Fun With “Baseball Cycles!”

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“Baseball Cycles” Photo Gallery
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Let’s Have Some Fun With “Baseball Cycles!”

When you hear the term: “baseball cycles,” what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? Do you think about some kind of vehicle used for transportation, like bicycles or tricycles? Or do you think about a “cycle” in the sense of “baseball ebbs and flows” from one season to another or from one generation to another?

Actually, I’m talking about the good old fashion “hitting for the cycle.” You know…the baseball oddity that occurs when a player hits a single, double, triple, and home run in the same game.

In the featured photo below, we see Bob Meusel of the Yankees, one of only four players to hit three cycles in his career.

In my recent tribute to Jim Hickman, I mentioned that Jim hit for a “natural cycle” in 1963. That got me thinking about “cycles,” and about just how rare they are. I recently found that there have only been 309 cycles since the first one in 1882 by a player named Curry Foley. Cycles are approximately as rare as no-hitters, of which there have been 288. The most recent cycle was by Freddie Freeman on June 15, 2016. The probability of an average major league ball player hitting for a cycle against an average team in a game is approximately 0.00590%. This comes to about 2.5 cycles in a 162-game season. Figuring cycle odds differently, there have been 210,951 games in major league history. Divide that by 309 cycles, and you come up with a cycle occurring about once every 682 games.

Here’s a few interesting tidbits about “baseball cycles”:

The Miami Marlins are the only franchise who have never had a player hit for the cycle.

The natural cycle, in which the hits come in order (single, double, triple, and home run), has happened only 14 times in major league history. The first was Bill Collins in 1910. Other “natural cycle hitters” include Jim Hickman, Ken Boyer, Billy Williams, all in the 1960’s. The natural cycle has also been accomplished in reverse order (home run, triple, double, single) five times: Bid McPhee (1887), Gee Walker (1937), Jim Fregosi (1968, his second cycle), Luke Scott (2006), and Carlos Gomes (2008).

The most cycles hit by a single player is three, accomplished by four players: John Reilly, Bob Meusel, Babe Herman, and most recently by Adrián Beltré. He’s the only one to hit all three in the same ball park.

The most cycles hit in a single major league season is eight.

There are only four players in history who have hit for the cycle twice in one season: John Reilly (1884), Tip O’Neill (1887), Babe Herman (1931), and Aaron Hill (2012).

Cycles have occurred on the same day twice in history: September 17, 1920 (Bobby Veach and George Burns); and September 1, 2008 (Stephen Drew and Adrian Beltre).

The longest period of time between two players hitting for the cycle was 5 years, 1 month, and 10 days, from 1896 to 1901 (Bill Joyce in 1896 to Harry Davis in 1901).

Eight players have hit a grand slam as the home run of their cycle. The list includes recent players Miguel Tejada, Jason Kubel, and Bengie Molina. Five players have hit a walk-off home run as the final hit of their cycles: Ken Boyer, Cesar Tovar, George Brett, Dwight Evans, and Carlos Gonzalez.

Here’s a baseball oddity: In 2009, Ian Kinsler had six hits in the game when he hit his cycle. The accomplishment came on Jackie Robinson Day, honoring the baseball pioneer who had himself hit for the cycle on August 29, 1948.

Harry Danning, (June 15, 1940), is the last player to hit for the cycle with his home run coming on an inside-the-park home run.

Family pairs to hit for the cycle include father and son Gary and Daryle Ward (1980 and 2004); and grandfather and grandson Gus and David Bell (1951 and 2004).

Three players – John Olerud, Michael Cuddyer, and Bob Watson—have hit for the cycle in both the National and American Leagues.

Four batters hit for the cycle in the same season in which they won the Triple Crown: Nap Lojoie (1901), Jimmie Foxx (1933), Chuck Klein (1933); and Lou Gehrig (1934). Gehrig is the only player to complete the MLB Triple Crown in his cycle-hitting season (1934).

-Gary Livacari

Photo Credits: All from Google Search

Information: Edited from the “Hitting for the Cycle” Wikipedia page. Read more at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitting_for_the_cycle

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