RIP Bill "Moose" Skowron

[Boom_70]

Sad day for baseball. Not too many guys better than The
Moose as a person.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120427&content_id=29776340&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

 

[YankeeFan]

Sad day for baseball. Not too many guys better than The
Moose as a person.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120427&content_id=29776340&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

Good guy.

First time I met him, I got his autograph, and was disappointment he signed it Bill, and not Moose.

Arranged a flight home for him once when he was in New York for Old Timer's Day, and his wife got sick. He was very appreciative.

RIP.

 

[da man]

I remember hearing Moose awhile back when he appeared on the NPR show "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me." He was a scream.

The one line I remember was when he brought up the Yankees' "Three Ms -- Mickey, Maris and Moose. We might have had a few cocktails but not no steroids, that's for darn sure."

We'll miss ya, Moose.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Regular guy of regular guys . . . when he was hanging with Zimmer -- twin haircuts.

 

[da man]

Here's the link to Moose Skowron on "Wait Wait." The story about Bob Gibson throwing at some guy in a fantasy camp is priceless.


http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=94353966&m=94353952

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

 

[YankeeFan]

Times obit:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/28/sports/baseball/bill-skowron-slugger-who-helped-yankees-win-7-pennants-dies-at-81.html?_r=1&hpw

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

Moose's wife's name was Cookie. Perfect.

 

[YankeeFan]

Skowron Had a Knack for Making Memories

Of all the people, on all the days, to appear in the Yankees clubhouse. Bill Skowron was sitting on a couch in the visitors’ clubhouse at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago. He was an employee of the White Sox, a continual presence in community relations, and yet he looked every bit as much a part of the Yankees, as comfortable and as accepted, as he had been when he played for them. Moose, as Skowron was known to generations of Yankees and their fans, could do that.

But this day, May 27, 2002, was special, and I just had to tell him why. Forty years earlier, in the first game of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium, Skowron hit a three-run homer just beyond the low, short right-field wall with none out in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-1.

Moose looked up from his seat on the couch.

“I did that?” he said.

We laughed, and I assured him that yes, he did. The moment had taken place decades before the term “walk-off” would describe the achievement. Moose made me wonder how someone could do that, win a major league game with a home run, and not remember. Maybe it was because he had had so many triumphant moments.

Skowron, who died April 27 at 81, hit 77 of his 211 major league home runs during the three seasons from 1960 through 1962. His seventh-inning grand slam helped win the seventh game of the 1956 World Series at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. Two years later, his three-run homer in the eighth inning helped complete a comeback from a three-games-to-one deficit and win Game 7 at Milwaukee.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/sports/baseball/an-aging-yankees-fan-and-moose-skowron-first-game-forever-memory.html?ref=sports?src=dayp

 

[Sea Bass]

Here's the link to Moose Skowron on "Wait Wait." The story about Bob Gibson throwing at some guy in a fantasy camp is priceless.


http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=94353966&m=94353952

Skowron has been at a couple of fantasy camps where pitchers were throwing at guys.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

That was Kramer. He had to claim the inside of the plate against Joe Pepitone.

 

[sportbook]

I am reading a really interesting memoir by Bobby Richardson that is releasing this fall. He had some great stories but one that I found most interesting is that when he was in the minors he took off over a week DURING THE SEASON to drive home and get married. The Yankees were also the last team of those playing at the time because the traveling secretary was afraid to fly.

 

[Sea Bass]

the traveling secretary was afraid to fly.

That's a hell of a career choice then.

 

[da man]

the traveling secretary was afraid to fly.

That's a hell of a career choice then.

I'm thinking they took trains when he started.

 

[Boom_70]

I am reading a really interesting memoir by Bobby Richardson that is releasing this fall. He had some great stories but one that I found most interesting is that when he was in the minors he took off over a week DURING THE SEASON to drive home and get married. The Yankees were also the last team of those playing at the time because the traveling secretary was afraid to fly.

Not too many players as classy as Bobby Richardson. A true gentlemen.

 

[sportbook]

See

I am reading a really interesting memoir by Bobby Richardson that is releasing this fall. He had some great stories but one that I found most interesting is that when he was in the minors he took off over a week DURING THE SEASON to drive home and get married. The Yankees were also the last team of those playing at the time because the traveling secretary was afraid to fly.

Not too many players as classy as Bobby Richardson. A true gentlemen.

Seems like a really good guy. I am really enjoying the book. He had some nice seasons as the head baseball coach at South Carolina.

 

[Boom_70]

See

I am reading a really interesting memoir by Bobby Richardson that is releasing this fall. He had some great stories but one that I found most interesting is that when he was in the minors he took off over a week DURING THE SEASON to drive home and get married. The Yankees were also the last team of those playing at the time because the traveling secretary was afraid to fly.

Not too many players as classy as Bobby Richardson. A true gentlemen.

Seems like a really good guy. I am really enjoying the book. He had some nice seasons as the head baseball coach at South Carolina.

I've met him a few times. He is a really nice guy. He seems so at ease. It's a life well lived. he retired in his prime and went on to a highly successful managing career as you mentioned.

A lot of those guys of that era seem so grounded compared to today's players. I think a lot has to do with the money. The Old Timers had to take off season jobs to make ends meet.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

>>>The Old Timers had to take off season jobs to make ends meet.<<<

Some of them did. It was nothing like today where players can almost get lifetime financial security out of an average baseball career, but someone who was making $40,000 in the 1960s was doing very well. A lot of guys from that era took offseason jobs to get a head start on a second career after they were done playing.

 

[sportbook]

Bobby Richardson bought his house in Sumter, SC, for $28,000 in 1961. He lives in the same house today.