Tracking down the Moose: former slugger Bill Skowron looks back on a storied big league career

Baseball Digest, August, 2003 by Joe Goddard

CHICAGO NATIVE BILL "MOOSE" Skowron hit 211 home runs from 1954-1967 with five teams, including the New York Yankees for most of his career and the White Sox for three years. An opposite-field hitter, Skowron played in eight World Series with eight homers and 29 RBI in 39 games, and seven All-Star games.

Today, the unassuming 72-year-old who lives in Schaumburg, Illinois, is a Pied Piper for the White Sox, working the US Cellular Field crowds when the team is home and making public appearances at schools, senior centers and churches when they're away.

"We're lucky," marketing senior vice president Rob Gallas said. "We have great guys like Minnie Minoso, Billy Pierce, Bill Melton and Carlos May making appearances for us, and now Moose. He turned out 10 times better than we ever expected. Some people say, 'Yeah, but he was a Yankee.' Well, yes, but above all else, he is a Chicagoan. Being around Bill and his wife Cookie is like being with your favorite uncle and aunt."

Francie Edgeworth schedules Skowron's appearances. "We have files filled with letters thanking Moose for coming out," Edgeworth said. "One boy wrote, 'Thank you for telling us about smoking. I'm going to stop because of you.'"

Follow Moose on the loose for a few days and here are some of the stories you'll hear:

Skowron was nicknamed Moose when his grandfather gave him a short haircut as a kid and his friends thought he looked like Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. He has worn it that way since.

"When I played for the White Sox, my grandmother thought everyone in the crowd was going, 'Boooo,'" Skowron said. "I said, 'No, Grandma, it's all right. They like me. They're saying, 'Moooose.' She was so relieved."

Skowron came from hard-working stock. His father, Bill Sr., was a garbage collector. "Today, they call it 'garbologist,'" Skowron said.

"Dad was a disciplinarian. I got called for dinner once, but I was in the park with my friends and didn't hear my mom. He kicked me in the behind when I came in and drove me right into the door knob. It took 20 stitches to close up my head, but I never missed dinner again."

Skowron met second wife Cookie (Lorraine) on a blind date.

"She told me over the phone, 'Meet me at the bowling alley and if you like what you see, we'll go out,'" Skowron said. "Well, I did like what I saw and I guess she liked what she saw because we got married two years later and now we've got three great kids--Greg, Steve and Lynnette. I found out later she thought I was Moose Vasko, the hockey guy.

"Every Thursday morning is 'honey-do' day. She makes a honey list of things to do, and I do 'em. I don't mind. I had no idea what women went through at home. She's my special lady."

Skowron has the face of a boxer, but fighting never was part of his life.

"When I was a kid, I hit another kid and he saw stars," he said. "It scared me and it scared him. That was it for me. Never again."

Skowron had no choice in the mid-1950s, however, when the White Sox and Yankees fought twice.

"One started when Bob Grim hit Dave Philley with a pitch," Skowron said.

"A worse one began when Art Ditmar hit Larry Doby, who challenged Ditmar when Ditmar said something nasty to him. Doby then-smacked Ditmar in the jaw. I was the one who ended up tackling Doby. That was the fight where Walt Dropo tore Enos Slaughter's shirt off."

Skowron learned a fielding lesson in a World Series game when Duke Snider of Brooklyn knocked the ball out of his glove with his forearm.

"I never tagged a guy soft again," he said.

Skowron was a latecomer to baseball. He went to Purdue on a football scholarship after a storied career at Weber High School in Chicago that included Prep Bowl appearances against Tilden and Fenger (Weber lost each game by a touchdown).

He once punted 82 yards against Northwestern.

"I kicked 'em so high that the next week, Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy had his receivers call for fair catches because our tacklers were already downfield," Skowron said.

Skowron was to have been Purdue's right halfback with quarterback Dale Samuels, who went there on Skowron's recommendation, but signed with the Yankees for $25,000 and missed the Boilermakers' 1950 upset of Notre Dame to end the Irish's long winning streak.

By then, baseball was in Skowron's blood.

"We didn't have baseball at Weber, but I learned to hit playing 16-inch softball, sometimes at Thillens Stadium, for Koolvent Awnings," Skowron said. "I didn't play baseball until I got to Purdue. The Cubs scouted me in a semi-pro summer league and I hit four home runs against four different guys, but I never heard from them."

In Skowron's first year in 1954, a man playing in an old-timers' game at Yankee Stadium wanted to talk with Skowron.

"We sat on a steamer trunk in the clubhouse," Skowron said. "He said, 'My name is Wally Pipp and I have some advice for you: Don't get a headache or catch a cold. I had a headache once and took a day off. A guy named Lou Gehrig took my place and I never started again, so stay healthy!'