With the crack of a bat and the crunch of Cracker Jack, the town of Harrisville, population about 500, on Sunday celebrated possibly its most famous son, Hazen “Kiki” Cuyler, who in 1968 joined baseball’s elite with his election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Complete with old-time snacks and a wisecracking announcer, a baseball game between teams of middle-aged locals with sports in their blood honored the Harrisvillite who did his hometown proud.

On a scoreboard built just for the occasion, a scorekeeper used chalk to record runs.

Above the scoreboard waved an American flag flying 48 stars, just as it looked when Kiki rose to baseball fame in the 1920s.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Spectators watch the path of a fly ball at a baseball game in Harrisville on Sunday.

Volunteers worked tirelessly this summer to clear away the weeds that had overtaken the diamond where Cuyler rounded the bases in his youth.

The man who inspired the celebration with his prowess on the field would have waved away all the fuss, said his granddaughter, KiAnn Kruttlin, named for her baseball-legend grandfather.

Still, the community’s celebration of the hometown hero who earned a plaque on the Hall of Fame wall in Cooperstown, NY, befitted a man known for his benevolence as well as his skills with a bat and ball, she said.

“He was a family man,” she said. “He was a great athlete. He was good for the town.”

A NOD TO THE PAST

News Photo by Julie Riddle Alcona County Prosecutor Tom Weichel prepares to bat for the Pirates during a commemorative baseball game at Cuyler Park in Harrisville on Sunday.

On Sunday, a newly-erected sign welcomed visitors to the field where Kiki — rhyming with “eye-eye” — played in his teenage days.

Volunteers appeared out of the woodwork when they heard about plans to celebrate the baseball legend with an old-fashioned game, said Don Franklin, one of the game’s announcers and organizers.

Where once brown weeds and overgrowth covered the unused field, players in specially printed t-shirts crouched alertly in the green outfield on Sunday, their eyes on the batter.

More than 300 spectators filled bleachers and lawn chairs around the spruced-up field, downing hot dogs as a loudspeaker played snippets of vintage ballpark organ music between batters.

“Where’s the defibrillator?” the announcer quipped as a player raced for home to score the first run of the game.

News Photo by Julie Riddle A new sign welcomes fans to Cuyler Park in Harrisville, seen during a commemorative baseball game on Sunday.

In the 80-something-degree sunshine, players taunted each other good-naturedly as the announcer teasingly called for liniment and oxygen tanks.

Most of them in their 50s or older, the players — all of them locals with one-time experience in an independent men’s league or with other post-high school playing experience — all signed up eagerly for the game, Franklin said.

‘TOP NOTCH’

In a nod to Cuyler’s career, players represented either the Cubs or the Pirates.

Cuyler kickstarted his professional career by helping the Pittsburgh Pirates to the World Series in 1925.

News Photo by Julie Riddle A baseball glove lies on a dugout bench as a player prepares a pitch during a baseball game honoring Harrisville baseball great Kiki Cuyler at Cuyler Park in Harrisville on Sunday.

After a trade to the Chicago Cubs, he continued to make a name for himself as a powerhouse batter and runner, finishing his 18-year Major League career with 2,299 hits, 1,305 runs scored, and a .321 batting average.

Only Lou Gehrig surpassed Cuyler’s 155 runs scored in one season, in 1930, according to the Baseball Hall of Fame website.

Of the more than 20,000 players who have appeared on Major League rosters, only 268 former players — fewer than the crowd of onlookers at Sunday’s game — have been elected into the Hall of Fame, according to its website.

To earn such an honor, “you have to be more than elite,” Franklin said. “You have to be top notch.”

‘A GREAT DAY’

News Photo by Julie Riddle Harrisville Mayor Jeff Gehring, playing for the Cubs, prepares to swing during a baseball game on Sunday at Cuyler Park in Harrisville.

That small number includes a guy from Harrisville, who always stayed connected to his hometown and came home in off-seasons to hunt and fish.

More than an athlete, Cuyler served as a founding member of civic organizations that made sure children and the elderly were cared for by the community.

Since Cuyler’s death in 1950 of a heart attack while visiting Harrisville, the community hasn’t paid much attention to the baseball great. Sunday’s game gave them a chance to honor the athlete and celebrate the connection to history that undergirds small towns, Kruttlin said.

Several of Cuyler’s great-granddaughters served as bat girls near the Cubs dugout. A great-grandson, Michael Dewar, flew in from New York to wow the crowd with a first-class pregame rendition of the National Anthem and coax them into joining him in “Take Me Out To the Ballgame” midway through the game.

At the end of nine innings, the Cubs walked away with the win, besting the Pirates 9 runs to 4.

“Nobody had to be carted off,” joked Kruttlin, a medical worker who kept her eye on the aging players in the mid-September heat.

After the game, the players received collectable Cuyler coins, minted by a local bank in the 1940s, with Cuyler’s likeness on one side and his baseball statistics on the other.

On a hot Sunday afternoon, gathered around a field that once spurred greatness and has, a century later, been bestowed with new life, the community got to find peace in the pure celebration of something good, Franklin said.

“We were hungry for something like this,” he said. “It’s just a great day.”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.

News Photo by Julie Riddle KiAnn Kruttlin, in black shirt facing camera, granddaughter of Harrisville Baseball Hall of Famer Kiki Cuyler, poses with a group during a game honoring Cuyler in Harrisville on Sunday.

News Photo by Julie Riddle A scorekeeper adjusts the chalk-written score at Cuyler Park in Harrisville during a baseball game honoring baseball great Kiki Cuyler on Sunday.

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