Louis Peter Skizas (June 2, 1932 – November 17, 2023) was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

and

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the Baseball scorekeep ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

from 1956 through 1959 for the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

Kansas City Athletics The Kansas City Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Kansas City, Missouri, from 1955 to 1967, having previously played in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the Philadelphia Athletics. After moving in 1967, the team became the ...

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. One of the AL's eight chart ...

and

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...

. He was born in Chicago, Illinois. Skizas batted and threw right-handed. Skizas was a volunteer hitting coach for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign from 1980 to 1984.

Life and career

Skizas attended Crane High School in Chicago and was signed by the

when he was 17. He made his Major League debut with the Yankees in a road game that the Yankees lost 7–3 to the Washington Senators on April 19, 1956. Pinch-hitting in the fifth inning for pitcher Mickey McDermott, after leadoff hits by

Elston Howard Elston Gene Howard (February 23, 1929 – December 14, 1980) was an American professional baseball player who was a catcher and a left fielder. During a 14-year baseball career, he played in the Negro league baseball, Negro leagues and Major Leag ...

and

Andy Carey Andrew Arthur Carey ( Hexem; October 18, 1931 – December 15, 2011) was an American professional baseball third baseman. He played in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees (1952–1960), Kansas City Athletics (1960–1961), Chicago Wh ...

put runners on second and third, Skizas singled to right field for the Yankees' first run of the game. Skizas would get only six at-bats for New York. He was traded on June 14 of that season with teammate Eddie Robinson to the

for two players and cash. For the remainder of that season, Skizas appeared in 83 games for Kansas City and batted .316 with 11 home runs. He was a contact hitter who struck out just 17 times in 297 at-bats that season for the A's. A 12-man trade between Kansas City and the

was made on November 20, 1957, in which Skizas went to Detroit along with teammates

Billy Martin Alfred Manuel "Billy" Martin Jr. (May 16, 1928 – December 25, 1989) was an American Major League Baseball second baseman and manager who, in addition to leading other teams, was five times the manager of the New York Yankees. First known ...

, Gus Zernial and the man he pinch-hit for in his first MLB at-bat, McDermott. In 1959, his last season in the majors, Skizas appeared in eight games for the

, but did not play for them in the

1959 World Series The 1959 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1959 season. The 56th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff that matched the National League (NL) champion Los Angeles Dodgers against the ...

. After retiring from the Major Leagues he played minor league baseball in Central America and later was a Health Sciences teacher and Baseball Coach at Centennial High School in Champaign, Illinois. Skizas died in

Savoy, Illinois Savoy is a village in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 8,857 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area. History The village was named after Princess Maria Clotilde of Savoy, who had p ...

, on November 17, 2023, at the age of 92.

References

External links

Lou Skizas
at Baseball Library 1932 births 2023 deaths American expatriate baseball players in Mexico American people of Greek descent Sportspeople of Greek descent Baseball players from Chicago Birmingham Barons players Charleston Senators players Chicago White Sox players Denver Bears players Detroit Tigers players Havana Sugar Kings players Indianapolis Indians players Joplin Miners players Kansas City Athletics players 20th-century American sportsmen Kansas City Blues (baseball) players Macon Peaches players Major League Baseball left fielders Major League Baseball right fielders Nashville Vols players New York Yankees players Norfolk Tars players Richmond Virginians (minor league) players Seattle Rainiers players Tigres del México players American expatriate baseball players in Cuba Crane High School (Chicago) alumni {{US-baseball-outfielder-1930s-stub