September 12, 1883: John Reilly hits for the cycle as Cincinnati blasts Pittsburgh, 27-5

The Cincinnati Red Stockings and Pittsburgh Alleghenys were two of the six inaugural members of the American Association in 1882.1 The Red Stockings won the pennant in that first season, while the Alleghenys finished fourth.

With the American Association’s success in 1882, two new professional associations, the Northwestern League (NWL) and the Interstate Association (ISA), organized, developing club structure, protection policy, and a championship schedule. Further, before the 1883 season, two new teams2 were added to the AA. Cincinnati spent much of the 1883 season battling for the top spot in the standings, while Pittsburgh was fighting to stay out of last place.

As the schedule entered its final month, it called for eight consecutive games between the Red Stockings and the Alleghenys, split between home-and-home series in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. From September 3 through 6, Pittsburgh hosted a four-game series, winning three of the games. The two clubs then had a three-day break until September 10, when they met again for four games on Cincinnati’s home field, the Bank Street Grounds. The Red Stockings won the first two games.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that “a thousand of the faithful”3 came out to watch the series’ third game, played on September 12. This was considered to be a rubber match of the season’s series, as the two clubs had split the previous dozen games played against each other.4

In a slugfest for the home team, the Red Stockings scored nine runs in the first innings and rolled to an easy win. First baseman John Reilly led Cincinnati with six hits, comprising three singles, a double, a triple, and a home run.

A Cincinnati native, Reilly had made his professional debut with the National League’s Cincinnati Reds in 1880, batting just .206 in 73 games for a team that folded after the season. With no professional team in Cincinnati in 1881, Reilly spent the season with amateur and pickup teams, then signed with the independent Metropolitans of New York in 1882.

He wound up signing contracts for 1883 with both the AA’s Red Stockings and a new National League team the Mets’ ownership had founded, which eventually became the New York Giants. The February 1883 peace agreement between the AA and NL assigned him to the Red Stockings. Back in his hometown, he batted .311 in a league-high 98 games in 1883. Forty-four of his 136 hits went for extra bases, as he posted a .485 slugging percentage (sixth-best in the majors). He hit two home runs on September 10 against the Alleghenys and continued his batting spree two days later.

As he did 65 times in the Red Stockings’ 98 games in 1883 – and in 10 of the 12 previous games against Pittsburgh, Will White started on September 12. The younger brother of future Hall of Famer Deacon White, Will was the Red Stockings’ workhorse. The primary pitcher for the NL’s 1879 Cincinnati Reds (who folded after the season) and 1880 Reds (who also folded), White had rejuvenated his career in the American Association. In the Red Stockings’ pennant-winning season of 1882, White had led the team and league in innings pitched (480), wins (40), complete games (52), won-lost percentage (.769), and shutouts (8). In 1883 he increased many of his totals, to 577 IP, 64 CG, and 43 W. His 2.09 earned-run average also led the AA.

Jack Neagle started for the Alleghenys, looking for his third win of the season with Pittsburgh. Neagle had pitched in two games in White’s place for the NL’s Cincinnati Reds in 1879,5 but then he disappeared for a few seasons, returning to the majors in 1883 with the NL’s Philadelphia Quakers, for whom he appeared in 18 games as a pitcher and outfielder until June 15. He then played for the AA’s Baltimore Orioles, appearing in nine games in the month of July, before landing with the Alleghenys. His first start in Pittsburgh was on July 28 against the Philadelphia Athletics. He was ineffective at all three stops, finishing 1883 with a 5.94 ERA in 221? innings.

Neagle’s September 12 start in Cincinnati was decided by the end of the first inning. Pittsburgh batted first but went quietly. Conversely, Cincinnati’s hitters jumped on Neagle right away. Hick Carpenter singled to lead off the bottom of the first, and he scored when Reilly tripled into the left-center gap, where Pittsburgh’s Mike Mansell cut off the ball, preventing a home run.

Charley Jones followed with a single that plated Reilly, and Joe Sommer launched a two-run home run. Then “[T]here were a couple of errors and a couple of outs,”6 followed by five straight singles, by White, Carpenter, Reilly, Jones, and Sommer. In all, Cincinnati sent 14 men into the batter’s boxes, and the home team came away with nine runs.

The Alleghenys did not score in the second, either, and before the Reds came to bat, Neagle was off the mound. He was banished to right field, and Billy Taylor came in from the outfield to pitch. For the season, Taylor made 19 appearances on the mound. Bill Morgan also entered the game, replacing Denny Mack as Pittsburgh’s shortstop.7

Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, the pitching change did not make a difference. Chick Fulmer started the offense with a double. Bid McPhee – whose Hall of Fame tenure in Cincinnati had begun with the Red Stockings’ AA debut a season earlier – walked, and Pop Snyder drove both runners home with a triple. White’s RBI single made it a 12-0 score.

Pittsburgh broke up the shutout in the third inning. Neagle walked, and Ed Swartwood, on his way to leading the AA in batting average and slugging percentage, reached on an error by second baseman McPhee. Taylor “drove the sphere into center”8 for a three-run home run.

The Reds kept up their attack, scoring one run in the third and two more in the fourth. In the top of the fifth frame, Pittsburgh managed a run when Cincinnati’s center fielder Jones muffed a fly ball by Taylor, and in the home half, Fulmer hit a triple but was thrown out at home trying to score. That was the only inning in which the Red Stockings did not score. At the end of five, Cincinnati held a commanding 15-4 lead.

In the sixth inning, White needed just three pitched balls to retire the Allegheny batters. Cincinnati had four singles, followed by a double by Reilly, and three more tallies were made. In the seventh, errors by both McPhee and Reilly contributed to another Pittsburgh run. In the bottom of the seventh, “Taylor was all but paralyzed.”9 The Red Stockings exploded in another big inning, sending 11 men to bat. Eight hits, capped by Jones’s home run to the left-field fence, translated into seven more runs for Cincinnati.

In the bottom of the eighth, Carpenter singled and came home ahead of Reilly, who hit a long drive to right-center for a home run. That accounted for the final runs of the Red Stockings’ 27-5 win. It was the fourth round-tripper for the home team. It also meant that Reilly had just hit for the cycle.

In “one of the greatest batting games on record,”10 Cincinnati’s batters banged out 33 hits for a total of 52 bases. Three more reached on walks, and the 27 runs scored were a season high.11 Eight runners were left on base. For the visitors, only six hits were made (five singles and Taylor’s home run), but they did score five times.

Reilly became just the third player in major-league history to hit for the cycle. In addition to his six hits, Reilly had two stolen bases and six runs scored. It was the second time a batter had accomplished the cycle in 1883, following Philadelphia Athletics player-manager Lon Knight’s performance on July 30, also against the Alleghenys.

Exactly one week later, on September 19, Reilly hit for the cycle again. His second rare feat came against the Philadelphia Athletics, as Cincinnati hammered out 17 hits, scoring 12 runs. White pitched another gem, limiting the Athletics to just three runs on five hits. For the second time in five games, Reilly garnered at least 10 total bases. Between September 10 and 22, Reilly collected 19 hits in 41 at-bats, including two doubles, three triples, and four homers.12 He batted .463 and slugged .639 in that span.

Four seasons passed before another Red Stockings player hit for the cycle, when Bid McPhee did so on August 26, 1887. Then, on August 6, 1890 – with Cincinnati in the National League to stay – Reilly became the first player to hit for the cycle three times in his career. This was only the fourth cycle in Cincinnati franchise history, and Reilly had done it three of those four times.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kevin Larkin and copy-edited by Len Levin.

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 In November 1881 a committee recommended membership for clubs in Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia into the new American Association. For more details, see Michael McAvoy, “1881 Winter Meetings: The American Association,” found online at https://sabr.org/journal/article/1881-winter-meetings-the-organizational-meetings-of-the-american-association/. Accessed December 2022.

2 The two new teams were the Columbus Buckeyes and the New York Metropolitans. For more on the 1882 Winter Meetings, see Michael McAvoy, “1882 Winter Meetings: Reconciliation and Cooperation,” found online at https://sabr.org/journal/article/1882-winter-meetings-reconciliation-and-cooperation/. Accessed December 2022.

3 “Base-Ball,” Cincinnati Enquirer, September 13, 1883: 2.

4 “Base-Ball.” The Reds won the season series, eight games to six, including five of seven at home.

5 Neagle and White were teammates on the 1879 Cincinnati club.

6 “Base-Ball.”

7 Later in the game, Morgan replaced Hayes as catcher. Hayes, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, was “given a rest at short.” Three different men played shortstop for Pittsburgh in the game.

8 “Base-Ball.”

9 “Base-Ball.”

10 “Base-Ball.”

11 This was not their largest margin of victory, though. On July 6, the Red Stockings blanked the Baltimore Orioles, 23-0.

12 David Ball, “John Reilly,” SABR Biography Project. Found online at https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/john-reilly/. Accessed October 2022.