August 1, 1890: Oyster Burns hits for natural cycle as Bridegrooms rout Alleghenys in shortened contest

The Brooklyn Bridegrooms routed the Pittsburgh Alleghenys 20-1 in the darkness-shortened second game of a National League doubleheader on August 1, 1890. In the blowout, Brooklyn’s Thomas P. “Oyster” Burns became just the fourth player in major-league history to hit for a natural cycle, recording a single, double, triple, and home run in ascending order.

Burns earned his nickname because he sold shellfish in the offseason.1 He came to Brooklyn in 1888 after batting .298 in 79 games for the American Association’s Baltimore Orioles.2 He hit .304 with 100 RBIs in 1889, helping the Bridegrooms to the American Association crown. When Brooklyn defected to the NL in 1890,3 the 25-year-old Burns was an outfielder (predominantly right field) in their everyday lineup.

Brooklyn had just returned from a second “Western tour” of the eight-team NL,4 winning five of eight games on the road. A doubleheader was scheduled for August 1 at their home field, Washington Park, to open a four-game series.

The Bridegrooms were in second place as July ended, 1½ games behind the Philadelphia Phillies. Their high-powered offense was on its way to a league-leading 884 runs, with four Bridegrooms finishing the season with at least 102 runs scored.5

The Alleghenys—weakened by defections to the Pittsburgh Burghers of the Players’ League—were 35½ games behind Philly, having won only 18 of their 81 games. (There was one tie.) They wound up allowing a staggering 1,235 runs in 1890, just under nine per game.

The first game, which began at 2:00 P.M., was “marked by brilliant play,” reported the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.6 Brooklyn put across four runs in the first inning. The only other scoring occurred in the fifth, as each team plated three runs. In the contest, Burns homered for the Bridegrooms. The game lasted a mere 1 hour and 15 minutes, as Tom Lovett outpitched Guy Hecker, and the Bridegrooms won, 7-3. According to the New York Times, “it was finished in less time than any game played this season.”7

By the time the second contest began at 4:00 P.M., a crowd of more than 1,600 had gathered. Brooklyn sent right-hander Adonis Terry to the mound. Six days from his 26th birthday, Terry was in his sixth season in the majors (all with Brooklyn), and he is credited with pitching two no-hitters (on July 24, 1886, and May 27, 1888). Earlier in the 1890 season, he had earned his 100th career win. He reached a career-high 26 wins in 1890, posting a .619 winning percentage. Opposing Terry was fellow righty Robert Gibson, a rookie making his first start for Pittsburgh. It was only Gibson’s second career appearance.8

The superb fielding that characterized the opening contest was absent in the nightcap, at least for the visitors. The Pittsburgh Nine, asserted the New York Times, “played like a bunch of amateurs, and some of them found it almost impossible when the ball was rolled to them to stop it.”9 The Pittsburgh Daily Post described it as “a travesty on the national game.”10

Terry’s first four pitches in the top of the first missed the strike zone, and Billy Sunday drew a walk. Doggie Miller sacrificed him to second,11 and Sunday scored on a passed ball. That would be the sole run that Pittsburgh managed in the game.

In the bottom of the first, the Bridegrooms scored 11 times, but only two of the runs were earned.12 With one out, George Pinkney doubled. Burns then lifted a fly ball to center, which Sunday muffed for an error, and Pinckney scored. Burns scored on a double by Dave Foutz. Foutz then stole third base, as Gibson walked Terry.13 Germany Smith’s single brought Foutz home for a 3-1 lead.

Bob Caruthers bunted and reached on an error as Terry scored on the play. Both Smith and Caruthers scored on a line-drive single by Patsy Donovan. Bob Clark walked before Hub Collins hit a pop fly to left fielder Fred Osborne, who dropped it, and Donovan scored the inning’s seventh run.

Pinkney hit a comebacker to Gibson, who threw the ball away, and two more runs scored. Burns then stroked a single, driving in Pinkney, and Burns advanced to third on the play.14 Gibson induced a groundout by Foutz, with Burns scoring. Terry drew his second walk of the inning but was stranded as Smith flied out for the third out.

Fifteen Brooklyn men had batted, making only six hits.15 Gibson walked three and threw three wild pitches.16 The Pittsburgh Dispatch noted that “with the dropped fl[ie]s and fumbles the spectators evidently experienced a great relief when the inning ended.”17

The Pittsburgh batters went scoreless for the next seven innings, garnering just five hits (all singles). The Brooklyn batters kept up the attack, adding to their total in each of the next five innings.

In the bottom of the second, Hecker, the visitors’ captain, called Osborne out of left field to relieve Gibson on the mound. According to the Times Union, “the way [Gibson] was pounded was a sight to see and caused the spectators to laugh uproariously.”18 Gibson moved to play right field, and Tun Berger switched over to left from right field.

Osborne hit the first batter, Caruthers, with a pitch. Donovan was retired, but Caruthers ended up on third base after the out. Osborne, still struggling with his control, walked Clark. Clark then advanced to second base, and while he was “dodging all the fielders between second and third,”19 Clark came home with Brooklyn’s 12th run.

Burns led off the third inning with a double. He moved to third on Foutz’s single. Consecutive sacrifices by Terry and Smith brought both runners home.

In the fourth, Foutz came to the mound to pitch, and Terry took over at first base. This move was made to save Terry’s arm for the next day’s game. The visitors were retired in order. In the home half, Collins lined a double with two outs. He scored on Pinkney’s home run, making it 17-1.

Burns followed with a “ripping three-bagger”20 and scored on a double by Foutz. The inning resulted in three more runs for Brooklyn.

The Bridegrooms added two more runs in the fifth—the New York and Pittsburgh newspapers had stopped giving a play-by-play account at this point—and one more in the sixth inning, when Burns hit a solo home run, completing his cycle. The score stood at 20-1, marking the second time in the season that Brooklyn had scored 20 runs in a game.21 The Times Union observed that the first five innings of the game “had occupied as much time as the whole of the first game.”22

By the end of the seventh, it had started to rain. Pittsburgh did not show any life in their next at-bat, so the game was called “on account of darkness after the first half of the eighth.”23 Despite 21 total runs being scored, the game lasted only 1 hour and 30 minutes. Brooklyn banged out 13 hits and scored in every inning but the seventh. In the doubleheader, Brooklyn batters hit five home runs. Burns, who had two of the five round-trippers, finished the 1890 season leading the National League in home runs (13) and runs batted in (128) in 119 games played.24

The Bridegrooms swept the series from Pittsburgh, gaining the top spot in the NL standings. They secured the pennant by winning 33 of their final 47 games, including their final six games of the season. Pittsburgh managed to win only five of its final 57 games after July.25

Burns became the first batter in Dodgers franchise history to hit for the cycle. Six major-league batters accomplished the rare feat in 1890.26

Further, Burns became just the fourth batter in history to hit for a natural cycle, getting his four hits in increasing order of total bases—single, double, triple, and then home run. As of the end of the 2022 regular season, 18 batters in the major leagues have hit for a natural cycle.27

Burns is also one of only three players in major-league history to hit for the cycle a game that was not at least nine innings long. Tip O’Neill of the American Association’s St. Louis Browns in 1887 and Austin Hays of the Baltimore Orioles in 2022 are the others.28

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kevin Larkin and copy-edited by Len Levin. The author thanks John Fredland for his insights into Burns’ cycle and Brooklyn’s defection to the National League and Kevin Larkin for his information on the Bridegrooms. 

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, MLB.com, Retrosheet.org, and SABR.org. Box scores and play-by-play are not available from either Retrosheet or Baseball-Reference.

Notes

1 Ronald G. Shafer, When the Dodgers Were Bridegrooms: Gunner McGunnigle and Brooklyn’s Back-to-Back Pennants of 1889 and 1890 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2011), 84.

2 According to Retrosheet, Burns was sold on August 10, 1888, by the Orioles to the Bridegrooms for $3,500 or $4,000.

3 Brooklyn “adamantly opposed the division of gate receipts” sought by five clubs in the American Association, and together with Cincinnati openly considered defection. For more information, see John Bauer, “1889-90 Winter Meetings: The Establishment Responds,” Baseball’s 19th Century Winter Meetings: 1857-1900, eds. Jeremy K. Hodges and Bill Nowlin (SABR, 2018). Accessed November 2022.

4 “On to the Van,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 2, 1890: 1. The Western tour refers to a road trip to play Chicago, Cincinnati and Cleveland. Brooklyn’s first extended road trip to these cities also included Pittsburgh.

5 The four players with more than 100 runs scored were Collins (148, which led the league), Pinkney (115), Foutz (106), and Burns (102).

6 “On to the van.”

7 “Baseball Games Yesterday,” New York Times, August 2, 1890: 3.

8 Gibson had started a game for the Chicago Colts (June 4) and then joined the Alleghenys before this start against Brooklyn. He pitched in only two more games for Pittsburgh, bringing his major-league career to an end after four games. He had four starts and three complete games, plus this one-inning outing.

9 “Baseball Games Yesterday.”

10 “Sunshine and Shadow,” Pittsburgh Daily Post, August 2, 1890: 6.

11 According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sunday stole second base. See “On to the Van,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 2, 1890: 1.

12 “Two Defeats East,” Pittsburgh Dispatch, August 2, 1890: 6.

13 Terry batted fifth in the Brooklyn order. He played 99 games for Brooklyn in 1890, as a pitcher, first baseman, and outfielder. His .278 batting average was tied for fifth-best on the team.

14 The Brooklyn Times Union’s game narrative suggests that Burns’ single was a “three-bagger,” but all other newspaper accounts report that it was a single. Further, box scores from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the Pittsburgh Daily Post, the Times Union, and the New York Times all credit Burns with four hits in the game, including one home run, one triple (not two), and one double. This gives Burns the natural cycle.

15 The Pittsburgh Dispatch credited the Brooklyn squad with only five hits in the first inning.

16 The Times Union credited Gibson with “four awfully wild pitches.” See “Made Five Home Runs,” Brooklyn Times Union, August 2, 1890: 4.

17 “Sunshine and Shadow.”  

18 “Made Five Home Runs.”

19 “National League: Pittsburg 1, Brooklyn 20,” New York Evening World, August 1, 1890: 1.

20 “National League: Pittsburg 1, Brooklyn 20.”

21 On June 3, the Bridegrooms beat the New York Giants, 20-7.

22 “Made Five Home Runs.”

23 “Made Five Home Runs.”

24 Hardy Richardson hit 16 homers with 152 RBIs in 133 games, playing for the Boston Reds in the Players’ League. Roger Connor hit 14 home runs, playing for the New York Giants of the Players’ League.

25 Coincidentally, just five days later, the Alleghenys were victims of another batter hitting for the cycle against them. On August 6, 1890, Cincinnati’s John Reilly accomplished the rare feat, becoming the first player in history to hit for the cycle three times in his career.

26 They are Bill Van Dyke (Toledo Maumees, AA, July 5), Jumbo Davis (Brooklyn Gladiators, AA, July 18), Roger Connor (New York Giants, PL, July 21), Oyster Burns (Brooklyn Bridegrooms, NL, August 1), John Reilly (Cincinnati Reds, NL, August 6), and Farmer Weaver (Louisville Colonels, AA, August 12). According to several sources, Mike Tiernan of the National League’s New York Giants is given credit for completing the cycle against the Cincinnati Reds on June 28, 1890, which would have been the second time in his career (see retrosheet.org, baseball-almanac.com, and mlb.com). The Reds won the game 12-3, but a careful inspection of the newspapers shows that Tiernan was 2-for-4 in that contest with a single and home run. See box scores at (1) “Knocked Out of the Box,” Philadelphia Times, June 29, 1890: 2; (2) “The Reds Pounded Rusie’s Curves,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 29, 1890: 3; and (3) “Cincinnati 12, New York 3,” Boston Globe, June 29, 1890: 8. The Globe gives Tiernan credit for three base hits. Other box scores support the fact that Tiernan did not get four hits in this game against the Reds. Perhaps he did hit for the cycle a second time in his career. If so, it was not on June 28, 1890.

27 The players who have hit for a natural cycle are Lon Knight, Philadelphia (AA), on July 30, 1883; Pete Browning, Louisville (AA), on August 8, 1886; Fred Carroll, Pittsburgh (NL), on May 2, 1887; Oyster Burns; Bill Collins, Boston (NL), on October 6, 1910; Bob Fothergill, Detroit (AL), on September 26, 1926; Tony Lazzeri, New York (AL), on June 3, 1932; Charlie Gehringer, Detroit (AL), on May 27, 1939; Leon Culberson, Boston (AL), on July 3, 1943; Jim Hickman, New York (NL), on August 7, 1963; Ken Boyer, St. Louis (NL), on June 16, 1964; Billy Williams, Chicago (NL), on July 17, 1966; Tim Foli, Montreal (NL), on April 21, 1976; Bob Watson, Boston (AL), on September 15, 1979; John Mabry, St. Louis (NL), on May 18, 1996; Jose Valentin, Chicago (AL), on April 27, 2000; Brad Wilkerson, Montreal (NL), on June 24, 2003; and Gary Matthews Jr., Texas (AL), on September 13, 2006.

28 Associated Press, “Hays Hits for Cycle to Help Orioles Beat Nationals 7-0,” ESPN.com, June 22, 2022, https://www.espn.com/mlb/recap/_/gameId/401355276.