Primarily a center fielder, he appeared in 1,270 games played in Major League Baseball over 11 seasons for the Detroit Tigers (1952; 1954–1957), Kansas City Athletics (1958–1961) and Minnesota Twins (1961–1963).

Tuttle was born and grew up in Cramer, a small farming community located south of Elmwood, Illinois, and three miles southeast of Farmington, where his parents operated a general store.

[1] On practically every baseball card issued for Tuttle, as well as in a number of photographs, a large bulge of chewing tobacco is evident in his cheek.

[3] Tuttle was diagnosed with oral cancer five years before his death, and used the last half-decade of his life to raise awareness as an active volunteer for the National Spit Tobacco Education Program (NSTEP).

"[6] After being diagnosed with oral cancer, he was interviewed for a Reader's Digest article entitled "My War With A Smoke Free Killer" in which he detailed how he was introduced to chewing tobacco by a teammate while sidelined with an injury and subsequently became addicted.