Kiki Cuyler

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hazen Shirley "Kiki" Cuyler (b. August 30 1898, Harrisville, Michigan - d. February 11 1950, Harrisville, Michigan) was a Major League Baseball player from 1921 until 1938. His name "Kiki" (pronounced "kuy-kuy", rhymes with "eye") came from the way in which he would stutter his own last name.

Cuyler broke into the big leagues in 1921 with the Pittsburgh Pirates and became a fixture in the lineup in 1924. Playing for the Pirates, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers over the next decade and a half, Cuyler established a reputation as an outstanding hitter with great speed. He regularly batted .350 or higher and finished with a .321 lifetime batting average. In 1925 Cuyler combined this great hitting with 18 home runs and 102 RBI. Cuyler's Pirates won the World Series that year, the only time in his career he would be part of a championship team.

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Kiki Cuyler
is a member of
the Baseball
Hall of Fame

Cuyler led the league in stolen bases four times and finished his career with 328 steals.

After his illustrious career as a player, Cuyler coached in the minor leagues, winning the Southern Association Championship in 1939 under Joe Engel and the Chattanooga Lookouts and the Washington Senators at Engel Stadium, with one of the only fan-owned franchises in the nation.

Cuyler was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1968. In 1981, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time.

Cuyler was buried in Harrisville, Michigan; there is a bar in Harrisville called Ki Cuyler's Sports Bar and Grill.