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Robert Ralph Skinner
Philadelphia Phillies
Manager
Born: October 3, 1931, La Jolla, CA
Signed: Signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as an amateur free agent before 1951 season
Major League Teams: Pittsburgh Pirates 1954, 1956-63; Cincinnati Reds 1963-64; St. Louis Cardinals 1964-66
World Series Appearances: Pittsburgh Pirates 1960; St. Louis Cardinals 1964
As a Manager: Philadelphia Phillies 1968-69; San Diego Padres 1977
Bob Skinner spent over 50 years in baseball as a player, manager, coach and scout. Most of his playing career was spent with the Pirates where he was an All-Star in 1958 and for both games in 1960. As the regular left fielder for the Pirates, Skinner had his best season in 1958 when he batted .321 with 13 home runs and 70 RBIs, finishing in the top ten in the National League in most major offensive categories and earning MVP votes. In 1960, Skinner was second on the club with 86 RBIs, behind only Roberto Clemente (#50) for the team lead, helping the Pirates clinch the pennant and eventually win the World Series in seven games over the Yankees. After a few seasons with the Reds, Skinner ended his playing career as a pinch-hitter and back-up outfielder for the Cardinals. He had four pinch-hitting appearances in the 1964 World Series, going 2 for 3 as St. Louis prevailed over the Yankees. In 1,381 career games, Skinner batted .277 with 103 home runs and 531 RBIs.
Skinner began his managerial career in 1967 with the San Diego Padres, then the top minor league affiliate for the Phillies. He won Minor League Manager of the Year honors after leading the Padres to an 85-63 record and winning the 1967 Pacific Coast League Championship. On June 16, 1968, Skinner was named as the new manager of the Phillies after Gene Mauch (#606) was fired. Skinner's time as manager of the Phillies would last a little over a year before he'd resign from the position.
As a Manager: Philadelphia Phillies 1968-69; San Diego Padres 1977
Bob Skinner spent over 50 years in baseball as a player, manager, coach and scout. Most of his playing career was spent with the Pirates where he was an All-Star in 1958 and for both games in 1960. As the regular left fielder for the Pirates, Skinner had his best season in 1958 when he batted .321 with 13 home runs and 70 RBIs, finishing in the top ten in the National League in most major offensive categories and earning MVP votes. In 1960, Skinner was second on the club with 86 RBIs, behind only Roberto Clemente (#50) for the team lead, helping the Pirates clinch the pennant and eventually win the World Series in seven games over the Yankees. After a few seasons with the Reds, Skinner ended his playing career as a pinch-hitter and back-up outfielder for the Cardinals. He had four pinch-hitting appearances in the 1964 World Series, going 2 for 3 as St. Louis prevailed over the Yankees. In 1,381 career games, Skinner batted .277 with 103 home runs and 531 RBIs.
Skinner would coach in the majors with the Padres (1970-73, 1977), Pirates (1974-76, 1979-85), Angels (1978) and Braves (1986-88), and he earned his third World Series ring as the hitting coach for the Pirates in 1979. He'd work in the Astros organization as a special assignment scout until 2009. Skinner's son Joel played nine seasons in the majors with the White Sox, Yankees and Indians. Joel Skinner briefly managed the Indians in the second half of the 2002 season.
Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1965 Topps blog.
The Card / Phillies Team Set / Accuracy Index -8
Sources:
Baseball Reference - Skinner / Baseball Reference - 1969 Phillies / SABR / Wikipedia
Building the Set / Card #344
December 3, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)
December 3, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)
Doug and I returned to The Philly Show in early December, once again held inside the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania. eBay has taken over sponsorship of the show, with the quaint, bubble-lettered Philly Show logo that had been in place since the 1980s replaced with a more modern logo, keeping with the times. I wrote about the show in a post over at The Phillies Room.
Similar to my strategy from March, I wanted to focus on accumulating commons and having found success with Uncle Dick's Cards before, I didn't mess around and headed right for the neon green binders. I pulled 145 cards from the binder containing cards 301 to the end of the set, stopping when I reached 500. This card was the 52nd of 145 cards purchased for our set, and after the dealer discount due to my bulk purchase, it cost me less than $1.
Skinner is wearing a Cardinals uniform here, in a photo taken during the latter end of his playing days. On the back of the card, Topps could have highlighted his Minor League Manager of the Year honors from 1967, but they opted to point out his .321 average was fifth best in the league in 1958. (Richie Ashburn won the batting title in 1958 with a .350 mark.)
Accuracy Index: Skinner's card scores a -8 for the Cardinals uniform (-5) and lack of a hat (-3).
1969 Season
With ongoing distractions all season (see below), the Phillies lost 99 games on their way to a fifth place finish behind Skinner and his replacement, third base coach George Myatt. Despite missing almost a month of the season, Dick Allen (#350) was still the team's top offensive force, batting .288 with 32 home runs and 89 RBIs. Allen's .573 slugging percentage was third best in the league. Center fielder Larry Hisle (#206) was second on the club with 20 home runs and left fielder Deron Johnson (#297) drove in 80 runs. Grant Jackson (#174), Woodie Fryman (#51) and Rick Wise (#188) bolstered the pitching staff, winning 14, 12 and 15 games respectively. Jackson and Wise both threw four shutouts. The Phillies didn't have a lock at the back end of their bullpen, with eight different pitchers saving at least one game.
Phillies Career
Skinner's managerial career with the Phillies did not go well, which was somewhat surprising at the time given his success with the Triple-A Padres. In 1968, Skinner inherited a team from Mauch in fifth place, but only 5 1/2 games out of first place. The 1968 Phillies finished the season with 86 losses overall and 21 games out of first place. In 1969, Skinner continued to clash with his star first baseman, Allen. When Allen skipped a double header in New York on June 24th, he was suspended and missed the next 26 games. With the Phillies front office seemingly negotiating with Allen behind Skinner's back, the manager abruptly resigned in early August. The story from the Phillies was that Skinner resigned because the team wouldn't extend his contract beyond the 1969 season, but Skinner maintained the reason for his departure was the constant clashing with Allen. Myatt managed the team for the remainder of the season. Skinner was 92-123 overall for the Phillies, in a managerial tenure that lasted a little over one year.
Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card: 1955 Topps #88
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (16): 1955-66, 1969, 1973-74, 1985
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1992 Fleer ProCards #503
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 98 in the Beckett online database as of 8/10/24.
With ongoing distractions all season (see below), the Phillies lost 99 games on their way to a fifth place finish behind Skinner and his replacement, third base coach George Myatt. Despite missing almost a month of the season, Dick Allen (#350) was still the team's top offensive force, batting .288 with 32 home runs and 89 RBIs. Allen's .573 slugging percentage was third best in the league. Center fielder Larry Hisle (#206) was second on the club with 20 home runs and left fielder Deron Johnson (#297) drove in 80 runs. Grant Jackson (#174), Woodie Fryman (#51) and Rick Wise (#188) bolstered the pitching staff, winning 14, 12 and 15 games respectively. Jackson and Wise both threw four shutouts. The Phillies didn't have a lock at the back end of their bullpen, with eight different pitchers saving at least one game.
Skinner's managerial career with the Phillies did not go well, which was somewhat surprising at the time given his success with the Triple-A Padres. In 1968, Skinner inherited a team from Mauch in fifth place, but only 5 1/2 games out of first place. The 1968 Phillies finished the season with 86 losses overall and 21 games out of first place. In 1969, Skinner continued to clash with his star first baseman, Allen. When Allen skipped a double header in New York on June 24th, he was suspended and missed the next 26 games. With the Phillies front office seemingly negotiating with Allen behind Skinner's back, the manager abruptly resigned in early August. The story from the Phillies was that Skinner resigned because the team wouldn't extend his contract beyond the 1969 season, but Skinner maintained the reason for his departure was the constant clashing with Allen. Myatt managed the team for the remainder of the season. Skinner was 92-123 overall for the Phillies, in a managerial tenure that lasted a little over one year.
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First Mainstream Card: 1955 Topps #88
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (16): 1955-66, 1969, 1973-74, 1985
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1992 Fleer ProCards #503
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 98 in the Beckett online database as of 8/10/24.
Update Cards
For my 1965 Topps blog, I used the team card posts to come up with five or six candidates per team for an imaginary update series. With no team cards in the 1969 Topps set, I'll use each manager card for this exercise, and come up with a list of deserving cards to be included in an 8th/update series.
Surprisingly, the Phillies made very few moves in 1969, and all five player cards listed below aren't "traded" cards but cards that should have existed.
- George Myatt (manager) - Myatt went 19-35 as the interim manager to finish out the season. His only appearance in a Topps set came as a floating head on the Braves Coaches card in the 1960 Topps set.
- Bill Champion (rhp) - Bill Champion made 20 starts and was 5-10 with a 5.01 ERA for the Phillies.
- Lowell Palmer (rhp) - Reliever Lowell Palmer pitched 90 innings in 26 games. Champion and Palmer would have rookie cards in the 1970 Topps set.
- Al Raffo (rhp) - Al Raffo never appeared on a baseball card, and I'd right that wrong. In 45 games, and 72 1/3 innings pitched in 1969, Raffo was 1-3 with a 4.11 ERA.
- Don Money (shortstop) - I'd give regular shortstop Don Money his own card, as he shared a Rookie Stars card with Larry Colton (#454) in the set.
- Larry Hisle (outfield) - Same goes for regular center fielder Larry Hisle, who shared a card with Barry Lersch (#206) in the set.
Baseball Reference - Skinner / Baseball Reference - 1969 Phillies / SABR / Wikipedia
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