Bob Skinner, whose six decades in professional baseball included two World Series rings as a player and another as a coach, passed away Monday in the San Diego area. He was 94.
Skinner was a three-time All-Star with the Pirates and a member of their 1960 World Series championship team. The accomplished outfielder also played for the 1964 World Series champion Cardinals, and he was hitting coach for the Pirates when they won it all again in 1979.
That was all part of what Skinner’s son, Joel, called a “ridiculously long” baseball life that also included a stint as the Phillies’ manager in 1968-69 and several decades as a coach and scout, most recently serving as a special assignment scout for the Astros in 2009.
“He touched a lot of people in baseball,” Joel Skinner said.
Bob and Joel are one of only five father and son pairs to have both served as Major League skippers. Joel was a catcher for nine seasons in the big leagues and Cleveland’s interim manager in 2002.
For Bob Skinner, who was born in La Jolla, Calif., on Oct. 3, 1931, a pro baseball career that began in 1951 in the Pittsburgh system was interrupted when he was drafted into service for the Marines during the Korean War. He spent two years at the San Diego Recruiting Depot and played for the base team before returning to the Pirates’ organization for Spring Training in 1954. He wound up making the big league team and debuted on April 13 of that year, initially as a first baseman.
The legendary Branch Rickey, who was the general manager of the Pirates at the time, once called Skinner “absolutely the best natural hitter I have seen in many years.” Though it took some time for Skinner to settle into his big league career, he enjoyed a breakout season in 1957, and began to be known as one of the league’s best left-handed hitters this side of Stan Musial.
As an All-Star in 1957 and in both Midsummer Classics held during the 1960 season, Skinner started in left field for the National Leaguers. So esteemed was Skinner that, all three times, he batted second in the NL order, right behind Willie Mays.
In the first game of the famous seven-game 1960 World Series between the Pirates and Yankees, Skinner jammed his thumb on a headfirst slide into third. He didn’t appear again until Game 7, but his sacrifice bunt amid the Pirates’ five-run rally in the eighth inning helped pave the way toward an epic ending capped by Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off home run.
“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,” said Pirates chairman Bob Nutting. “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.”
With Skinner’s death, Vernon Law is now the last surviving member of that 1960 Pirates team.
Skinner was traded to the Reds midway through the 1963 season, then dealt to the Cardinals a year later. With the Cards, he lost his left field starting job when St. Louis pulled off their much-celebrated swap for Lou Brock, but Skinner nonetheless made a big impact in that year’s World Series against the Yanks, going 2-for-3 with a walk, double and RBI as a pinch-hitter.
After his playing career ended in 1966, Skinner managed the Phillies’ Triple-A affiliate, the original San Diego Padres, in 1967 and 1968, leading them to a Pacific Coast League championship in his first season. When Phillies manager Gene Mauch was fired in mid-June of 1968, Skinner took over. The team went a combined 91-123 with Skinner at the helm until he resigned in August of 1969, amid difficulties with temperamental star player Richie Allen, who refused to accompany the team to a midseason exhibition against the Double-A affiliate in Reading.
“He went down with style because he refused to maim his dignity as a man,” famed New York columnist Jimmy Cannon wrote of Skinner at the time. There aren’t many men in baseball who would make this choice. The world is short of them.”
Skinner went on to coach for the Padres, Angels, Pirates and Braves from 1970-88 and was the Padres’ interim manager for one game in 1977. He was lauded in particular for his work tweaking the hitting mechanics of Pirates shortstop Tim Foli, the No. 2 hitter for the 1979 World Series champs. Skinner managed Houston’s Triple-A affiliate in 1989 and '90, then stayed in the organization for nearly another 30 years.
Skinner is survived by his wife of 62 years, Joan. They had four sons, 11 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.