Bill Skowron

As a joke, Skowron’s grandfather called him Mussolini, but his family shortened the nickname to Moose. A kicker for Purdue, he signed to play baseball in 1951, and joined the Yankees in 1954. A powerful opposite-field hitter, he topped the .300 mark five times with New York and was TSN all-star first baseman in 1960. He once lamented, “I hit over .300 three straight years for the Yankees and they wouldn’t give me a raise.”

Making up for the disappointment of making the final out of the 1957 WS when Milwaukee won, he became a hero of the 1958 World Series versus the Braves. He drove in what proved to be the winning run in Game Six, and hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning of the final game to give New York a 6-2 victory as they came back from a 3-games-to-1 deficit. When Skowron homered in the 14th inning on April 22, 1959, the Yankees and Senators set the AL record for the longest game to end 1-0 on a home run. After playing in his seventh WS with New York in 1962, Skowron was traded to the Dodgers, for whom he hit just .203 while platooned in 1963. But, facing his former team in the 1963 WS, he went 5-for-13, including a HR, as the Dodgers swept the Yankees.