With his passing, Vernon Law is now the last surviving member of the 1960 World Series champion Pirates. Law turned 96 in March.
Skinner is the third member of the 1960 Bucs to die this year with both Elroy Face and Bill Mazeroski passing away in February.
Born and raised in and around San Diego, Skinner signed with the Pirates in 1951. He would miss the next two seasons due to military service before making his MLB debut in the 1954 season joining a Pirates club that would endure its third consecutive 100 plus loss season. Skinner would spend all of 1955 back in the minor leagues.
Splitting his time between the outfield and first base, it took a while before Skinner learned how to hit big league pitching. But the Bucs' patience paid off as he would hit .305 in 1957 following by a career best .321 in 1958 with his first NL All-Star Team selection. That .321 average was good enough for 5th in the NL that season ahead of future Hall of Famers Ernie Banks and Orlando Cepeda and behind future Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, Willie Mays and Richie Ashburn, who would his second NL batting title.
The pinnacle of his career came in 1960 when Skinner drove in a career high 86 runs earning two NL All-Star Team selections while earning his first World Series ring as the Bucs upset the heavily favored New York Yankees. Alas, Skinner's contributions were limited. Although Skinner did have an RBI single in the first inning of Game 1, he would injure his thumb sliding into third base and was then subsequently hit by a pitch and was replaced by Gino Cimoli. Skinner would return during the climatic Game 7.
Skinner would regress during the 1961 season see his RBI cut by more than half (86 to 42) while hitting only 3 HR as compared to the 15 HR he hit during the glorious 1960 season. In 1962, Skinner would rebound hitting .302 while belting a career best 20 HR along with 75 RBI.
In May 1963, Skinner's tenure as a Pirates player came to an end when he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds for outfielder and pinch-hitting specialist Jerry Lynch. Ironically, Lynch began his big-league career with the Bucs and was teammates with Skinner in 1954 & 1956.
While with the Reds, Skinner was relegated to the bench. In June 1964, the Reds sent Skinner to the St. Louis Cardinals for a minor leaguer and cash. While Skinner continued to ride the pine with the Redbirds, his stay in St. Louis was considerably more pleasant as he would earn yet another World Series ring and another 7-game triumph over the Yankees. Used mainly as a pinch hitter, Skinner would get an RBI single off Yankees reliever Steve Hamilton in the 9th inning of Game 6 in an 8-3 Yankees win. Skinner would share in his World Series glory with Dick Groat who was his teammate with the 1960 Pirates as well as the NL MVP.
After two more seasons in St. Louis, Skinner ended his playing career. In 1381 regular season games over 12 seasons, Skinner collected 1198 hits for a lifetime batting average of .277 with 103 HR and 531 RBI.
In 1967, Skinner returned to his hometown of San Diego to manage the San Diego Padres who were at this this time part of the Pacific Coast League as the Triple-AAA affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. Skinner would lead the Padres to the PCL championship.
In June 1968, Skinner would replace Gene Mauch as manager of the Phillies. Unfortunately, Skinner did not replicate his success in San Diego and would resign in August 1969. Aside from managing a single game for the Padres during the 1977 season after the team fired John McNamara and before hiring Alvin Dark, Skinner would not manage another big-league game.
In 1970, Skinner joined the coaching staff of the Padres who were by this time a big-league club. After serving two seasons as the team's hitting and third base coach, he would concentrate exclusively on batting instruction from 1972 to 1973.
In 1974, Skinner would reunite with the Pirates as their hitting coach where he would spend the next three seasons. Skinner would join the Bucs in the post-season in 1974, but they would fall short to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. In 1977, Skinner returned to the Padres for his second stint as hitting coach before performing the same duties with the California Angels in 1978. Skinner returned to the Pirates for the third time in 1979 where he would serve as hitting coach for the next seven seasons. In his inaugural year with the Bucs, Skinner would earn his third World Series ring as part of the "We Are Fam-a-Lee" Pirates.
In 1986, Skinner would join longtime Pirates skipper Chuck Tanner in Atlanta serving as the Braves hitting coach. He would also become the team's first base coach under being relieved of his duties early in the 1988 season.
In 1989, Skinner would return to managing at the minor league level for the first time in over two decades when he managed the Tucson Toros, the Triple-AAA affiliate of the Houston Astros. Skinner would serve in this role for four seasons before joining the Astros scouting department before retiring after the 2009 season.
Skinner's son Joel played for 9 seasons in MLB as a backup catcher with the Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians and would manage the Tribe during the second half of the 2002 season. After George and Dick Sisler, the Skinners became only the second father & son to manage at the major league level.
While Bob Skinner was not a star player, he got to enjoy the glories of baseball during and after his playing career. R.I.P.
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