Following his sophomore year at Purdue, Skowron was signed to play baseball for the Austin (MN) Packers in the Southern Minny League (Class AA-level town-team baseball). He hit .343 for the Packers in 23 games. He also displayed his power with a three home run game against the Rochester Royals. He did so well in Austin that the Yankees made a contract offer.
Major leagues Skowron signed with the
New York Yankees in September as an amateur
free agent by Yankees scout
Lou Maguolo. He played his first game for the Yankees on April 13, . In the beginning, he was
platooned at
first base with
Joe Collins, but from on he became the Yankees' full-time first baseman. He played in seven
American League (AL)
All-Star games as a Yankee: , , twice in , twice in , and (two All-Star Games were played in 1959 through 1962). After
batting .270 with 23
home runs and with
Joe Pepitone ready to succeed him as the starting first baseman, Skowron was traded from the
Yankees to the
Los Angeles Dodgers for
Stan Williams at the
Winter Meetings on November 26, . Although he floundered against
National League pitching the next season, batting just .203 in 237
at bats with four homers, he stunned his former team in the
1963 World Series, leading the Dodgers with a .385 average and a home run, as Los Angeles swept New York in four straight games. As a result, Skowron become one of few players in MLB history to have won back-to-back Series championships with different teams. On December 6, , he returned to the AL when he was purchased from the Dodgers by the
Washington Senators. On July 13, , he was traded by the Senators to the Chicago White Sox. In , he played in his eighth
All-Star Game. On May 6, , he was traded by the White Sox to the
California Angels. He was released by the Angels on October 9, . He played in a total of 1,478 major-league games, all but 15 as a first baseman. (He was in 13 games as a
third baseman, and two as a
second baseman.) Skowron made the last out of the
1957 World Series, but the following year he knocked in the winning run in game six of the
1958 World Series. Skowron also hit a three-run home run in game seven to propel the Yankees to a World Series win, and a comeback from a 3-1 series deficit. He also scored the only run in game seven of the
1962 World Series against the
San Francisco Giants, on a
double play grounder by
Tony Kubek. In total, Skowron played on eight World Series teams, on the winning side five times: Seven World Series with the Yankees, winning four rings, 1956, 58, 61 and 62; and won with Dodgers in 1963 against the Yankees. Skowron was a consistently good hitter throughout most of his career, and more than held his own in World Series play, batting .293, with 8 homers, 29 RBIs, and a .519 slugging percentage in eight World Series. Skowron was once a playful target of his friend, Yankee pitcher
Fritz Peterson. A known practical joker, Peterson was reportedly popular with his teammates, entertaining them with his elaborate jokes. He once used a fake
Baseball Hall of Fame letterhead to ask Skowron to donate his pacemaker after he died. ==Personal life==