Today, as the baseball offseason begins, I’m beginning a series on great Cubs walkoff wins. Instead of focusing just on the win, though, these will focus on the individual responsible for the win, in this
case Kiki Cuyler, who’s a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, though largely forgotten today.
And so this isn’t a ranking — you can do that yourself, if you like. This series will run in chronological order. Ground rules for this series: It’s limited to regular-season wins only. And to keep it (relatively) brief, there will be just 20 such games in this series. I probably could have made it longer, but this will keep us occupied with a bit of Cubs history for a few weeks.
Some of these games have been written up on this site before, so you might recognize some of them. It’s always fun to take a walk through Cubs history — at least, I like to do that. Hope you enjoy.
In between the Merkle Game of 1908 and the Homer In The Gloamin’ game of 1938, this was probably the most famous game in Cubs history. Thanks to Gabby Hartnett’s heroics in ’38 (which we’ll look at in the next installment), this 1932 game has been largely forgotten, and it shouldn’t be.
Kiki Cuyler pretty much singlehandedly won this game, 10-9 over the Giants in 10 innings. He had five hits in six at-bats. His single in a four-run Cubs ninth tied the game 5-5. The Giants scored four in the top of the 10th, taking a 9-5 lead. In the last of the 10th, after the first two men were out, the Cubs scored two and have two on for Cuyler, who hit a walkoff home run for a 10-9 win, their 12th straight.
In addition to all of that, there was a total eclipse of the sun that day, which, though not 100 percent total in Chicago, did darken the sky somewhat an hour or so before game time. Also, during the game the Cubs batted out of order at one point, but no one noticed, so they got away with it.
And here’s how Edward Burns of the Tribune summed up this memorable contest:
The pennant mad Cubs, led by Kiki Cuyler, a hitting maniac on as ferocious a rampage as baseball fans ever beheld, yesterday put all their previous electifying finishes to shame when they made five runs in the tenth inning to defeat the New York Giants 10 to 9 and sweep the five game series. All the runs were sent on the way after there were two out in the tenth and after the Giants had made four runs in the top of the tenth.
The wind up of this most terrific of the Cubs’ sensational victories was launched, after Jurges and Gudat had been retired, by Mark Koenig, who knocked a homer into the right field stands at the expense of Pitcher Sam Gibson. Taylor singled to right center and Herman singled to center, Taylor stopping at second. English singled to center, scoring Taylor. Then Cuyler socked his fifth hit of the game, a homer into the center field stands, about 30 feet to the right of the scoreboard, driving in Herman and English ahead of him and winning the ball game.
Cuyler was mobbed by a crowd of admirers who had stayed through the rain that fell on the last three innings, and he was rescued by ushers with difficulty.
Imagine a game like that, in conditions like that, by a modern-day Cubs team in pennant contention. It would be termed an “instant classic” and be remembered forever. Also, note that fans commonly ran on the field after big wins in that era; that lasted until well into the 1960s, until it became too dangerous to permit it. It happened at Wrigley in 1960, when Don Cardwell threw his no-hitter. The last time it happened was Oct. 21, 1980, when the Phillies won their first-ever World Series. Here’s what happened then and why that ended it.
That 1932 Cubs game gave the Cubs a 7.5 game lead over the second-place Pirates. The Cubs would win two more games to extend their winning streak to 14 — the second-longest streak in team history. They clinched the pennant, their second in four seasons, by winning the first game of a doubleheader against the Pirates Sept. 20.
As for Cuyler, he had been acquired from the Pirates after 1927, in one of the greatest deals in Cubs history. Cuyler had fallen out of favor with Pirates management and ownership basically ordered the trade. The Cubs gave up two guys you’ve likely never heard of, Sparky Adams and Pete Scott, to acquire Cuyler. In eight years with the Cubs he batted .325 — that’s fourth-best among Modern Era Cubs with at least 1,500 at-bats with the team. He stole 43 bases in 1930. No Cub would steal that many in a season again until Ivan de Jesus had 44 in 1980. Injuries reduced his effectiveness and halfway through 1935 he was released. Picked up by the Reds, he had a good year in 1936. One wonders what might have happened to the Cubs that year if they’d kept him — they finished just five games out of first place and Cuyler had a 4 WAR season in Cincinnati.
Lastly, if you’re wondering and don’t already know, the nickname “Kiki” (his given name was Hazen) was a play on the sound of the first part of his last name and pronounced “Cuy-Cuy,” not “kee-kee.”
