Bob Skinner, an All-Star left fielder and two-time World Series champion as a player, passed away on Monday at age 94. The Pirates announced the news this afternoon.
“As a member of the 1960 World Series championship team, Bob was an important part of one of the most beloved teams in our storied history and helped deliver a moment that will forever be woven into the fabric of our city,” Pirates owner Bob Nutting said in a press release. “Bob was a talented player, a proud Pirate and a respected member of the baseball community. On behalf of the entire Pirates organization, we extend our deepest condolences to Bob’s family, friends and all those who knew and loved him.”
Skinner played parts of 12 seasons in the big leagues, the majority of which came in Pittsburgh. A native of La Jolla, California, Skinner played a season at nearby San Diego Junior College. The Pirates had scouted him since high school and added him on a minor league deal in 1951. Skinner played one season in the minors before being drafted into the Marines during the Korean War. He was stationed in San Diego and played for his base team but was out of the professional ranks for two seasons.
After the conclusion of his service, Skinner returned to the Pirates for the 1954 season. He made his MLB debut that year but struggled as a rookie, leading the Bucs to send him back to the minors in ’55. Skinner made it back to the Majors one year later and finally settled in during his third MLB season, breaking out by hitting .305 in 1957.
Skinner took another step forward during the ’58 campaign. He hit .321/.387/.491 and drove in 70 runs to earn his first All-Star selection and some down ballot MVP support. That’d be his best statistical season, but the left-handed hitter returned to the All-Star Game in 1960. More importantly, the Pirates would go on to defeat the Yankees in a classic seven-game World Series for the franchise’s first championship in 35 years.
After a middling 1961 season, Skinner set a career high with 20 homers while batting .302 in 1962. The Pirates would trade him to the Reds a year later. Cincinnati dealt Skinner to the Cardinals midway through the ’64 campaign, a move that paid off handsomely for him personally. Although he was a role player by that point, he won his second career World Series when the Cards defeated the Yankees in another seven-game Fall Classic. Skinner went 3-4 as a pinch-hitter in that series (though all of his hits came in the St. Louis losses).
Skinner’s playing career ended after the 1966 season. That wasn’t close to the conclusion of his time in baseball, however. He jumped right into minor league managing and would up as an MLB skipper by 1968. The Phillies hired him to replace Gene Mauch midway through that season. Skinner himself was fired less than a year later as Philadelphia got out to a rough start to the ’69 campaign.
He had a brief stint as an interim manager with the Padres in 1977 but spent most of the decade as a hitting coach. That included a return to Pittsburgh in 1979, when the Bucs won another World Series. Skinner worked on the Braves’ coaching staff and as a minor league manager and scout with the Astros after that, remaining in baseball until 2009.
Skinner finished his playing career as a .277/.351/.421 hitter. He topped 100 home runs and tallied nearly 1200 hits while recording 531 runs batted in. MLB Trade Rumors sends our condolences to Skinner’s family — including his son Joel, a former MLB catcher and manager — loved ones, friends, and the countless people whose lives he impacted over his lengthy run in baseball.
RIP, heck of a career, 94 is a great run,
Not for nothing but Sterling should have gotten his own article to
I assume you mean “too” as in here on MLBTR. It appears there are many articles (10 ) about his death.
Sterling was insufferable. Rest in peace Bob.
RIP Bob Skinner. I remember you as a coach rather than a player though I had some of your old baseball cards.
Condolences to his family and friends.
R.I.P. Bob. Long career in baseball. Only Vern Law remains from either team from the 1960 World Series.
Tony Kubek and Bobby Richardson are living members from the 1960 Yankees. Bobby Richardson was the 1960 World Series MVP, and holds the distinction of being the only MVP from a losing team.
Searched earlier and search results cited Baseball Reference as the source and said Law was the last living player from either team. This here intersweb thingy fricken lied to me! I stand corrected
I had the pleasure of meeting up with Bobby Richardson this past March on my return from Florida to see a Spring Training game. He was gracious to meet me and autograph a baseball that was also signed by Vernon Law (1960 CY), Dick Groat (1960 NL MVP) and Maz. Bobby is going strong and had some great stories from that Yankee team.
Vern Law,Bobby Richardson,Tony Kubek,and Bob Skinner are four of the classiest men who you will ever meet.
RIP Bob Skinner.You were an integral part of some fine Pirates teams.
Anyone remember the father and son 1985 Topps cards with the Laws and the Skinners?
there was also a Berra father son card
Yogi and his son Dale who played for the Bucs
A lot of these guys had baseball careers cut into with military service. Great career, but also thank you for your service
Good player and Manager. RIP Bob.
Thanks for the memories Bob Skinner. A real solid player and a great baseball man
I’m not familiar with him but nonetheless Rest in paradise Mr. Skinner. You lived a full life.
I know a ton of baseball history, and am very familiar with ballplayer postwar through late 90s, but I never realized Joel was his son, never occurred to me
My sympathies to everyone in the Skinner family and Pirate fans. Bob was a good player and he helped my favorite team, the Cardinals, to bring down the evil empower. May he rest in peace.
*empire*
Bob and his son Joel were both Major League managers. A fine baseball career.
I have a sweet 1963 Topps PSA 9 graded card of him.
RIP Bob Skinner.
RIP Bob…..
Thanks Bob. You had one of the sweetest LH swings of your era. RIP.
Another member of the 1960 Pirates championship team gone. Sad, rest in peace.
Manager of the Tucson Toros team that won the Pacific Coast League Championship! In Tucson some of his players included Kenny Lofton, Curt Schilling and Daryl Kile. It was a great time to watch baseball in Tucson. Condolences to his family and friends.
Very nice career with an OPS+ above league average despite playing during half of the pitching dominant 60’s. I was fortunate enough to be a young boy able to see both series in which he participated on TV. Shame it didn’t work out as a manager for the Phillies but he had some pretty big “Little General” shoes to fill replacing Mauch just a few years after the 1964 Philly collapse.
OPS measures the player against what was league average in that season, or career.
I was only 13 at the time, but I was pealed to my transistor radio listening and watching on CBS the 1960 World Series as my beloved Yankees came down to a crushing defeat to Manager’s Danny Murtaugh’s Pittsburgh Pirates. I remember the Pirate lineup: Catcher Smokey Burgess, First base Dick Stuart, 2nd base Bill Mazersoski, SS Dick Groat, 3rd base Don Hoak, and the outfielders Roberto Clemente, Bill Virdon, and Bob Skinner. Geno Cimoli and Hal Smith were also on that team. The pitchers were very capable too: Elroy Face, Vernon Law, Bob Friend, and Harvey Haddix, and they had to hit too! That series will always have a deep impression on my mind as I am 78 now.
That was back when the Yankees were by far the best team in baseball and also the classiest.
Mantle supposedly cried after the last game.
But as Gino Cimoli said,” they broke all of the records but we won the game”.
The Yankees were great enough that they would have won at least 3 out of 4 games against the good Pirates team.But Casey Stengel started Bob Turley in game 1 and that allowed the great Whitey Ford to only pitch two shutouts instead of three.
Stengel was fired after the season and Ralph Houk took over.
That was my first World Series. I walked to school (from lunch at home) listening to the first inning or two of the games on a transistor radio, held to my ear. (So much was lost when the fools running MLB moved the World Series to night games.) Skinner, Face, and Mazeroski all gone within a year….Only Vern Law is left from the Pirates. Kubek and Richardson remain from the Yankees. “Golden lads and girls all must / Like chimney sweepers come to dust.” (Shakespeare) All we finally have are the memories of who and what we have loved.
A beautiful MAN. RIP
RIP Bob…great member of the 1960 world champ pirates. Too many deaths of ex buccos greats recently. You lived a good long life. Now you can rejoin your teammates in that big baseball park in heaven.
Godspeed Mr. Skinner
RIP