Hitting for the cycle! The offensive No-Hitter.
So I’ll be honest… I hate homework! I hate having to do it, I hate having to think about it, I hate when some big head teacher assigns it, and I especially hate when I actually have to do it. This assignment which was given to me by none other than me, myself, and I; was to find three highlights that I felt connected to. It was mostly to just get Dave and Sean off my back for a couple days (side note; it didn’t work).
So I of course wanted to have the most stellar and outstanding highlight to talk about; so what did I do? I went home and waited… and waited… and waited… So it was the next day and I finally decided to take a look at what happened around the league. There it was!! Mil vs. Cin!!! A game I’d never really be concerned about, except for that magical little header; “Yelich’s 6-Hit Cycle” YEEESSSSS
his is the one for me!! I love the cycle! The cycle is the most amazing play in Baseball, well second maybe to a perfect game, but almost as rare! According to stats the likelihood of a cycle in an MLB game is approximately 0.00590% that makes this very exciting!!! I had not a clue as to how many cycles have been hit! How many variations there are or how many players have achieved the feat. What I learned by doing homework is fascinating and I have decided to share it below.
Most Cycles in a season: 8 occurring in 1933 and 2009.
Two Cycles by a player in a single season: John Reilly (1883 Cincinnati Reds) Tip O’Neill (1887 St. Louis Brown Stockings) Babe Herman (1931 Brooklyn Robins) Aaron Hill (2012 Arizona Diamondbacks) Literally 81 years between these feats!! 81 years!!! That’s insane!
The Natural Cycle! When the batter accomplishes the Cycle in order; Single, Double, Triple, Homerun: There have been 14 of these!!! And here is an interesting bit of info! Only three of those 14 are by players that are in the Hall of Fame.
Oh shit!! How about this! How many cycles have been completed with a “Walk-Off HomeRun”
Only 6!!!! Yes only 6! two of them by The Colorado Rockies! One of them I watched as they beat the San Fransisco Giants when Nolan Arenado hit a game winning HR to seal his cycle.
Guess what though! There is a Hall of Famer in this group! George Brett!
OH what about a Reverse Cycle!?!?!? 10 of them!! Jackie Robison is one of those players to hit a HomeRun, Triple, Double, and then Single.
Who hit the first Cycle? Curry Foley of Buffalo Bisons in 1882! Since there were no fences back then good ol Curry had to leg out that homerun!!
There are so many different combinations of how the cycle was hit, how many hits? Grand slam? Hey that’s actually kind of a cool one. 9 of them!! Most recently by one of my favorite Catchers of all time! yes a Catcher!!! Yes! It was Bengie Molina!!
None the less the Cycle is an amazing accomplishment in baseball. If you have 10-15 minutes to kill taking care of business in the morning just google box “MLB Cycles” I promise you’ll walk away with a greater appreciation for them.