comeback from three games to one against the Braves by singling home what
proved to be the winning run in the 10th inning of their Game 6 4-3 victory,
then hit a decisive three-run eighth-inning homer off Yankee killer Lew
Burdette for the 6-2 Game 7 win.

It was after that World Series that Skowron revealed that his nickname was
not acquired because of his bulky 6-foot, 200-pound frame but because when
his grandfather gave him a short haircut, his grade school classmates all
thought he looked like the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and began
calling him “Moose.”

Skowron was a two-sport star in high school and went to Purdue on a football
scholarship as a fullback and punter. After his freshman year, however, he
felt his calling was baseball and signed a $25,000 bonus as an outfielder
with the Yankees in 1951.

After hitting .341 and leading the American Association in homers (31) and
RBI (134), the Yankees were sold on Skowron’s hitting ability, but not so
much on his outfielding skills. (“I almost got killed in the outfield,”
 Skowron later said. “I couldn’t go back on balls and I didn’t get good
jumps on them.”)

It was decided to move him to first base, but at the time the Yankees had
future Hall-of-Famer Johnny Mize and Joe Collins there, so they sent Skowron
back to Kansas City for another year of minor league seasoning.

In the meantime, they enrolled him in the Fred Astaire dance school in an
attempt to make him more nimble around the bag.

“It helped me a lot with my footwork,” Skowron said, “and it didn’t hurt
me socially either.”

When Skowron finally did get called up to the Yankees in ’54, he hit .340 in
87 games, platooning with the lefthand-hitting Collins. He hit over .300 his
next three seasons and became entrenched as the Yankees first baseman.

His career, however, was forever plagued by injuries — in 1957 he missed 30
games after severely injuring his back lifting an air conditioner; in 1955 he
missed over 40 games with a torn thigh; and in 1959 he missed half the season
with a broken arm after a collision with the Detroit Tigers’ Coot Veal,
ironic given the advice he never forgot from a Yankee first baseman of the
past, Wally Pipp.

“I met Pipp at an Oldtimers Day at Yankee Stadium,” Skowron recalled, “and
he told me: ‘Don’t ever get a headache or catch a cold. I got a headache
once and took a day off and never played again. A guy named Lou Gehrig took
my place.’ I made sure from that day on to do everything I could to remain
healthy.”

After the 1962 season, the Yankees traded Skowron to the Los Angeles Dodgers
for pitcher Stan Williams in order to make way for Joe Pepitone at first base
— a deal that quickly came back to haunt them in the ensuing ’63 World
Series when Skowron led a four-game sweep by the Dodgers over the Yankees,
hitting .385 with a homer and three RBI.

That spring, Skowron was charged with assault when he left the Dodgers spring
training camp in Vero Beach, Fla. and paid a surprise visit to his house in
Hillsdale, N.J., where he caught his then-wife in bed with another man.

The Chicago-born Skowron played for three other clubs, including his hometown
White Sox, before retiring in 1967.

In recent years, he worked as a greeter in the U.S. Cellular Field suites for
the White Sox. He is survived by his second wife, Cookie, two sons, Greg and
Steve, and a daughter, Lynnette.

“Moose was a guy who brought huge joy to everyone he came in contact with,”
 said White Sox board chairman Jerry Reinsdorf. “I can’t tell you how much
people here loved him.”

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※ 編輯: Tukiyomi        來自: 220.134.23.156       (04/29 03:30)