Kenny Kuhn was an infielder who played in 71 games for the
Cleveland Indians in 1955-57.
Kenneth Harold Kuhn was born March 20, 1937, in Louisville,
Kentucky, the seventh of eight children of Charles, a former minor league
baseball player, and Anna Kuhn. He was a 12-letter man at Male High School in
Louisville, earning three varsity letters each in baseball, basketball,
football, and track. He had college scholarship offers in basketball and
football, but chose baseball, as reported in the Cleveland Plain Dealer of
July 6, 1955:
CLEVELAND PAYS ROOKIE $30,000
Signs Sought-After 18-Year-Old High School Shortstop to Bonus Contract
By Harry Jones
KANSAS CITY, July 5—The Indians today announced the signing of an 18-year-old shortstop, who as a bonus player, must remain on the Tribe’s roster for at least two years.
He is Kenneth Harold Kuhn, a recent graduate of Louisville (Ky.) Male High School, where he was an all-state selection in football, basketball and track as well as in baseball.
Sought by a number of major league teams, the left-handed hitting Kuhn reportedly received more than $30,000 from the Indians. He will join them here tomorrow.
In announcing his signing General Manager Greenberg praised Kuhn as the “finest young infielder I have seen in a long time.” The youngster worked out in Cleveland last week.
“We would have preferred not to make him a bonus player,” Greenberg said, “because we felt he would be much better off playing somewhere in the minors every day.
“At the insistence of the boy and his father, we had to make him a bonus player. We couldn’t have signed him otherwise. He would have received a bonus from some other club.
“At any rate, we’re very happy to have him with us. I sincerely think he’ll help us in the not too distant future at a position where we may need help.”
Kuhn, who lives in Okalona, Ky., a Louisville suburb, batted over .500 in three years of high school competition and hit .400 in the Louisville Amateur Baseball Federation last summer.
The five-foot-eleven, 175-pound youngster was originally scouted by Buzz Wetzel and later by John Schulte, who as a scout for the New York Yankees signed Shortstop Phil Rizzuto.
“Kuhn is a better prospect than Rizzuto was when I signed him,” Schulte stated.
Manager Al Lopez was greatly impressed when he saw Kuhn working out last week.
“Ordinarily I don’t believe in signing bonus players,” he said, “but this boy is really something, for a kid he has the finest pair of hands and one of the strongest arms I’ve ever seen.
“I don’t know how long it’ll be before he can play regularly for us, but I’d say he has a good chance of making it before that two-year bonus period is up. I would hate to have lost him.”
In high school Kuhn was captain of the football, basketball and baseball teams. He participated in the broad jump and dash events for the track team, running the 100-yard dash in 10.2 seconds…
The next day the Plain Dealer ran a follow-up story:
Kuhn Knew Son Would Make It
Staff Special
KANSAS CITY, July 6—Charles Kuhn sat in a box seat next to the Cleveland dugout tonight, watching his 18-year-old son, Kenny Kuhn, work out with the Indians.
“Something I’ve always wanted to see,” he said. “A son of mine playing big league ball.”
A bonus player who received more than $30,000 to sign with the tribe, the awe-struck youngster wasn’t actually playing yet. But he was on the team and will remain so for at least two years.
“I used to play some ball myself,” the elder Kuhn said. “I was a fair catcher and I got as far as Louisville in 1924. Then I hurt my arm and I was through. Couldn’t even throw to second base.
“So I hoped a boy of mine would become a big leaguer. I knew Pee Wee Reese’s dad in Louisville and before either of us had any children we used to say we’d both have a son playing ball.
“I remember when Peewee was born, Carl Reese came runnin’ over to my house and said: ‘Well, I’ve got mine. It’s your turn now.’ Peewee made it, all right, but his dad didn’t live to see him play.
“Kenneth is my youngest son. None of my four other boys were good enough to play pro ball, though a couple of them played college football. I guess I always knew that Kenneth would make it, though.
“Didn’t surprise me either that Kenneth picked Cleveland. Peewee tried to get him to sign with the Dodgers, but Kenneth has been wanting to play with the Indians for as long as he’s been old enough to throw a ball.”
Charles Kuhn then went on to tell of his son’s athletic exploits at Louisville (Ky.) Male high school. At his graduation last month, the youngster was praised as the greatest athlete in the history of the school.
“He was a quarterback in football and people have told me they have never seen a better one,” the elder Kuhn said. “I guess he could have gone to any big time college in the country.
“Bear Bryant, who used to coach Kentucky, would call my boy ‘the little general.’ Blanton Collier, who is coaching Kentucky now, told me Kenneth could be the best quarterback in the country.
“But Kenneth wanted to play baseball. The last game of football he played he said, ‘Dad, that’s it. From now on I’m a baseball player.’ They put his football jersey in a trophy case in the high school.”
A left-handed hitting shortstop, young Kuhn was impressive both in batting and fielding practice tonight. He swung the bat smartly and fielded with flawless grace as his father sat on the sidelines watching.
“He’s gonna make it, all right,” Charles Kuhn said. “I always knew that Kenneth was gonna make it.”
The day that article appeared, Kenny made his major league
debut in Kansas City, pinch-running in the top of the 9th for Bobby
Young, who had pinch-hit for shortstop George Strickland. Unfortunately he got
a lot of attention that he probably didn’t want; here’s the July 8 Canton
Repository’s account:
Red Skin!
Indians’ Bonus Baby Falls, Rips Pants
KANSAS CITY—Kenny Kuhn, the Cleveland Indians’ 18-year-old bonus baby, can always look upon his major league debut as a memorable one.
He didn’t get a chance to handle the ball in his abbreviated appearance nor swing a bat but he garnered more attention without the spectacular.
Kuhn was called upon by Manager Al Lopez to run for Bobby Young in the ninth inning. Rounding second on a single by Joe Altobelli, Kuhn tripped and fell.
The net results—a large hole in his pants—much to the amusement of his teammates. Trainer Wally Bock did some patch work with a roll of tape and Kuhn took over in the field for shortstop George Strickland in the bottom of the inning.
Hailing from Louisville, Ky., Kuhn undoubtedly will be the target of many ribbings from opponents’ benches. Some of his teammates were teasing him about his first pair of shoes getting in his way already.
His next appearance was two days later in Chicago, as
reported in the July 10 Plain Dealer (all ellipses part of the original
article):
CHICAGO July 9—Bonus boy Kenny Kuhn, who fell on his face and tore his pants in his major league debut in Kansas City Thursday, finally has his feet on the ground…Playing the last three innings at shortstop for the Indians today, the 18-year-old youngster managed to remain upright.
Kuhn gave a good account of himself. He handled three ground balls with ease, one of which was a difficult chance. He had to move in quickly to scoop up a slow roller…Kenny made his first appearance at the plate in the ninth and hit a sharp grounder to the Chicago shortstop.
Sam Dente, Kenny’s self-appointed guardian, told the boy not to feel bad because he fell down in his first big league game. “I got a hit my first time up,” Sam recalled, “and I was so excited I tripped over first base.”…Sam says he is looking after Kenny “because no one ever did it for me.”
Spud Goldstein [Indians’ traveling secretary], who kidded Herb Score for months, now ribs Kuhn and the boy takes it good-naturedly. Spud told him he would have to pay for those pants he tore and Kenny said, “Okay, how much?”…Score had been in charge of the bat bag, but he’s an oldtimer now and Kuhn has the job.
Manager Al Lopez was criticized for using Kenny in a game of such great importance, but Lopez sincerely believes the boy can do the job in the field…
Soon after that Kenny developed a sore arm; it was reported
that he wasn’t used to the amount of throwing done in daily workouts. It didn’t
improve, so he was placed on the 30-day disabled list on July 22. His next
appearance in a game was on September 24 in Detroit, when he got his first
start. He played shortstop and batted seventh as the Indians’ Hank Aguirre shut
out the Tigers, 7-0; he walked in the second and got his first major league hit
off Ned Garver in the sixth, but didn’t make a play in the field. The next day,
the last day of the season, he came into the game in the fifth inning and had a
single in two at-bats and one putout at shortstop.
Kenny signed a new Cleveland contract in January 1956. He
doesn’t seem to have had a very good spring training. From the Plain Dealer,
March 2:
Kenny Kuhn, the bonus boy, has a sore arm again. He was on the disabled list for 30 days last season with the same ailment and people wonder now whether it is chronic.
March 9:
Young Kenny Kuhn has a perfect record: He has lost his hat every time he has run to first base. There is little else to report on the lackadaisical bonus boy. The intra-squad game lasted so long that most of the players got a late start to the dog track.
March 21:
The brass has become fed up, too, with Kenny Kuhn, the bonus boy. He won’t exert himself during practice and whenever someone offers him a bit of advice, he cuts in with “I know how it’s done.”…It’s a shame, for the boy seems to have a world of natural ability.
(The above item was picked up by the Associated Press and
appeared in many newspapers.) March 23:
Kenny Kuhn, the bonus baby, still won’t cut loose for fear that he might re-injure his arm. Playing shortstop today, he lobbed the ball to first base, and once threw it wild.
March 31:
Peewee Reese was disturbed at learning of the lackadaisical attitude of 18-year-old Kenny Kuhn, the Indians’ bonus baby shortstop. Both live in Louisville, Ky., and Reese is Kuhn’s idol.
On April 11 the Indians played an exhibition game with the
Giants in Louisville and Al Lopez, after receiving a number of telegrams from the
city asking him to let Kenny play, put him in for the whole game and he scored
the Indians’ only run in a 5-1 loss. Later in the month Kenny got to play in an
exhibition game against the Dodgers in Jersey City, at the request of Pee Wee
Reese. But he didn’t get into an actual American League game until June 5, when
he replaced new regular shortstop Chico Carrasquel in the ninth inning. He was
used exclusively as a pinch runner, pinch hitter, and late-inning infielder
until he played the last three games of the season at shortstop at home against
Detroit, batting sixth. For the year he had six hits in 22 at-bats, and played
48 errorless innings at short and twelve innings at second base, in a total of
27 games.
Over the winter Kenny played shortstop for Mexico City in
the Veracruz League, managed by teammate Bobby Avila, and hit .338. He was one
of a group of younger players asked by the Indians to report early to spring
training, on February 18, and he quickly impressed new manager Kerby Farrell.
From Gordon Cobbledick’s “Plain Dealing” column in the Plain Dealer of
February 27:
Lonely, Over-Awed Kuhn of 1956 Develops Into Hustling, Chattering Player
TUCSON, Ariz., Feb. 26—Just to show how wrong you can be unless you look inside a kid’s mind and read it accurately, let us consider the case of Kenny Kuhn. Let us, indeed consider the cases of two Kenny Kuhn’s.
One would be the lonely-looking 18-year-old who got himself branded here last spring as the laziest boy in camp—a boy who did nothing until he was told to do it and who, since nobody thought often to tell him what to do, spent most of his time standing around like a lost soul.
The other would be the hustling youngster of whom Kerby Farrell says, with undisguised enthusiasm, “He just could make it—and sooner than you think.”
It seems apparent now that Kuhn—the Kuhn of 1956, that is—simply was a frightened, over-awed boy in his first baseball training camp who did little because he didn’t know what he was expected to do.
Here in the rookie camp this spring he is a big leaguer, a veteran of a season and a half with the Indians, among a lot of youths from the sticks. The difference is startling. He hustles and chatters and behaves like a young man who knows where he’s going and how to get there.
Farrell isn’t the only one who has been impressed. Eddie Stanky, seeing him for the first time, wonders why he has played so little in his brief career with the Indians. Red Kress confesses that he finds it hard to believe he’s the same boy who was here a year ago.
Last night Hank Greenberg asked Farrell if he didn’t think it would be a good idea to send the $35,000 bonus baby to the minor league camp at Daytona Beach and pick him up later.
“He might get more work over there than you can give him,” Greenberg suggested.
And Farrell replied, “I’m aiming to give him plenty of work here. He’s going to do a lot of playing in the exhibition games, maybe as much as any other shortstop we’ve got.”
His statement meant that Chico Carrasquel will have competition for the job he held last year, and that it won’t all come from George Strickland, who held it before that.
“Sure, Kenny’s had only limited experience,” Stanky admits, “but if he’s as smart as I think he is he’s learned plenty just sitting on the bench and watching these last two seasons…
Among Kuhn’s assets are two that appeal particularly to Farrell in the light of his knowledge of the Indians’ weaknesses: The boy is fast and he has the look of a solid hitter. On the basis of their performance last year the Indians need speed and they need base hits. A man—or a boy—who can deliver both will find employment in Cleveland.
Because he is a bonus player, Kuhn must be kept by the Indians until August of this year. And because Farrell has admitted a distaste for what he calls “bench ball players,” it is likely that he’ll get a chance. Don’t be surprised if he makes it all the way.
On March 16 the Plain Dealer mentioned that Stanky
was working with Kenny on his troubles making the pivot at second. The next day
they published an interview with Jo West, a waitress at the Indians’ hotel in
Tucson, which included this exchange:
Q—Do you have a son?
A—No, I don’t.
Q—If you did have one, would you want him to be like any one of the players in particular?
A—Well, I sometimes think that if I did have a son I’d want him to be like Kenny Kuhn. You know, Kenny is so different this year. Last year he was quiet and I think a little unhappy. But he is such a darling boy now and so very polite.
On March 23 the Plain Dealer named Kenny the “best
infielder for future,” saying:
Bonus status has kept him from normal minor league schooling, but he has made great strides in spite of that handicap. A solid left-handed hitter, unusually fast. Has fairly good hands, but hasn’t shown impressive arm. A longshot bet to be the Indians’ second baseman this year.
On April 11 it was reported that the second base job was
still undecided. On the 14th Kenny spent the day in Louisville with
his mother, after she had suffered a mild heart attack. On the 16th
the season began, with George Strickland at second. Kenny didn’t play much,
despite the raves during spring training; when his bonus period expired and he
was sent down to Reading of the Class A Eastern League on August 19, he had
only played in 34 games, mostly as a pinch runner or pinch hitter. At Reading
he got off to a cold start but then warmed up, playing 21 games at second base
and hitting .286 before the Eastern League season ended and he was brought back
to Cleveland. He got into another six games with the Indians in September,
including starting at second in four games at the end of the season. He wound
up with nine hits, all singles, in 53 at-bats in 40 games with the Indians.
During the off-season Kenny was on the Cleveland reserve
list, then on January 15, 1958, new Indians’ GM Frank Lane sold his contract to the
Mobile Bears, their farm team in the Class AA Southern Association. Though he
was on Mobile’s roster in spring training, by mid-March there was talk that he
would make AAA San Diego as their second baseman, and that’s in fact what
happened.
On April 20, though, his father died. From the Sporting News’
Necrology section, April 30:
Charles Kuhn
Charles Kuhn, former minor league player and father of Kenny Kuhn, San Diego second baseman, died at St. Joseph’s Infirmary, Louisville, Ky., April 20, following a heart attack. He was 58.
A native of Louisville, Kuhn played with some of the leading semi-pro teams of that area while still in his teens. Before his twenty-first birthday, he was signed by the Philadelphia Athletics. However, an arm injury prevented his remaining in the game and he returned to Louisville, where he played with, and managed, amateur teams for many years.
In addition to Kenny, who received a $35,000 bonus to sign with the Indians in 1955, other survivors are his wife and three [sic] children: Charles, now football coach at Male High in Louisville; Dave, a former All-Southeastern center for the University of Kentucky football team; Jack, Mrs. Betty Jean Dunn, Mrs. Frances Jane Franklin and Patricia.
Kenny was hitting .147 in 34 at-bats when, on May 15, he was
assigned to the Dallas Rangers of the Class AA Texas League, a team with no
major league affiliation.
He played shortstop for Dallas, and hit
.233/.331/.282 in 103 at-bats in 30 games, after which the Rangers returned him
to the Cleveland organization. The Indians sent him to Burlington of the Class
B Carolina League, where he finished out the season and finally found success.
Playing primarily shortstop, he hit .309/.407/.415 in 265 at-bats in 67 games,
and at one point had twelve straight hits. After the season he was returned to
the San Diego roster. In December, Kenny’s wife Peggy gave birth to their first
child.
On January 8, 1959, the Padres sold Kenny’s contract to
Mobile, Cleveland’s AA team, and he spent the season there, playing second base
and batting first and second in the order. He hit .305/.397/.353 in 550
at-bats, scoring 92 runs and leading the league in sacrifice hits with 20, as
the Bears won the league championship. In September he was one of 22 Indians’
minor leaguers invited to Cleveland for instruction during the last week of the
American League season. In October his contract was sold to Toronto of the
International League, which was replacing San Diego as the Indians’ AAA
affiliate.
From the Jeffersonville (Kentucky) Evening News,
January 19, 1960:
Baseball Group to Meet Tuesday
When the Louisville Chapter of Baseball Writers’ Association holds its second annual dinner at Freedom Hall, Tuesday, Jan. 26, Kenny Kuhn, former Male High four-letter athlete will be honored as the “professional baseball player of the year in Louisville.”
Last summer Kuhn played second base for the Mobile ball club of the Class AA Southern Association. He went on a hitting spree in the late stages of the season, and wound up with a fine .305 mark for the year. Kenny is the property of the Cleveland Indians who paid him a bonus several years ago when he completed high school. Last summer was Kenny’s first full season as a regular in pro ball. Kuhn is expected to advance to the Toronto ball club of the Triple-A International League next summer.
The brilliant young athlete who wrote all sorts of records in high school at Male High, now resides at Maple and Graham, Jeffersonville with his wife, (the former Miss Peggy Isler) and son. He is working the winter for an oil concern, and drives a truck to keep in condition. Kenny weighs 165 which is slightly below his high school weight.
Amateur baseballers will also receive awards at the baseball writers’ dinner. Several hundred are expected to attend, including a number of baseball enthusiasts from Jeffersonville.
Late in spring training 1960 Kenny was still expected to be
with Toronto, but at the last minute he wound up back with Mobile, and he spent
another season as their second baseman. He had a very similar season
offensively, except that his walks were way down, and he ended up at
.294/.354/.352, generally batting second in the order. On September 28, Hal
Lebovitz of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, in answering a question about “whatever
happened to Kenny Kuhn,” said “There’s only a slight chance that he’ll ever
make the majors.”
Toronto only lasted one season in the Indians’ organization;
in 1961 the Salt Lake City Bees of the Pacific Coast League became the
Cleveland AAA affiliate, and that’s where Kenny played that year, moving up one
level. He didn’t play as regularly, getting into 54 games at second and 23 at
third while pinch hitting quite a bit, and wound up with 278 at-bats in 107
games, hitting .259/.327/.324.
For 1962 Kenny was with the Bees again, and though he only
played in one more game than in ’61 he started more and got 58 more at-bats,
playing 84 games at second; he hit .259/.313/.315. That was the end of his
professional career, at age 25. Apparently he retired the next spring when he
was asked to go to the Mexican League.
Kenny next pops up in the Evansville Courier of
October 18, 1964:
Major Stars in English
ENGLISH, Ind.—Several established major and former minor league baseball players will compete at 1:30 p.m. today in an exhibition baseball game in this tiny Southern Indiana community.
The game, sponsored by English’s Seth Denbo, will feature such stars as pitchers Jim O’Toole, Billy McCool, Joey Jay and Joe Nuxhall, catcher John Edwards and second baseman Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds; pitcher Frank Baumann, outfielder Floyd Robinson and infielder Al Weis of the Chicago White Sox; and first baseman Roy Sievers and possibly pitcher Jim Bunning of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Top former minor league players will include Jack Littrell, third baseman in the Pacific Coast League; Kenny Kuhn, an outfielder [sic] in the Cleveland chain; Phil Shartzer, shortstop in the Southern Association; Lou Vassie, second baseman at Indianapolis a year ago; and Ray Holton, ex-catcher at Louisville.
All are members of the Kentucky State semi-pro championship team from Louisville…
On June 2, 1965, Kenny got mentioned in the Jeffersonville
Evening News, when he was named a coach for the Clarksville team in the
Kentucky-Indiana Collegiate Baseball League; it was mentioned that he and Peggy
now had four children. On June 13, 1971, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer did a
“Whatever Happened to…?” feature on Kenny:
…Kuhn, now 34, lives in Jeffersonville, Ind., where he is the vice-president of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Inc. of Louisville and in charge of their H. Salt Fish and Chips Restaurant Division. He travels to 17 cities once or twice monthly to check the expanding operation. Columbus is one stop.
Kuhn attributes his baseball downfall to a practice session at the Stadium when he had only been with the Indians for two weeks.
“All morning Coach Red Kress kept hitting me balls and I was throwing from the hole at shortstop and my arm started feeling tired. I told trainer Wally Bock that I had a strange feeling in it. It felt like it was asleep.
“I didn’t throw for 20 days. I couldn’t even lift my right arm to comb my hair,” Kenny recalled. “I think it was strictly a matter of throwing too much. I could never throw after that.”
At some point Kenny and family moved to California, and in
1999 he and Peggy retired to Truckee, California, but continued to work. On
July 16, 2010, Kenny died of pancreatic cancer at his daughter’s house in
Layton, Utah. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported the next day:
Four-sport star at Male in 1950s dies at 73 in Utah
KENNY KUHN: 1937-2010
By C. Ray Hall
Kenny Kuhn, one of the most versatile and accomplished high school athletes in Louisville history, died Friday. He was 73.
In 1955, the Courier-Journal’s Johnny Carrico called Kuhn “possibly the greatest all-around athlete ever to come out of Louisville.”
Kuhn died at his daughter’s home in Layton, Utah, after a two-year struggle with pancreatic cancer.
Kuhn excelled in baseball, basketball, football and track in the 1950s.
“He was Mr. Male for a long time,” his brother Charley said Friday.
Kuhn, a 5-foot-11 guard, was Mr. Basketball in 1955, scoring 25 points in the Kentucky-Indiana All-Star Game in Indianapolis. He was a Courier-Journal All-state player three years in a row. He averaged 24.9 points a game as a senior and 22.6 for his career.
In football, with brother Charley as his coach, Kuhn was an All-State quarterback with scholarship offers from several local schools, including Indiana.
Bernie Crimmins, IU’s coach at the time, said, “If he decides to come to Bloomington, I’ll give him a police escort.”
He didn’t have much time for track, but it didn’t take much.
“He never was in track until it came state tournament time,” Charley said, “and he won the broad jump.” (In 1954, he missed the state record by a quarter-inch.)
But baseball was his choice. Kuhn was one of baseball’s “bonus babies,” signing with the Cleveland Indians for an estimated $40,000 in 1955.
Hank Greenberg, the Indians’ general manager, called the 18-year-old shortstop “the finest young infielder I’ve seen in a long time.” But Greenberg lamented the rule that kept bonus babies in the majors for two seasons before they could be sent to the minors.
Over three seasons, Kuhn played 71 games in the majors, batting .210 with no home runs and seven RBIs.
“He practiced and practiced,” his brother said. “He got up one morning, and he couldn’t raise his right arm up.”
Doctors found damage to his tendons and ligaments, Charley said. The Indians switched Kenny to second base, but he never found his way back to the majors. He retired in 1963 rather than accept an assignment to play in the Mexican League.
After baseball, Kuhn spent most of his career in development for food companies, including Kentucky Fried Chicken and Mister Donut. His last corporate job was in California, with Children’s Discovery Centers. In 1999, he and his wife, Peggy, retired to Truckee, Calif., where they worked at a Lake Tahoe resort. She was a concierge; he drove a van, occasionally delivering VIPs to the resort.
“All the kids that worked at the resort loved Kenny,” Peggy said. “They ran his baseball card up to $1,700 bidding on it on eBay. Then one of the drivers that he worked with bought his glove (for about $2,300). They loved him, and they loved hearing his stories. What they loved most was he carried their bets into Reno for them.”
Betting—especially on horse races—was one of Kuhn’s leisure pursuits.
“He was never good at it,” Peggy said. “He loved it, though. My daughter (Carrie) just said a while ago we should save some of dad’s ashes and take them to Churchill Downs and throw them on the finish line.”
Kenny and Peggy had four children—Carrie, Amy, Scott and Stan. The family plans a private memorial service in California.
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