The articulate, lefthanded Cunningham hit three homers in his first two ML games. In his All-Star 1959 season, his .345 BA was second in the NL to Hank Aaron‘s .355. Describing Cunningham’s 1962 season, when he led AL first basemen in fielding, Richard Lindberg wrote, “The balding first baseman made plays not seen since Joe Kuhel’s time (1930s and ’40s)…after a game, Cunningham sat in a corner updating a little black book that he kept on each American League pitcher.”
