The Top 20 Cub HR Of All Time - #3 Kiki Cuyler 8/31/1932

by Al on Feb 10, 2008 7:41 AM CST in Baseball Stories

Here's one you probably didn't expect to see on this list.

Or maybe you did -- if you read the top 100 profile of Kiki Cuyler that I wrote a year ago. The 1932 Cubs, who won the pennant by four games, had to come from behind -- as late as late July, they were 5.5 games out of first place. But they had a 22-6 August -- one of the best months in Cub history, capped by a 14-game winning streak which put them as many as 8 games ahead, and they were never seriously challenged after that.

The winning streak was, in large part, due to an unbelievable sequence of hitting by Cuyler. Here's what I wrote about it last year:

8/27, first game vs. Giants: Three-run homer, Cubs won, 6-1, eighth win in a row. Second game, single and run, nine straight wins.
8/28, vs. Giants Three hits, 8th inning homer, game-winning sac fly, Cubs won 5-4, 10 straight.
8/30, vs. Giants: Two hits, two RBI, 8th inning homer, 5-4 win, 11 straight.
8/31, vs. Giants: Four hits. Singled in a four-run ninth that tied the game at 5-5. Giants scored four in the top of the tenth, taking a 9-5 lead. In the last of the tenth, after the first two men are out, the Cubs score two and have two on for Cuyler, who hits a walkoff HR for a 10-9 win, their 12th straight.
9/2, vs. Cardinals: homer, fifth in six games, 8-5, 13 straight. The Cubs' winning streak reached 14, then halted on a day Cuyler was hitless; perhaps that wasn't a coincidence.

Read that August 31 description again. The Cubs had come from four runs behind to tie the game in the ninth, then gave up four runs in the top of the tenth, and got to within 9-7 with two runners on base when Cuyler hit a three-run walkoff -- not too dissimilar to Aramis Ramirez' two-run walkoff last June 29. If a game like August 31, 1932 happened today, it would be legendary. Bill Veeck said it was the greatest game he ever saw; this quote from his book Veeck as in Wreck was also in the Cuyler profile:

I saw him (my father, Wm. Veeck Sr., Cubs president) forget his dignity only once. He was entitled to this one fall, for it came at the end of the greatest ball game I have ever seen...

Late in the season, we were playing the Giants to break a tie for first place, a game of such importance that we found Judge Landis sitting with my father. The Giants seemed to have the game sewed up right into the ninth inning when the Cubs scored four runs to tie it up. The Giants bounced right back with four runs in their half of the tenth.

In our half, the first two batters went out. Mark Koenig kept us alive with a home run. The next three batters got on to load the bases. Up came Kiki Cuyler, representing the winning run. And Cuyler belted one. The ball was still climbing over the fence when William Veeck, Sr. let out a rebel yell and vaulted over the railing. Marsh (Bill Jr.'s friend) and I had leaped out toward the railing, too, but we were somewhat delayed because we had to untangle ourselves from the harrumphing Commissioner. By the time we got onto the field, my father was in the very center of a mob scene, grabbing for Cuyler's hand.

Veeck didn't get the details quite right -- it was a three-run walkoff, not a grand slam, and it wasn't to break a first-place tie (the Cubs were already 7.5 games ahead going into August 31) -- but he captured the mood perfectly. If only there were film existing of this moment. Cuyler is one of the most forgotten of the great Cubs of the 1930's, likely because he died so young (at age 51, of a heart attack, in 1950). He's in the Hall of Fame, and if not for several serious injuries might have wound up with 3000 hits. His .325 average as a Cub ranks fourth all-time on the team list.

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Well, cannot say I saw or heard

this one lol That would be cool if I could find someone that heard it on the radio. All my Cub-loving aunts and uncles are no longer with us, will have to call my Mom today to see if she remembers it.

Good call, Al.

"WGN, Channel 9 Cubs Baseball, Excitingly, Importantly, Dramatically Yours." - Jack Brickhouse

by BigJohnAZ on Feb 10, 2008 8:11 AM CST 0 recs

Excellent post Al

Never ceases to amaze me what I do not know about this team...

by Orval Overall on Feb 10, 2008 9:36 AM CST 0 recs

This one is ten days after the

Koenig three-run walk-off I found and mentioned under the 1998 Grace homer thread. And Koenig's homer came after a series of wild wins and losses. I'll have to go back to the Trib archive and read about this one. I stopped too soon. 1932 must have been a fun year to be a Cub fan.

by TR on Feb 10, 2008 10:53 AM CST 0 recs

I had not heard...

... about the Koenig HR until you posted about it. It appears to have started the 14-game winning streak.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al on Feb 10, 2008 11:06 AM CST up 0 recs

This is an awesome era of Cubs baseball....

Pennants every three years from 1929 to 1938. Unfortunately, never came close to winning a world championship (only the '35 series went more than five games) but what a team. The 1929 team is especially interesting--and galling--to read about. If you don't know, read up on Games 4 and 5 of that year's World Series. You think we were all walking wounded after 2003? We were, of course, but what if we had to go through something like 1929? And that was pre-goat, by the way. This stuff was happening long before Billy Sianis showed up.

Great writeup on Kiki Cuyler, Al. If only the '32 team had not run into Ruth, Gehrig, and Co.

"Don't complain to me about the stormy weather, boys. Just bring the ship into port." --Steve Stone, September 2004

by ctcoff99 on Feb 10, 2008 10:57 AM CST 0 recs

Actually...

... the 1929 Cubs, down two games to one, were about to tie the series at two in Philadelphia; they had an 8-0 lead in the 7th inning, and gave up ten runs.

The next day, in game five, Pat Malone took a two-hit shutout into the 9th inning with a 2-0 lead. After he retired the first hitter on a strikeout, Max Bishop singled and Mule Haas tied the game with a two-run HR, his second HR in as many games. After another out, Al Simmons doubled; following an intentional walk, Bing Miller doubled him in to win the game and the series.

Exciting for A's fans, I'd guess. The '29 A's were a better team than the Cubs -- they led the majors with a 104-49 record, to the Cubs' 98-54. But the Cubs, with a break or two, could have won the '29 Series.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al on Feb 10, 2008 11:11 AM CST up 0 recs

The A's had better pitching.

The 1929 Cubs offense was a match for any team in baseball, including the A's, who were also great. Rogers Hornsby was supposed to be the final piece of the puzzle, and he hit .380. Problem was, they were all right-handed hitters. Does that problem sound familiar?

"Don't complain to me about the stormy weather, boys. Just bring the ship into port." --Steve Stone, September 2004

by ctcoff99 on Feb 10, 2008 11:17 AM CST 0 recs

Thanks for remember Kiki and the '32 pennant race

Great stuff, Al. Much appreciated. Same with the info on the '29 WS.

by bleacher on Feb 10, 2008 1:10 PM CST 0 recs

Yosh Kawano

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the ageless Yosh Kawano, looking pretty much like he does today, was on hand to greet him in the dugout afterward.

by Mike Vails Evil Twin on Feb 10, 2008 3:39 PM CST 0 recs

LOL

Even Yosh isn't that old. He was born June 4, 1921, so he would have been 11 years old that day. He started working for the Cubs as a clubhouse helper in 1938, so 2008 is his 70th anniversary with the team.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al on Feb 10, 2008 4:43 PM CST up 0 recs

Ah, Yosh Kawano .. whatta guy ..

He must be a man of iron to have lived through what he's seen over three generations of Cub Nationalism. Whatta guy.

I was soooo delighted to see this hasn't been lost on the Cubs and was glad to have snapped this pic when in Wrigley last year ..

Many years more, Yosh.

Roy Batty was right .. If only we could have seen what Yosh has seen with his eyes.

Well, Next Year is here .. and Jack's century's gotta end some time .. GO CUBBIES!

by cubnational on Feb 10, 2008 6:32 PM CST up 0 recs

What is up with the date on Yosh's banner?

Is that the date he started .. 1943? Al, are you sure he started in '38? Could it be that he started part time then? Any idears?

Well, Next Year is here .. and Jack's century's gotta end some time .. GO CUBBIES!

by cubnational on Feb 10, 2008 6:34 PM CST up 0 recs

1943...

... was the date he started fulltime as clubhouse manager. Before that, you are correct, he was part-time.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al on Feb 10, 2008 7:57 PM CST up 0 recs

I certainly did not know about this HR...

..or series of events in 1932, thanks Al for the Cub knowledge!

Let me get back to you, will ya, Charlie? I got a guy on the other line asking about some white walls.

by JB 23 on Feb 10, 2008 9:59 PM CST 0 recs

More Cuyler heroics.

From a game September 15, 1932, in the Polo Grounds.

The Cubs held a one-run lead with two outs in the ninth when Mel Ott tied the game for the Giants with a homer.

The Cubs then took a 7-5 lead in the 10th and brought in reliever Bob Smith to close out the win. But, as the Trib's Edward Burns put it - "Bob Smith tried to pitch the latter half of the tenth, but it soon was discovered his stuff had no deceptive qualities."

7-7 going into the 11th. Burns again -

"Ki Ki Cuyler, in the throes of a batting slump until today, knocked a homer in the eleventh inning of the Cubs' final game with the New York Giants to win for the league leaders by a score of 8-7.

Cuyler's smack was made at the expense of Sam Gibson, the same gentleman who was pitching when Ki broke up the rain swept Wrigley Field final with the Giants on August 31st."

by TR on Feb 10, 2008 10:45 PM CST 0 recs

RIP Kiki

Found his resting place online. Let's make 2008 the Year of Kiki.....

St. Anne Cemetery, U. S. Hwy. 23 (about 1 mile south of town), Harrisville, Michigan
Hazen S. "Kiki" Cuyler (Latitude: N 44º 38' 40.1", Longitude W 83º 18' 14.0")

by iceman71 on Feb 12, 2008 12:45 AM CST 0 recs

Upon further review

Al...

Did you realize you posted this exactly 58 years after Kiki's death?

by iceman71 on Feb 12, 2008 12:53 AM CST up 0 recs

Wow.

No, I didn't. Total coincidence -- I timed this list so that it would finish the day before pitchers and catchers report.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al on Feb 12, 2008 4:13 AM CST up 0 recs

For the Record

He actually died Feb 11th and you posted it Feb 10th but whose counting. Still pretty amazing. I'm not one who believes in coincidence....your post was divinely inspired.

by iceman71 on Feb 12, 2008 10:41 AM CST up 0 recs