When the Neshanock offense erupted for 49 runs in early September, it was inevitable one or two players would at least flirt with getting every possible type of hit. Sure enough Danny "Lefty" Gallagher had a single, double, triple and home run while Dan "Sledge" Hammer came up just one short. Naturally as soon as "Lefty" had the full complement of hits, there were comments on the Neshanock bench that he had hit for the cycle. While there was no doubt he had met all the requirements, I was fairly confident the term "hit for the cycle" wasn't used in 1860s newspaper accounts of baseball matches. It was, however, a little bit of surprise to learn that the expression didn't become part of baseball parlance until the twentieth century. While the Dickson Baseball Dictionary cites a 1933 Washington Post article about Hall of Famer Jimmy Foxx as the first usage, an in depth SABR article on the subject determined the phrase was used in 1921 when George Sisler reached the milestone. According to the Baseball Almanac, Sisler's cycle was the 70th in major league history, so while the name may have been new, the accomplishment certainly wasn't.
According to some accounts, George Hall of the Athletic Club of Philadelphia was the first to accomplish the feat in 1876 during the National League's inaugural season, but other contemporary articles put him one hit short. The earliest confirmed cycle belongs to Charles "Curry" Foley of Buffalo (yes, Buffalo once had a major league team) during an 20-1, 1882 rout of the Cleveland club, then also a National League team. Foley began his cycle with a grand slam, the first of only nine players whose cycle included a bases loaded home run. However, not only didn't the contemporary newspaper account use the phrase "hit for the cycle," it also didn't use the term "grand slam" which according to the Dickson Dictionary wasn't used in it's modern sense until 1929. Foley added a bases clearing triple in the second inning giving him seven RBI's in two at bats, but although that term was in use at the time, Foley received no such credit in the Buffalo Courier or the Buffalo Commercial.
Since Buffalo's scored 20 runs, it would be reasonable to think Reilly's feat came against a somewhat less than top notch pitcher. However the man in the pitcher's box that day was George Bradley, who, at least earlier in his career, was a highly effective pitcher. In 1876 Bradley not only pitched the new league's first no-hitter, he also recorded 16 shutouts a record matched only by Hall of Famer Grover Cleveland Alexander in 1916. Unless the current approach to pitching undergoes a mammoth sea change, that record has no chance of being broken. Clearly Bradley's effectiveness had waned by 1882 and just a year later, he had the dubious distinction of allowing another cycle, this time to Cincinnati's John Reilly, the first of three for the Cincinnati player Although Reilly is almost completely forgotten today, he has the distinction of doing three times what Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays never accomplished once. Even more unusually Reilly hit for the cycle twice in a single week.
All told, only five major league players have hit for the cycle three times (as far as I can tell there are no records available for Negro League players.) Two modern players, Adrian Beltre and Trea Turner are members of this very exclusive three cycle club with Turner reaching the mark just this past season so he could become the first four cycle player in major league history. The remaining two members played about a century ago beginning with Bob Meusel who had a 12 year career almost entirely with the great New York Yankee teams of the Roaring Twenties. As a teammate of Ruth and Lou Gehrig, Meusel is often understandably overlooked, but he was a lifetime .300 hitter who ranks fourth in RBI's and fifth in home runs of all players from the 1920s. He also stole home twice in the World Series, a record that remains unbroken today. Especially impressive among Meusel's cycles is the first which was recorded against Hall of Famer Walter Johnson, one of the game's greatest right handed pitchers.
Perhaps somewhat improbably, the final three cycle hitter is "Babe" Herman, who if he is remembered today, it's because of his zany behavior rather than his very real hitting prowess. Over a 13 year major league career, Herman compiled a .324 lifetime batting average including hitting .393 in 1940. Herman spent most of his career with the Brooklyn Dodgers when they were known as the "daffiness boys" and he became the poster child of that daffiness. The ultimate story of the zany Dodgers is that they once had three men simultaneously on the same base (something frowned on by Abner Doubleday) and Herman was at the center of that embarrassing and memorable moment. In a 1926 game at Ebbets Field, the Dodgers had the bases loaded with one out, down one run. Herman hit a vicious line drive which he understandably thought was a triple, only to find on his arrival at third that one cautious and one aggressive base runner were also there. As a result, Herman is the only player in baseball history to double into a double play, although it is often forgotten that the runner on third scored what proved to be the winning run. This escapade led to the famous story of the cab driver, who when told the Dodgers had three men on base responded - "Which base?"
Herman recorded two of his cycles as a Dodger before the term came into common usage. The first took place on May 18, 1931 highlighted by a "prodigious home run into the stands in left center." "Prodigious" or not, a year earlier the blow might not have reached the stands since the now famous outfield stands at Ebbets Field were built the prior winter. Otherwise the hit might have been limited to a double or a triple in the previously expansive outfield. While Herman may very well have deserved his reputation for being "daffy," he had enough baseball sense on this day to complete his cycle with a bunt single which "completely fooled the Cincinnati infield." While it has never been confirmed another famous story about Herman is that he was hit on the head by a fly ball. Interestingly in his account of this game, Jack Ryder of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that in addition to his batting, Herman's play that day was marked by catching a "fly ball after [he was] nearly hit in the head with it."
The Babe's third and final cycle came as a member of the Chicago Cubs on September 30, 1933 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Like Meusel before him, Herman didn't earn the cycle against just any pitcher, hitting a home run and a triple against Hall of Famer Dizzy Dean. Herman's efforts contributed to what was an important victory for the Cubs since it clinched third place and World Series money for the Chicago players, no small thing in a day of limited salaries. Nor was Herman's cycle without drama since he came to bat in the ninth with just the two hits off Dean before starting a Chicago rally with a double. Fortunately, the Cubs batted around and Herman finished off his third cycle with a single in his second at bat of the inning. Babe's third cycle (the 105th in major league history) took place when the media was beginning to give the feat a name. Only a few weeks after the Washington Post's used "hitting for the cycle," Martin Haley of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat wrote that Herman "ran the scale" of hits while J. Roy Stockton of the rival St. Louis Post-Dispatch said he "contributed a cycle of safeties." Regardless of the final choice, "Curry" Foley, James Reilly and all who came after them would doubtless have been pleased to see their achievement finally have its own name.
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