Career
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.
In 1927, Cuyler was benched for nearly half the season because of a dispute with first-year manager Donie Bush. The Pirates again went to the World Series, but Cuyler did not play. That November, Cuyler was traded to the Chicago Cubs for Sparky Adams and Pete Scott.
Cuyler led the league in stolen bases four times and finished his career with 328 steals.
After his illustrious career as a player, Cuyler managed in the minor leagues, winning the regular-season Southern Association pennant in 1939 under Joe Engel with the Chattanooga Lookouts, with one of the only fan-owned franchises in the nation. He was a coach for the Cubs and Boston Red Sox during the 1940s, and was still active in the role for Boston in February 1950 when he succumbed to a heart attack at the age of 51.
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.
His remains are interred in Harrisville, Michigan,and the bar he owned still operates under his name.
Read more about this topic: Kiki Cuyler
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