Art Kusnyer

As a young and hopeful Art Kusnyer (pronounced KUSH-ner) started his professional baseball career in 1966, he made a contingency plan: “If I didn’t make it in baseball, I wanted to be a highway patrolman,” he told the author.1 He never got to work for the highway patrol. Instead, the solidly built 6-foot-2, 197-pound Kusnyer, possessor of a powerful right-handed swing and a strong right arm, forged a 57-year career in professional baseball – 14 years as an active player, including parts of six seasons as a major-league catcher, 26 years as an active big-league coach, a year each as a rookie-league manager and advance scout, and 15 more years as a minor-league bullpen instructor and special assistant to the major-league staff with the Chicago White Sox.2

Born on December 19, 1945, in Akron, Ohio, to Ernest J. and Irene (Szalay) Kusnyer, Arthur William “Cave” Kusnyer,3 the oldest of the family’s four children, displayed athletic ability early. His father, Ernest, the owner of Ohio Speedometer Company in Akron, “took me out to play catch, and started me in a pee wee league when I was about five.” Art’s diamond exploits were being covered in the local press by the time he was 10. On May 22, 1956, the local paper reported that he had hit a three-run home run for his Little League team in a 10-4 victory.4 He continued to excel as he matured, pitching a no-hitter at 13 in 1959.5 By 1962, he starred in both baseball and basketball at Buchtel High School, swinging a “merciless bat,”6 and displaying “an eagerness for board work,”7 as the starting center on the varsity basketball team. Competition for the best athlete was fierce in the Kusnyer family. By the time he graduated from Buchtel in 1964, Kusnyer had made a name for himself in and around Akron as a two-sport star:

Art was not the only Kusnyer who excelled at sports. His father had been a force as a high school third baseman in Akron, eventually achieving induction into the Greater Akron Baseball Hall of Fame.8 Irene, a bookkeeper in her husband’s company, raised the children and fully participated in the family basketball games, where, her husband said, ‘We’ll knock [her] around a bit, but she can take it.’9 Brother Jim, who Art said ‘could jump out of the building,’ starred in basketball as did Ernie and Andy. All four Kusnyer brothers eventually played college basketball, with Art averaging 10.5 points and four rebounds a game for Kent State in 1965-66, and Ernie starting for three years at Kansas State, averaging 12.7 points and 7.5 rebounds a game from 1971 to 1973.10 It is little wonder that the Kusnyers were dubbed Akron’s ‘current No. 1 sports family,’ and eventually, ‘Akron’s Athletic Family of the 20th Century.’11

After his high-school graduation in 1964, Art enrolled at Kent State University, where he played baseball and basketball. On June 7, 1966, the White Sox selected him in the 37th round of the amateur draft. White Sox scout Fred Schaffer signed Kusnyer contract on July 25,12 and Kusnyer played for the White Sox’ entry in the Gulf Coast League that summer. He moved to the Appleton Foxes in the low Class-A Midwest League in 1967. Playing primarily in the outfield on the league’s best team, Kusnyer held his own, hitting .250 in 81 games with 7 home runs and 37 RBIs. He remained at Appleton in 1968, becoming a full-time catcher. He spent 1969 at Lynchburg in the high Class-A Carolina League, then moved up to Mobile in the Double-A Southern League for 1970. On September 3, the White Sox recalled him from Mobile and he debuted in the second game of a Sunday doubleheader against the Kansas City Royals on September 21, 1970. He caught the entire game, going 0-for-4 at the plate against left-hander Bill Butler and right-hander Jim York. The last-place White Sox lost the game 8-2, loss number 97 in a wretched season that ended with the club posting a 56-106 record, the most losses in franchise history through 2023. Kusnyer played three more games that season, getting his first major-league hit on September 30, a single against California’s Dave LaRoche. After the season the White Sox traded him to the Angels for right-handed pitcher Steve Kealey and catcher Dave Adlesh. Kusnyer spent most of the 1971 season at Triple-A Salt Lake City, again joining the major-league team in September. Finally, Kusnyer made the Opening Day roster of the 1972 Angels, spending the entire season in the majors. He hit .207 with 2 home runs and 13 RBIs in 64 games that season.

Ultimately, Kusnyer’s major-league career fell short of what he wanted it to be. Looking back on his career in 1982, he said his intensity made things on the field more difficult than they might have been. “I worried so much that I’d press. It was like, if I didn’t get four hits, I thought I’d failed.”13 Certainly his performance in Triple-A play did not presage his major-league hitting problems. Between 1971 and 1976, Kusnyer hit .280 in 445 games, with 63 home runs and 259 RBIs. In 1971 he hit .316, with 10 home runs and 75 RBIs for Salt Lake City in the Pacific Coast League. However, this minor-league record got him no consistent playing time in the big leagues. Part of a three-man catching tandem in his only full season, he started only 54 games. He later remembered, “I always wished I could’ve caught for two months straight. The most at-bats I ever got in a row was 16. … Hitting was my downfall.”14

Kusnyer played in only 41 games in 1973, none after July 31, as the Angels sent him to the minors in August, recalled him but did not play him in September, then traded him to the Milwaukee Brewers in a nine-player deal after the season.15

One of Kusnyer’s final starts for California put him in august company: catching the 186th no-hitter in major-league history.16 On July 15, 1973, at Detroit’s Tiger Stadium, the Angels’ Nolan Ryan pitched his second no-hitter of the season, beating Billy Martin’s Tigers 6-0. Kusnyer, who had caught several of Ryan’s starts in 1972 and 1973, scored the only run Ryan needed in the third inning when he singled, took third on a single by Sandy Alomar, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Vada Pinson.

Reminiscing about that day, Kusnyer remarked that Ryan, whose sometimes erratic control “could really beat you up behind the plate,” had superb command, throwing his blazing fastball and sharp-breaking curve “almost always where he wanted to” on the way to 17 strikeouts in a dominant performance. Kusnyer knew in the first inning that Ryan had exceptional stuff, as he overheard Duke Sims at the end of the first inning asking Norm Cash, “What’s he throwing?” Cash, who had struck out to end the inning, told Sims, “Don’t go up there.” Cash came to the plate with two outs in the ninth holding a table leg as a bat. Told by umpire Ron Luciano that he couldn’t use the piece of furniture, Cash replied, “Why not, I won’t hit him anyway.”17 Cash then popped out to end the game. Four days later in Anaheim, Kusnyer caught Ryan again as the Angel right-hander took another no-hitter into the eighth. With consecutive no-hitters only six outs away, Ryan allowed a single to light-hitting Orioles shortstop Mark Belanger. Ryan went on to lose the game 3-1 in 11 innings.

Just over two weeks after he celebrated Ryan’s no-hit achievement, the Angels optioned Kusnyer to Salt Lake City. Obviously disappointed, Kusnyer nevertheless went to the minors with his own slice of major-league immortality.

After 1973, Kusnyer got only another 47 at-bats in the major leagues, getting seven hits, dropping his final lifetime average to .176. He continued to have productive Triple-A seasons, but apparently no big-league team could use him, even as a backup. Despite his scant time on a major-league roster in his last two seasons, they were not without highlights: He had a single and a three-run double to key Milwaukee’s 6-2 win over the Red Sox at County Stadium on July 3, 1976. Eighteen days later, he got his only major-league stolen base, a theft of second in Milwaukee’s 5-0 win over the Kansas City Royals and his old Appleton teammate, right-hander Al Fitzmorris. When asked about the steal in 2024, he explained, “I got the steal sign and just hauled ass.” In his final major-league season, playing for the Kansas City Royals, he hit his last major-league home run, against Frank Tanana of the Angels on June 26, 1978. Then on the final day of the 1978 season, in his final game as a major leaguer, Kusnyer drive in the only run of the game with a single against Twins left-hander Geoff Zahn.

The next season Kusnyer was back in the minors, playing for the Iowa Oaks in the Triple-A American Association. Kusnyer’s manager in Des Moines was Tony La Russa, who liked his work with the team and wanted to make him a player-coach. As La Russa described it, “Art has an attitude about him, a play-hard, no-nonsense, winning-is-everything attitude that I like around a ballclub. … Art works his butt off.”18 Although at first hesitant, Kusnyer eventually accepted La Russa’s offer.

Most important, that position opened the possibility of getting back to the majors, as La Russa promised Kusnyer, “If I get a big-league job, I want you as a coach. I like the way you’re working.”19 Kusnyer soon got his chance. On August 2, 1979, Don Kessinger resigned as Chicago’s player-manager and was replaced by La Russa.20 On November 14 La Russa kept his promise, hiring Kusnyer as the first-ever bullpen coach for the White Sox. Back in the majors, he stayed for more than 40 years.

In 1980 Kusnyer began an active coaching career that lasted 26 seasons, more than half of them working under La Russa, “the best manager I ever worked for.” Imbued with a solid work ethic provided by his father, along with a fierce competitiveness, Kusnyer tempered his intensity by developing a practical approach to dealing with professional players of varied backgrounds, temperaments, and abilities. He summed it up succinctly: “I let the guys have their fun as long as they took care of their business.” That said, Kusnyer, renowned as a bullpen storyteller, always made taking care of business the priority. As he said, “To stay as long as I did, I had to be doing something right.” The components of that something included game preparation in the La Russa mode, hours spent analyzing the opposition, potential strategies, potential personnel matchups, and ways to put the players he coached in the best possible situations.

Working with La Russa and the team’s pitching coaches, Ron Schueler until 1982 and Dave Duncan from 1983 on, Kusnyer proved adept at creating a reasonably successful bullpen out of disparate pieces. During the 1980s the White Sox had no pitcher who filled the closer role for multiple seasons. Kusnyer’s search for a reliable finisher depended upon identifying the guys “who wanted the ball, who had no fear,” rather than using “the guys who talked a lot.” In the 1980s, the White Sox never found that guy. In succession they used as the main closer Ed Farmer, rookie; Salomé Barojas, who inherited the closer role in 1982; a 1983 bullpen by committee – Barojas, Dennis Lamp, and Dick Tidrow. In 1984, no reliever posted more than 12 saves. In 1985 Bob James saved 32 games. Injured the next season, James dropped to 14 saves. Despite the club’s lack of a reliable closer during the period from 1980 through 1986, Kusnyer’s bullpen provided above-average production. Bettering the league bullpen ERA of 3.77, the White Sox posted a 3.58 ERA for the years 1980-86 and saved 263 games, an average of 37.6 saves a season, fourth in the American League. Although the White Sox often struggled during that era, Kusnyer’s bullpen performed more than adequately.

Kusnyer’s first stint as the White Sox bullpen coach ended after 1986. La Russa had been fired in midseason and at the beginning of 1987, first-base coach Ed Brinkman had health problems. At the request of new manager Jim Fregosi, Kusnyer assumed Brinkman’s duties at first. The next year, 1988, the White Sox offered Kusnyer a managing job with the White Sox team in the Gulf Coast Rookie League. After managing the team to the third best record in the league, Kusnyer decided that he would prefer to remain a coach in the majors. “I liked what I was doing, I liked coaching,” he said. He again got to do what he liked to do: On December 1, 1988, La Russa brought him to Oakland.

In Oakland Kusnyer inherited a far more stable bullpen than the one he had coached in Chicago. During each of his years with the Athletics, Dennis Eckersley worked as the club’s closer. For five of his six years, left-hander Rick Honeycutt performed as one of the late inning set-up men for Eckersley. Complementing Honeycutt was right-hander Gene Nelson. Kusnyer expressed great respect for both those players, noting that although they had their bullpen roles, they were always willing to pitch “whenever we needed them; if we need a lefty to pitch to left-handed hitters in the seventh, Honeycutt wanted the ball. Same with Nelson for the righties.”

During Kusnyer’s time as Oakland’s bullpen coach, the Athletics won three division titles, two pennants, and one World Series – the 1989 “Earthquake Series,” a 4-0 Athletics sweep, with play halted for 12 days by the devastating Loma Prieta quake on October 17.21 With the A’s victory in the Series, Kusnyer had achieved the ultimate goal for a major leaguer, winning a World Series ring.

Another American League pennant came in 1990, followed by a down year in 1991, then a rebound to a division championship in 1992. However, after 1992, the pitching staff deteriorated – veteran starters saw their performances decline, and young pitchers failed to pitch effectively. Although Eckersley continued as the closer, his ERA climbed above 4.00 as he got fewer save opportunities. With the Athletics committed to a youth movement and lots of losses in the near future, their manager chose to take another job. In late October, La Russa parted ways with the Athletics, signing a contract to manage the St. Louis Cardinals. He took Kusnyer with him, this time as an advance scout.

Kusnyer’s time as a scout did not prove agreeable. He said, “I didn’t like scouting, I wanted to be back on the field.” Kusnyer succeeded in getting back on the field in 1997 as the White Sox hired him on the last day of October 1996, to again be their bullpen coach. His coaching career had come full circle. It proved to be his last major-league stop.

Now a veteran big-league coach, Kusnyer again handled the bullpen, as well as helping White Sox catchers with their defensive mechanics. Although the 1997 White Sox had an established closer in Roberto Hernández, his trade to San Francisco created uncertainty for Chicago’s relievers. Matt Karchner took over the closer’s role after Hernández left, followed in successive years by Bill Simas, Bob Howry, Keith Foulke, two seasons of closer by committee, then an emergent Shingo Takatsu in 2004. As for the team’s performance, except for the surprise division title in 2000, it had been mediocre since 1994. In 2004 the White Sox finished a distant second after leading the division in July. However, during the 2004 season, general manager Ken Williams began remaking the club. The 2004 team had tied with the Yankees for the most home runs in the majors, but the 2005 squad would feature better speed and stronger pitching.

The formula worked as the 2005 White Sox, won their division by six games over the Cleveland Indians. The team then went 11-1 in the postseason, sweeping the Red Sox in the Division Series, beating the Angels in five games in the American League Championship Series, then sweeping the Houston Astros in the World Series – a dominant regular-season and postseason performance.

In truth, there was nothing easy about the 2005 White Sox season, particularly for Kusnyer and his bullpen. In the bullpen, Dámaso Marté, Cliff Politte, and Luis Vizcaíno were pitching effectively early in the season, soon to be joined by Neal Cotts, but Takatsu was having problems. After saving his eighth and final game on May 5, his ERA stood at 6.23. At that point, manager Ozzie Guillén, pitching coach Don Cooper, and Kusnyer, installed veteran Dustin Hermanson as the team’s closer. Hermanson did the job, saving 30 games from May 6 to September 7. However, Hermanson’s effectiveness began to be degraded by a back problem. With less than three weeks left in the season, the White Sox had to come up with someone who could close games. They decided to go with rookie Bobby Jenks. Kusnyer said the White Sox “had good reports on his pitching, and he could throw 100 miles an hour.” Jenks saved six games for the White Sox down the stretch.

Kusnyer described that White Sox team, particularly the pitchers, as guys “who went out there every day knowing they were going to win.” In the third game of the Division Series, Orlando Hernández demonstrated that unshakable belief. He was summoned to face the Red Sox in the sixth inning with Chicago leading 4-3 and the bases loaded with no outs. Someone in the bullpen mentioned pressure. Kusnyer heard Hernández reply, “Let me tell you what pressure is. Castro tried to kill me for five years.” Hernández then calmly walked to the mound and retired the side without a run scoring. He pitched two more scoreless innings as the White Sox completed the sweep with a 5-3 win. Hernandez’s effort typified the Chicago bullpen’s performance that postseason. In 21 innings the bullpen allowed only three runs and nine hits and struck out 22.

Not to be outdone, after losing Game One of the ALCS, Chicago starters pitched four consecutive complete games – by Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland, Freddy Garcia, and José Contreras – to win the pennant. In the World Series sweep over Houston, Jenks pitched in all four games, saving two. Overall in the postseason, he made six appearances, allowing only two runs in eight innings, while saving four games. When he got pinch-hitter Orlando Palmeiro to ground out to shortstop Juan Uribe for the final out in the 1-0 title-clinching game, the White Sox celebrated their first World Series championship in 88 years.

After winning his second World Series ring, Kusnyer remained as bullpen coach in 2006 and 2007, finally relinquishing his coaching duties after his vision deteriorated due to detached retinas, for which multiple surgeries and other treatments proved unsuccessful.

After 42 years as an active player and coach in major-league baseball, how can Kusnyer’s performance be evaluated? We have his playing record, but there are no parameters to gauge a coach’s effectiveness. Nonetheless, it is possible to glean some insight into this question by listening to what his contemporaries said about him – managers and players especially. For Kusnyer, the record is decidedly not silent. In 1991, Tony La Russa said: “He was an excellent catcher. Kush knows a lot about setting up hitters. He’s very important in the bullpen. … There’s no better work coach in baseball.”22 Rick Honeycutt emphasized Kusnyer’s light but firm touch: “What Cave does, he’s pretty much the kind of guy who keeps everybody loose down there … but at the same time he takes control, too.”23

The 2006 White Sox bullpen crew echoed La Russa and Honeycutt. Bobby Jenks mentioned the importance of bullpen humor because “we’re allowed to be kids.” He said Kusnyer had T-shirts made that said “Cave’s Crew” on the front and featured Kusnyer’s “top 10 sayings on the back.”24 David Riske found Kusnyer’s unending store of tales therapeutic After a bad day, he said, “all you have to do is go out there the next day and listen to Cave.”25

While they had fun in the bullpen, Kusnyer’s crew knew that the time would come during a game “to stop laughing and start listening.” After Kusnyer left the coaching ranks, Matt Thornton and Bobby Jenks summed up what he meant to them, to the team. Thornton described baseball as “his life, his passion,” and noted that “he loved his guys.”26 Jenks credited Kusnyer with helping him “grow” into the closer’s role, saying, “He’ll always let you be yourself,” while affirming his professionalism: “No matter what the situation was, he was able to get [each player] ready for that situation.”27

Not surprisingly, after his eye problems precluded a return to coaching, Kusnyer continued his affiliation with the team another 15 years, going to spring training as a uniformed member of the club, traveling with the team during the season, and contributing wherever he could. Finally, after the 2022 season, he actually retired.28

In 1968 Kusnyer wrote that his ambition in baseball was “to play in the majors.” He did that and much more, as during his major-league playing and coaching career, he earned the admiration and respect of both his managers and his players. His career spanned nearly 60 years, beginning in the pitching-rich era of the 1960s and 1970s, and ending in the high-scoring, home-run-happy 2000s. He experienced the end of the reserve clause, the drug scandals of the 1980s, and the steroid era of the late 1990s and early 2000s. All that time, he was able to adapt to the game’s changes and get the most out of the men who played for him.

As of 2024, Kusnyer lived in Florida with his wife, Judy. They have been married since 1967, and have a son, Ryan. The highway patrol? It turned out Art Kusnyer never had to apply.

Sources

In addition to the sources credited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for background information on players, teams, and seasons.

The author thanks Art Kusnyer for his indispensable contributions to this biography.

Notes

1 Unless otherwise attributed, all direct quotations from Art Kusnyer come from interviews with the author on May 24, June 11, and June 13, 2024.

2 Scott Gregor, “With His Future in Doubt Because of Injury, Kreuter Is Released,” Arlington Heights (Illinois) Daily Herald, November 1, 1996: 27.

3 According to Kusnyer, in 1976 Lenn Sakata was responsible for the nickname Cave, which is short for Caveman. Mike Berardino, “q&a with Art Kusnyer,” South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale), July 23, 2007: 42

4 “Little League Openers Feature 2 No-Hitters,” Akron Beacon Journal, May 22, 1956: 34.

5 “Anop Wins Homerun Duel,” Akron Beacon Journal, July 17, 1959: 34.

6 “Hoban Ready for ICC Final,” Akron Beacon Journal, May 15, 1962: 14.

7 John Flynn, “Pressure Is on Garfield, Buchtel,” Akron Beacon Journal, May 5, 1962: 20.

8 Ernie Kusnyer Sr., Greater Akron Baseball Hall of Fame. Ernie Sr. was a decorated Marine, serving during World War II in the Pacific; he was wounded in the 1944 invasion of Guam. “The Big Parade,” Akron Beacon Journal, October 19, 1944: 8.

9 John Flynn, “Even Mom Plays for Kusnyers,” Akron Beacon Journal, February 4, 1968: 39.

10 SRCBB (college basketball), https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/, accessed May 25, 2024.

11 Bill Lilley, “First Family of Akron Athletics,” Akron Beacon Journal, January 2, 2000: 47, 52.

12 LA84 Foundation, “The Sporting News Baseball Players Contract Card Collection,” https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll3, accessed June 11, 2024.

13 Bob Nold, “Kusnyer Story Has a Happy Ending,” Akron Beacon Journal, August 5, 1982: 17.

14 Nold.

15 “Kusnyer Goes to Brewers,” Akron Beacon Journal, October 23, 1973: 17. From California, Kusnyer, left-handed pitchers Clyde Wright and Steve Barber, and outfielder Ken Berry went to the Brewers for catcher Ellie Rodriguez, outfielders Ollie Brown and Joe Lahoud, and right-handed pitchers Skip Lockwood and Gary Ryerson.

16 No-Hitters.com, https://www.nonohitters.com/no-hitters/, accessed June 11, 2024.

17 Gregory H. Wolf, “July 15, 1973: Nolan Ryan tosses second no-hitter of season for Angels,” in Scott Ferkovich, ed., Tigers by the Tail: Great Games at Michigan And Trumbull (Phoenix: SABR, 2016); https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/july-15-1973-nolan-ryan-tosses-second-no-hitter-of-season-for-angels/, accessed June 11, 2024.

18 Nold, “Kusnyer Story Has a Happy Ending.”

19 Nold.

20 “Kessinger Calls It Quits with Chicago,” San Francisco Examiner, August 2, 1979: 67.

21 John Hillyer, “Game 3 Put on Hold,” San Francisco Examiner, October 18, 1989: 14.

22 Casey Tefertiller, “Unknowns Who Craft Bay Clubs,” San Francisco Examiner, April 7, 1991: 34.

23 Tefertiller.

24 David Haugh, “Secret of Sox Relievers’ Success? Hijinks, Till It’s Time to Buckle Down,” Chicago Tribune, August 13, 2006: 3-12.

25 Haugh.

26 Mark Gonzales, “Sox Look Forward To Kusnyer Reunion,” Chicago Tribune, April 18, 2008: 4-4.

27 Gonzales.

28 2022 Chicago White Sox Media Guide, 49.