Frank Skaff

Francis Michael Skaff (September 30, 1910 – April 12, 1988) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) infielder, coach, manager and scout. He played for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1935 and for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1943, and served as acting manager of the Detroit Tigers for the latter half of the season after his two immediate predecessors in the post were stricken with terminal illnesses.

Playing career

Amateur Born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Skaff's family moved to Lowell, Massachusetts in 1920, where Frank attended Lowell High School. He was captain of the school's football, basketball, and baseball teams, and graduated in 1929. He went on to attend Villanova University on a football scholarship, but an injury prevented his football-playing, and put him on a baseball scholarship instead.

Professional Upon graduation, Skaff was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers, and spent most of 1935 with the minor league Peoria Tractors. He was called up by Brooklyn late in the 1935 season, and appeared in six games for the Dodgers that year. Skaff's major league debut came on September 11 in the Dodgers' 7–4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds at Crosley Field, when he entered the game in the ninth inning to pinch-hit against Paul Derringer, and grounded out. Skaff went 2-for-3 with an RBI three days later as the Dodgers' third baseman in an 18–14 loss to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. In his six games with the Dodgers, Skaff was an impressive 6-for-11 at the plate with three RBI, and made one error in seven chances at third base.

Skaff spent the 1936–1941 seasons in the minors, and retired after the 1941 season. Working in the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and playing semi-pro baseball, he was signed in 1943 by the Philadelphia Athletics. He never managed again in the majors (his 40–39 career record produced a winning percentage of .506), but returned to Detroit as a coach under Billy Martin in 1971.

Skaff was inducted into the Villanova University Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 1976, and the Lowell High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 1987. He retired from full-time scouting in 1983, but continued part-time until his death in 1988, which came while on a scouting trip for the Tigers in Towson, Maryland at age 77.