In the 117-year semi-sweet history of UW baseball there were many great individuals to go through the program. The list includes players like Lance Painter, Red Wilson, Rick Reichardt and Scott Cepicky. However, one name stands above the rest — though only on one leg: Harvey Kuenn.
One of the sad side effects to the UW baseball program being terminated is that all of the celebrated history that should be reverberating through the dugout of a modern-day ballpark instead is being forgotten. The moments are only remembered by those who care to delve through dusty file folders and stale photographs for remnants of its storied history.
Thankfully, Kuenn will forever be a link to that history.
Kuenn is a legend throughout the state of Wisconsin, but a major part of his Dairy State legacy is forgotten due to the annihilation of the UW Baseball program. It is easily forgotten how Kuenn's baseball successes first began on the diamond at Breese Stevens field in the 1950s.
Nearly everyone remembers his taking the Brewers to their lone World Series, but he never could have reached that point in his career without first exploding onto the scene as a bat-wielding shortstop for UW in 1951.
No one could ever really blame Harvey Kuenn for not being a gold glove caliber fielder.
The truth is he just loved to hit.
He was one of the charter members of the offensive-minded shortstops, paving the way for guys like Cal Ripken Jr., Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. He had the reputation of being a chameleon at the plate, not having any one particular style.
Former New York Yankee manager Casey Stengel called Kuenn "one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball," saying "the guy can hurt you a million ways."
"Just when a pitcher thinks he has Harvey figured out, he's wrong," Stengel told the Associated Press in 1956. "He has no big weakness at the plate that I've ever noticed."
He was an equal opportunity hitter, not being picky at all at the plate. However, don't do him the disservice to call him a bad ball hitter, an idea that caused Kuenn to prickle.
"The so called bad pitches I go after aren't really bad ones," Kuenn told the Milwaukee Journal in 1957. "Maybe a shade high, or a little outside or inside. Sometimes I'll go after one a little below my knees."
Kuenn was born and raised in West Allis and came to UW after a very brief stay at Luther College, a tiny Lutheran school in Iowa. He immediately filled a void at shortstop for legendary coach Art "Dynie" Mansfield and the Badgers.
"In 1951, most college shortstops won their jobs with their gloves," Mansfield would later say. "I've seen a lot of fancier glove men in the Big Ten. But none of them could hit near the way Harvey could."
Kuenn hit .320 his freshman year, outstanding for a shortstop. He also committed 15 errors in 23 games, atrocious for a man at any position.
Unhappy with the criticism of his glove hand, he decided that something must be done. So in 1952 he simply put together the greatest individual season in Wisconsin baseball history.
Kuenn batted a Big Ten-best .436, while also leading the conference in RBIs (29), runs (25), doubles (8), triples (9) and hits (48).
For Wisconsin however, Kuenn's spectacular season was a double-edged sword as he became the subject of quite the bidding war. Up to 10 teams were offering a king's ransom to the slugging shortstop to have him leave school a year early.
Even Mansfield, who was considered old-school by old-school standards, advised Kuenn that the money was too good to pass up. In the end, he signed with the Detroit Tigers for a $55,000 bonus, a fortune at that time for a kid out of college.
Many critics questioned the move initially, but not for long.
Kuenn was soon named the American League Rookie of the Year and over a 15-year career he was an eight-time all-star and the 1959 A.L. batting champion. He finished his career a .303 hitter and had over 2,000 career hits.
However it was after Kuenn's playing days were over that his legend truly started to grow. In 1972 he became a hitting coach for the Milwaukee Brewers.
During his tenure, he had several health problems, having to undergo open heart surgery in 1976 and kidney surgery in 1977, but it wasn't until 1980 that the real bomb dropped.
After having complications with a blood clot, Kuenn had his right leg amputated just below the knee.
"I think that may have put a lesser man down. I really believe that," Brewers radio broadcaster Bob Uecker later said at Kuenn's funeral. "It wasn't two weeks, he had [an artificial leg] on already. And it wasn't a month later, he was playing golf again, before returning to coaching after only six months. If you don't get inspired by things like that, you aren't human."
Two years later, Kuenn was hired as the Brewers manager in mid-season, his second interim-skipper stint with the club.
Milwaukee was 23-24 when he took it over in June. By season's end, they had become "Harvey's Wallbangers," finishing with a 95-67 record and eventually leading the Brew Crew to their only World Series appearance.
"I got to spend some time with Harvey during that run," said Painter, who was then only just coming out of high school. "And the stories he would tell. You just couldn't let go of all this guy has accomplished. I'm honored to be able to say that I was able to at least partially follow his lead."
Kuenn died on February 28, 1988 in Arizona. Uecker offered the eulogy and six former Brewers from the '82 team were his pallbearers. It was about time that greatness carried him for once, and not the other way around.
A Wisconsin native, a Wisconsin graduate and a Wisconsin legend — Kuenn was all of the above. However, his greatness is like a wildflower in full bloom, as everybody sees the final result with Kuenn's days as a Brewer manager and as A.L. pitchers' public enemy No. 1, during his playing days.
But hidden below the surface of that wildflower lie the roots, equally important, but oft overlooked.
That is exactly what Kuenn's days at Wisconsin were — invaluable to his successes later in life, but all too often unappreciated and unrealized.
