Bill Skowron

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1954 Topps

William Joseph Skowron Jr. (Moose)

Bats Right, Throws Right
Height 5' 11", Weight 195 lb.
School Purdue University
Debut April 13, 1954
Final Game October 1, 1967
Born December 18, 1930 in Chicago, IL USA

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[edit] Biographical Information

Bill Skowron, nicknamed "Moose", was a key part of top Yankee teams from 1954 to 1962. After being traded by the Yankees to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Stan Williams, he played for five more years, mostly with the Chicago White Sox.

Platooned in his early years, he broke in with great success, hitting .340 with a .577 slugging average in 1954, when the Yanks won 103 games. In his ensuing years with the Yankees, he hit over .300 several times, and also broke the .500 slugging line a number of times. He hit 20+ home runs four times for the Yankees and was one of six Yankees to hit 20 or more home runs in 1961.

He appeared in seven World Series with the Yankees, hitting 7 home runs.

Coming to the Dodgers in 1963, he hit only .203 in 89 games, but made up for it to some extent by hitting .385 with a home run in the World Series, which the Dodgers won against his former team, the Yankees. His home run was hit in Game Two, when he hit sixth in the batting order behind Frank Howard. The homer was hit off Al Downing, another player who played for both the Yankees and the Dodgers.

Skowron was a six-time All-Star. The most similar player, according to similarity scores, is his contemporary Bill White.

A 2003 article in Baseball Digest tracked him down at age 72. He lived in Illinois, and made personal appearances for the White Sox. Supposedly, he was called "Moose" because friends in his childhood thought his short haircut made him look like Mussolini.