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In Harrisville at the north end of Lake Street sits Hazen "Kiki" Cuyler Memorial Field. Once a year in mid-September for the past five years, this historic baseball diamond becomes a field of dreams for a contingent of baseball-loving old-timers who gather for a game to honor the Harrisville native who went on to become a Hall-of-Fame rightfielder for the Pirates and Cubs. The event also serves as a fundraiser for the Alcona Community Schools' backpack program, benefiting students in need. Three times a week since mid-July these friends have gathered to practice baseball in preparation for the September 19th Old-Timers game. Along the way they've renewed decades-long friendships bound together by the beauty of baseball and shared memories etched upon this enduring gem nestled along the shoreline of Lake Huron.
KiKi Cuyler was born in 1898 and raised in Harrisville in Alcona County. He grew up playing sandlot ball on the field that now bears his name. His talent in all phases of the game was undeniable and by 1921 he broke into the National League, playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates and later the Chicago Cubs. In 1925 he led the Pirates to a World Series win versus the Washington Senators. For 18 years he excelled though his absolute peak seasons came between 1924 and 1934.
Over his 18-year major league career, Cuyler compiled a .321 batting average. He led the major leagues in runs twice, triples, games played twice, stolen bases twice, and finished three times in the top eight in National League MVP voting. He died in 1950 of a heart attack at the age of 1951 and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1968. In short, of the millions of young men over the past 125 years who have played and followed baseball with an almost religious fervor, Hazen "KiKi" Cuyler in the estimation of his peers and those who watched him play was elected one of the best 281 ballplayers who ever played the game with a plaque at the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in upstate New York. For baseball lovers who have never made the pilgrimage to Cooperstown, it's well worth the trip. You'll see Cuyler there.
Baseball has always been the most literary of our major sports. Inspired by the generational connectivity and timeless geometries of the game, acclaimed writers such as Bernard Malamud (The Natural) and W.P. Kinsella (Field of Dreams) turned their attention to baseball and the romantic appeal of those who have strived and mostly failed to master it. Indeed, even the game's greatest hitters, such as Cuyler, fail to get a hit more than two-thirds of the time. But the beauty is in the game itself, not in overcoming it: a clean connection off the sweet part of the bat, a pitch with movement that nips the outside corner, a shorthop on a hardhit ball in the infield followed by a good throw, a long arcing flyball intercepted by an outfield who's accurately read the flight of the ball off the bat. It's these moments that keep these old-timers energized on Cuyler's field--the zeal for the next play, whatever that might be, and the opportunity and capacity to still respond to the challenge it presents. It's uncomplicated fun that often reconnects these men--mostly in their 60s--to friends and stories from this same setting extending back decades. Some of the friends in these stories are no longer with us, not on the field, but they are still in the lineup.
This notion is brought home visually during practice, when a righthanded batter gets jammed and flares a foul ball toward three beautiful landscape maples planted last week on the first base side nearest Lake Huron. The trees represent three friends of the Old-Timers game that passed during the past year: Roger Lemons, Harrisville legend, energizer, enthusiast, and co-organizer of the event; KiAnn Krutlin, also a Harrisville legend, granddaughter of KiKi Cuyler, and event co-organizer; and Steve Ostby, longtime outstanding pitcher and slugger in the Northeastern Michigan Men's Baseball League who threw out the first pitch at last year's game. Ostby also left a lasting legacy by shaping the pitcher's mound for this year's game, a fitting tribute to someone who toed the rubber and threw many strikes over the years at Cuyler Field. We will miss each of them at this year's Old-Timers game. There is nothing more optimistic than planting a tree, especially trees with an unobstructed view of action on the field.
Perhaps it is the seasonal aspect of baseball that contributes to the longevity of its attraction. The game's roots run deep. The season up north starts in the spring when it's often too cold and wet to play, extends through the long summer months of sun and late sunsets, then into September as the days grow noticeably shorter and the sunfield shifts on the horizon. On this Tuesday evening in early September, as daylight starts to dwindle, the old-timers after batting practice squeeze in some infield. It's a routine everyone knows like prayers in church. Tonight it's flowing well, making almost everything seem positive and possible.
After a particularly good play the call goes out: "Let's take two." And the game goes on.
Consider yourselves invited to the Old-Timers game at Cuyler Memorial Field on Saturday, September 19. We plan for it to be a celebration of life.