Continued from May 30th. From the May 22nd Chicago Tribune.
William Joseph "Moose" Skowron was both a Yankee and a White Sox player as well as a "Mr. Ed" the talking horse co-star.
After turning 80 in December, he collapsed at a ballpark in Arizona during spring training.. His oldest son, Greg, said that they were leaving the ballpark during the fifth inning, "which was unusual for him. Then he turned down an autograph request, which I'd never seen him do before. Then he turned to me and said, 'I don't feel so good.'"
It turned out to be lung cancer.
A few years ago, a Chicago newspaper ran a list of the 25 greatest athletes produced by the city and Skowron's name wasn't on the list. To this day, his friends and fans remain outraged. (Must have been an oversight.)
Skowron played baseball and football at the city's Weber High School and played two years at Purdue before going to seven World Series in his nine seasons with the Yankees (1954-1962).
Surely, that should be enough to get him on that list. And that's not even including the World Series he won with the Dodgers against his old team the year after they traded him.
Quite the Man. --Cooter
2 comments:
I remember the "Moose" well. In those days I was a Dodger fan (before the Twins). Wait till next year. :)
One of my all-time favorite ball players, too, even if he played for that nasty Bronx team.
It'll be a sad day when he dies.
I'm still getting over the loss of Ron Santo.
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