Louis Peter Skizas (born June 2, 1932) is an American former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

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 cat ...

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 scoring system us ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

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) Amer ...

Kansas City Athletics The history of the Athletics Major League Baseball franchise spans the period from 1901 to the present day, having begun as a charter member franchise in the new American League in Philadelphia before moving to Kansas City in 1955 for 13 seas ...

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 of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

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) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

. He was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. Skizas batted and threw right-handed. He was a volunteer hitting coach for University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign from 1980-1984.

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 Maurice Joseph "Mickey" McDermott Jr. (April 29, 1929 – August 7, 2003) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. Pre-professional career Mickey McDermott was the third son of Maurice McDermott Sr., a police officer and fo ...

, 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 leagues and Major League Baseball from 1948 t ...

and

Andy Carey Andrew Arthur Carey (born Andrew Arthur 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 (1960–1 ...

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 Nov. 20, 1957, in which Skizas went to Detroit along with teammates

Billy Martin Alfred Manuel Martin Jr. (May 16, 1928 – December 25, 1989), commonly called "Billy", 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 Yan ...

Gus Zernial Gus Edward Zernial (June 27, 1923 – January 20, 2011) was an American professional baseball player. He played as an outfielder in Major League Baseball, most notably for the Philadelphia Athletics with whom he remained when they moved west a ...

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. 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.

References

External links

Lou Skizas
at Baseball Library 1932 births Living people American expatriate baseball players in Mexico American people of Greek descent Baseball players from Illinois 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 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