August 2, 1950: Philadelphia’s Elmer Valo hits for the cycle

Born in Slovakia and an immigrant to the United States a child, Elmer Valo was better known for drawing walks and making contact than hitting for power in his 20-season major-league career. In more than 1,800 games with six different clubs, Valo walked 942 times but hit just 58 home runs, topping out at 10 homers with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1950.

On a Wednesday afternoon in August 1950, the Athletics’ right fielder demonstrated both contact and power, hitting for what turned out to be the final cycle in the franchise’s Philadelphia tenure in a 10-3 win over the Chicago White Sox.

In Connie Mack’s 50th and final season as manager in Philadelphia, the A’s had steadily “thudded to last place,”1 winning just four of 12 games in April, 10 of 26 in May, 10 of 20 in June, and 10 of 28 in July.2 At 34-63 as August began, they were 27½ games behind the league-leading Detroit Tigers and four games in back of the sixth-place White Sox (39-60-1).

The Athletics and White Sox had completed a four-game series in Philadelphia 10 days earlier, with the White Sox losing three of them. Philadelphia had won eight of the 14 games played between the two teams coming into this series.3 On August 1 the Athletics and White Sox started a three-game series in Chicago. The home team took the first game, 8-1. Billy Pierce pitched a five-hit shutout for the White Sox (two of those hits were by Valo), and his Chicago teammates scored six runs in the first three innings.

Although the forecast for the second game of the series called for temperatures in the Windy City to approach 80 degrees, it was supposed to be cooler with high winds near the ballpark, giving Comiskey Park an “autumnal touch.”4 According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, many of the 1,729 fans had brought blankets to the ballpark.5

Carl Scheib got the start for the Athletics. The right-hander was a veteran of seven major-league seasons – yet was still only 23 years old.6 After receiving a tryout with Mack’s A’s as a 15-year-old, he joined the team the next season, 1942, as the batting-practice pitcher and then debuted with Philadelphia as a relief pitcher against the New York Yankees on September 6, 1943, still at the age of 16. With many teams missing players who were serving in World War II, Scheib became the youngest player in AL history.7 Exclusively a reliever as a wartime replacement from 1943 to 1945, Scheib began to be inserted in the starter’s role in 1947. He was making his fifth start of 1950 against the White Sox, with a record of 2-6 and a 7.16 ERA in 30 appearances so far.

The White Sox started righty Ray Scarborough. The former Washington Senators pitcher had been acquired by Chicago in a six-player deal in May 1950, along with Eddie Robinson and Al Kozar.8 Scarborough had an 8-12 record in 23 appearances for the Senators and White Sox, but in his last seven outings, he had made five starts and had absorbed five losses, as his ERA climbed to 4.41.

Chicago went ahead in the first. Dave Philley doubled to left with one out. Scheib walked Jerry Scala, who was forced at second by a Gus Zernial grounder to third baseman Kermit Wahl. Southpaw-swinging Robinson then “skied one with the wind”9 into the right-field seats for his 10th home run of the season, giving Chicago a quick 3-0 lead. The Inquirer reported that Valo “was with the ball all the way” in right,10 but as he backed up, the wind pushed the ball farther toward the stands until it crossed the fence.

Scarborough allowed just one hit, a double by Valo,11 in the first two innings, but the A’s hit him hard the second time through the batting order. In the top of the third, Scheib singled with one out. With a full count, Eddie Joost hit his 13th homer of the season, into the left-field bleachers. Scarborough retired Barney McCosky on a fly out, but Valo tied the game by hitting the first pitch of the at-bat into the right-field stands for his eighth home run of the season. With the homer, he was halfway to completing a cycle.

Philadelphia’s Ferris Fain led off the fourth with a double down the left-field line. Scarborough retired the next two, with Fain advancing to third, before Joe Tipton’s single gave Philadelphia the lead at 4-3. Scarborough then walked Scheib and hit Joost with a pitch to load the bases before retiring McCosky on a comebacker to the mound.

Scheib made quick work of the White Sox in the bottom of the fourth, allowing just a walk. The A’s soon broke the game open in the fifth. Valo started the inning with a sharp single to right, his third hit of the day. Sam Chapman drove a double to left, and Zernial’s fielding error allowed him to reach third with Valo scoring easily.

Fain singled to right, plating Chapman, and Scarborough’s day on the mound was over. Right-hander Howie Judson came on in relief, making his 31st appearance of the season.12 Billy Hitchcock doubled; Judson then intentionally walked Wahl to load the bases with no outs. Tipton’s run-scoring fly and Scheib’s infield groundout accounted for two more runs. It was now 8-3.

Scheib allowed two singles in each of the fifth and sixth innings, but all four runners were stranded. One of those belonged to rookie Chico Carrasquel, who extended his hitting streak to 21 games.13

Judson kept the A’s off the scoreboard in the sixth and seventh. In the top of the eighth, he retired Joost and McCosky, bringing Valo to the plate. Valo had grounded out in the sixth, but with his second crack against Judson, he tripled to left-center, completing the cycle. Chapman beat out an infield hit to Judson, and Valo scored Philly’s ninth run. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Valo “made every kind of solid hit in the books for what is known in diamond parlance as hitting for the cycle.”14

The Athletics added one more tally in the ninth. Right-hander Lou Kretlow, recently acquired from the St. Louis Browns, was on the mound.15 This was his fifth appearance for Chicago. In just under seven innings pitched to date, he had allowed seven hits and nine walks. True to form, he walked both Hitchcock and Wahl to start the inning. Tipton’s single brought Hitchcock home. Kretlow then struck out Scheib and Joost, before he walked McCosky to load the bases.

This gave Valo one last chance to pad his career day at the plate. But he grounded to Carrasquel at shortstop, forcing out McCosky. The White Sox were three-up, three-down in the ninth, and the game was over. The final score was 10-3.

Scheib earned his third victory, pitching eight shutout frames after the first, while Scarborough was tagged with his 13th loss. The Athletics banged out 15 hits, led by Valo (four), Chapman (three) and Tipton (three). Only McCosky and Wahl were held hitless. This was also Valo’s second four-hit game of the season. In his 20 seasons in the major leagues, he had 18 four-hit games, including this one. A career .282 hitter, Valo had an on-base percentage (.398) slightly higher than his slugging average (.391). Yet on this day, he had “an experience that few ball players will enjoy in a whole lifetime.”16 He joined a list of five players who hit for the cycle in 1950.17

When the Athletics moved to Kansas City in 1955, Valo went down as the last player of the Philadelphia Athletics to hit for the cycle, while also becoming the 15th batter in the history of the Athletics to accomplish the rare feat, dating back to Lon Knight’s natural cycle on July 30, 1883.18 As of the end of the 2023 season, there have been 21 cycles by Athletics batters.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources  

The author is grateful to John Fredland and Evan Katz for their insights and recommendations.

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, MLB.com, Retrosheet.org, and SABR.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA195008020.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1950/B08020CHA1950.htm

Notes

1 Mel Marmer, “Elmer Valo,” SABR Biography Project.

2 The A’s coincidentally won just 10 games in August as well, but they lost 22. Then they won just eight of their final 26 games in September and October, finishing the 1950 season 46 games out of first place.

3 Through July the Athletics had identical records of 8-6 against both the White Sox and Senators, but they had losing records against every other AL team.

4 Irving Vaughan, “Macks Maul Scarborough and Sox, 10-3.” Chicago Tribune, August 3, 1950: 41.

5 Art Morrow, “A’s Whip Chisox, Valo Stars, 10-3,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 3, 1950: 29, 30.

6 Scheib had spent much of 1942 as the batting-practice pitcher, traveling with the team, and in 1943 he got a chance to pitch in the majors. See Jim Sargent, “Carl Scheib,” SABR Biography Project.

7 For more information on 16-year-old players in the big leagues, see Chuck Hildebrandt, “Sweet! 16-Year-Old Players in Major-League History,” found online in SABR’s Spring 2019 Baseball Research Journal.

8 On May 31, 1950, Scarborough was traded by the Senators with Robinson and Kozar to the White Sox for Bob Kuzava, Cass Michaels, and Johnny Ostrowski.

9 Morrow.

10 Morrow.

11 Valo had batted up and down the Philadelphia batting order, but by mid-June his batting average steadily increased and Mack inserted him into the second or third spot in the batting order. He entered this game batting .269 with a five-game hitting streak.

12 Judson made 46 appearances in 1950, third-most in the AL. See Gregory H. Wolf, “Howie Judson,” SABR Biography Project.

13 The streak ended on August 6 after reaching 24 games. Finishing the season batting .283, Carrasquel trailed only Walt Dropo and Whitey Ford in the American League Rookie of the Year Award balloting. 

14 Morrow.

15 On July 5 the White Sox selected Kretlow off waivers from the Browns.

16 Morrow.

17 The players who hit for the cycle in 1950 were George Kell (Detroit Tigers, June 2, against the Athletics), Ralph Kiner (Pittsburgh Pirates, June 25, against the Brooklyn Dodgers), Roy Smalley (Chicago Cubs, June 28, against the St. Louis Cardinals), Valo, and Hoot Evers (Detroit Tigers, September 7, against the Cleveland Indians).

18 A natural cycle occurs when a batter hits a single, double, triple, and home run in that order. In addition to hitting for a natural cycle, Knight’s feat was only the second cycle ever in major-league history. The first four Athletics batters to hit for the cycle all did so in Philadelphia, at the Jefferson Street Grounds, before 1900. From 1882 to 1890, the Philadelphia Athletics franchise was part of the American Association. Once the A’s (a new franchise) began playing in the American League in 1901, with their games at Columbia Park or Shibe Park, only Danny Murphy hit for the cycle in an Athletics home game (August 25, 1910). The other 10 players, including Valo, all hit for the cycle in away games. The Athletics moved from Philadelphia to Kansas City in 1955, and then they moved again in 1968, relocating to Oakland. No Kansas City Athletics player ever hit for the cycle. The first Oakland Athletics batter to do so was Tony Phillips (May 16, 1986).