August 12, 1890: Farmer Weaver strokes 6 hits and hits for cycle as Louisville clobbers Syracuse

The 1890 Louisville Colonels – dubbed the “Cyclones” in newspapers in Louisville and other American Association cities1 – had already doubled their 1889 win total when the Syracuse Stars came to town for a three-game series on August 9. Baseball’s first-ever 100-game losers at 27-111-2 in 1889, a season that included the majors’ first players strike and a record-setting 26-game losing streak, the ’90 Colonels led the AA with a 54-31 record, 4½ games ahead of the second-place St. Louis Browns.2

In June and July, Louisville had surged into first by winning all but two games of a 20-game homestand at Eclipse Park. Both losses were to seventh-place Syracuse, which had joined the Association in 1890 when the Brooklyn Bridegrooms and Cincinnati Reds defected to the National League and the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Cowboys also left the league.3

When the Stars visited Louisville in August, the Colonels won the first two games by a combined 19-7 score, pushing Louisville’s winning streak to five games. After an offday, the series finale was set for August 12.

According to the Louisville Courier Journal, “two thousand people went down to see the game, and they saw one interesting at all stages, in spite of the one-sidedness of the score.”4 In particular, they cheered as Colonels center fielder Farmer Weaver collected six base hits – two singles, a double, two triples, and a home run – for 14 total bases, and Louisville “scored about as it pleased,”5 clobbering Syracuse, 18-4.

Weaver was a switch-hitter, in his third season with Louisville. He had led the team (along with Chicken Wolf) with a .291 batting average in 1889. Not known for his power, with just 25 extra-base hits in his first two seasons, he had a breakout year in 1890, setting career highs in runs (101), hits (161), doubles (27), triples (9), home runs (3), runs batted in (67), and stolen bases (45).

Left-hander Mike “Mickey” Jones started for the home team, going against the Stars for the second time in consecutive games. A 25-year-old rookie from Hamilton, Ontario, Jones made just three appearances in his major-league career, all in August 1890, and all against the Syracuse Stars.6

Another rookie, Ezra Lincoln, started for the visiting Stars. The 21-year-old southpaw had begun the season with the NL’s Cleveland Spiders and made 15 starts, winning just three of 14 decisions while posting a 4.42 earned-run average. In 118 innings for the Spiders, Lincoln had yielded 157 hits and added another 53 bases on balls. This led to his release in July,7 and the Stars signed him on July 26. Lincoln’s spot on the Cleveland roster “was ultimately assumed by a strapping Ohio farm boy named Cy Young.”8

Syracuse scored first. Second baseman Cupid Childs – who finished among the AA’s Top 10 in many offensive and defensive categories in 1890, including a league-leading 33 doubles – drove a pitch over Weaver’s head and “put the ball in the left field seats”9 with two down in the top of the first.

Louisville responded with one out in the second. Lincoln issued bases on balls to Phil Tomney and Jack Ryan. A passed ball by Dan Burke, the Syracuse catcher, allowed Tomney to advance a base, and Jones’s single drove him home. Harry Taylor’s triple to right-center plated both Ryan and Jones, and then Weaver, who had singled in the first, hit a home run (also into the left-field seats), making the score 5-1. It was Weaver’s second homer of the season.10

In the third, the Colonels’ offense kept up the attack. Tomney singled and scored on Ryan’s triple. Ryan scored on another passed ball charged to Burke. After Jones was retired, Taylor singled and stole second base. Weaver’s double drove Taylor home, and Louisville had three more runs and an 8-1 lead.

The Stars struck again in the fourth. Bones Ely lined a triple, and Mox McQuery followed with a home run. It was a home run in name only. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported that McQuery “knocked a single to [Harry] Raymond and the ball struck the third baseman on the heel and it bounded over into the west grand stand, and according to the ground rules he got a home run.”11 The Syracuse Daily Standard claimed the ball hit the edges of Raymond’s fingers, bounced “into the 35-cent seats,”12 and by the time the ball was recovered, McQuery had crossed home plate. Either way, it still counted for two Syracuse runs, cutting the deficit to 8-3.

Louisville again responded. After Lincoln struck out Wolf, Tim Shinnick tripled, Charlie Hamburg walked and Tomney and Ryan hit back-to-back singles. Lincoln retired Jones, but Taylor singled and Weaver tripled. Five more runners had crossed the plate for the home team, and it was a 13-3 game.

After the fourth inning, “the mangled and gory corpse of one Syracuse pitcher was carted off the field.”13 In reality, Syracuse manager George Frazier decided to replace Lincoln with another rookie left-hander, Ed Mars. The 21-year-old Mars was making his major-league debut in relief of Lincoln. He made one more relief appearance before transitioning to a starter for his final 14 appearances of the season.14

The Stars added one last run in the sixth. Childs doubled and advanced around the bases on fly outs by Ducky Hemp and Ely. After this run, the Stars “failed to get a man past second.”15 Meanwhile, Mars retired the Cyclones without giving up any runs in both the fifth and sixth innings.

In the seventh, however, Weaver led off with a single. An out later, Wolf also singled. After Mars retired Shinnick, Hamburg singled, loading the bases. This set the stage for Tomney, who tripled, driving in all three runners. In the eighth, Jones singled and scored on Weaver’s second triple of the game. Raymond followed with a fly ball, and Weaver scored Louisville’s 18th run of the game.

Jones blanked the Stars in the ninth, and the game ended. The Louisvilles had banged out 21 hits (eight for extra bases) off Lincoln and Mars, as they ran their win streak to six games.16

Although their performances were very different, this turned out to be the final game in the majors for both starters. Jones pitched a complete game, allowing four runs on five base hits (although two were home runs). He also added two hits to the Louisville offense.

While recording just 12 outs, Lincoln had allowed 13 runs on 15 hits, including a double, four triples, and a home run. At the plate, he was 0-for-2 with a strikeout. Manager Frazier wrote a note that was printed in the Syracuse Courier: “I have given Lincoln his release. He was completely knocked out of the box.”17 Of the 10 pitchers who appeared in games for Syracuse in 1890, only one – Ely, who had a long career as a big-league shortstop – ever pitched in another major-league game after that season. The Stars folded after the 1890 season.18

Weaver’s accomplishment marked the record-setting seventh time that a batter had hit for the cycle in 1890.19 It was the third time in franchise history that a Louisville batter had accomplished the feat.20 Further, Weaver’s performance marked the fifth time a major leaguer banged out six hits in a game in which he hit for the cycle.21

The Colonels won 88 games and the American Association pennant in 1890, becoming the first major-league team to earn the “worst-to-first” title.22 They played the Bridegrooms in a version of the World Series, which ended in a 3-games-to-3 draw, with one contest called a tie because of darkness. Poor weather forced the cancellation of any further games. Weaver batted .259 in 27 at-bats (only one extra-base hit) in the series.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Len Levin. The author thanks John Fredland for his apt recommendations.

The author sincerely thanks Dan Smith, local history/genealogy librarian at the Onondaga County Public Library, for scans of three Syracuse daily newspapers covering the game.

Sources  

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, MLB.com, Retrosheet.org, and SABR.org. With no play-by-play available on Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org, the author based the game’s play-by-play on details found in the Louisville Courier-Journal, the Syracuse Daily Journal, the Syracuse Courier, and the Syracuse Daily Standard.

Notes

1 “Fattened Their Averages,” Louisville Courier-Journal, August 13, 1890: 5; “In Too Fast a Class,” Syracuse Daily Standard, August 13, 1890: 13.

2 For more information on the 1889 Colonels and their 1890 turnaround, see Bob Bailey, “And the Last Shall Be First: Louisville Club Zooms from Cellar to Pennant in 1890,” in Road Trips: A Trunkload of Great Articles From Two Decades of Convention Journals (Phoenix: SABR 2004), https://sabr.org/journal/article/and-the-last-shall-be-first-louisville-club-zooms-from-cellar-to-pennant-in-1890/.

3 John Bauer, “1889-90 Winter Meetings: The Establishment Responds,” Base Ball’s 19th Century Winter Meetings: 1857-1900 (Phoenix: SABR, 2018), 271-280, https://sabr.org/journal/article/1889-90-winter-meetings-the-establishment-responds/.

4 “Fattened Their Averages.” Despite the quotation, the Courier-Journal box score lists an attendance of 2,150, while the Syracuse Daily Standard reported that 1,726 people came out to Eclipse Park.

5 “Events in Sporting Circles,” Syracuse Daily Journal, August 13, 1890: 3.

6 Jones’s first major-league start was on August 1, when Louisville traveled to Syracuse to play the Stars. The Colonels won, 6-5. In his second start (August 10 in Louisville), Jones pitched four innings before Red Ehret relieved him. In his three major-league appearances, Jones allowed 8 earned runs in 22 innings pitched. He had a 2-0 lifetime record.

7 Lincoln’s last start for the Spiders was on July 19, 1890, in the second game of a doubleheader against the New York Giants. He pitched a complete game but lost, 7-5. The Spiders were behind 7-0 entering the bottom of the ninth and scored five times, but it was not enough to save Lincoln.

8 Bill Lamb, “Ezra Lincoln,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, accessed February 28, 2024, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/ezra-lincoln/. In his three appearances for the Stars, Lincoln allowed 23 earned runs in 20 innings pitched. He had lost all three of his starts for Syracuse, giving him a career 3-14 record.

9 “Fattened Their Averages,” Louisville Courier-Journal, August 13, 1890: 5.

10 The home run was also just the second of Weaver’s career. In his first two seasons with Louisville (1888 and 1889), he hit no homers in 150 games (611 at-bats). He clubbed his first career home run on August 8, 1890, against the Brooklyn Gladiators.

11 “Fattened Their Averages.”

12 “In Too Fast a Class.”

13 “Fattened Their Averages.”

14 Like Jones and Lincoln, Mars played just one year in the majors, 1890. He made 14 starts (with 14 complete games) and finished his career with a 9-5 record while posting a 4.67 ERA.

15 “In Too Fast a Class.”

16 The streak reached 11 straight games, from August 6 to 23. The Colonels also put together a 10-game winning streak from September 15 to 23.

17 “Beaten Once Again,” Syracuse Courier, August 12, 1890: 8.

18 John Bauer, “1890 Winter Meetings: Three Divides into Two,” Base Ball’s 19th Century Winter Meetings: 1857-1900 (Phoenix: SABR, 2018), 288-300, https://sabr.org/journal/article/1890-winter-meetings-three-divides-into-two/.

19 The players were Bill Van Dyke (Toledo Maumees, American Association, July 5), Jumbo Davis (Brooklyn Gladiators, AA, July 18), Roger Connor (New York Giants, Players’ League, 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 and the first cycle of 1890. The Reds won that game 12-3, but a careful inspection of the newspapers shows that Tiernan was 2-for-4 in that game with a single and a 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. Even with six cycles, the record set in 1887 was broken when five batters hit for the cycle. In 2009 the current record (as of the start of the 2024 season) was set, with eight players hitting for the cycle.

20 Both of the first two cycles in Louisville’s history had been accomplished by Pete Browning, on August 8, 1886, and again on June 7, 1889.

21 In the history of the major leagues (as of the end of the 2023 season), only 10 players have hit for the cycle while collecting six base hits. See “Six Hits in a Game,” Baseball-Almanac.com. Accessed October 2023. The 10 players are John Reilly (September 12, 1883), Dave Orr (June 12, 1885), Henry Larkin (June 16, 1885 – just four days after Orr’s cycle, Larkin’s was a reverse natural cycle), Larry Twitchell (August 15, 1889), Farmer Weaver (August 12, 1890), Sam Thompson (August 17, 1894), Bobby Veach (September 17, 1920), Rondell White (June 11, 1995), Ian Kinsler (April 15, 2009), and Christian Yelich (August 29, 2018 – this was Yelich’s first of three career cycles).

22 Janice Johnson, “Farmer Weaver,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, accessed February 28, 2024, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Farmer-Weaver/.