September 18, 1980: Twins call-up Gary Ward hits for the cycle in loss to Brewers

In 1980 Minnesota’s Gary Ward wasn’t even in the majors long enough to use up his rookie status. (His official rookie season took place in 1981.) Even so, against the Milwaukee Brewers on September 18, 1980, Ward accomplished what fewer than 200 other major-leaguers – and only 12 actual rookies – did when he hit for the cycle.1

The Twins signed Ward as an 18-year-old nondrafted free agent in 1972. He spent most of the next eight seasons in Minnesota’s minor-league system. From 1977 through 1980, Ward spent the entire Triple-A season with the International League’s Toledo Mud Hens.2 In September 1979 he joined the Twins’ expanded major-league roster. He made 10 appearances (two starts), batting 4-for-14 (.286) that season.3

A year later, he was called up again. Lefty-batting Rick Sofield was the Twins’ everyday left fielder, and the right-handed-hitting Ward was told he would platoon with Sofield.4

By mid-September of 1980, the Twins and Brewers were each in fourth place in their respective American League divisional standings. Minnesota was 25½ games behind the Kansas City Royals, who clinched the AL West crown on September 17. Milwaukee was 15 games back of the New York Yankees in the AL East.5 It had been 10 seasons since the Twins had won the AL West, and the Brewers had never played past the final game of the regular season in their 11-year existence.

On September 17 and 18, the Twins played a pair of doubleheaders against the Brewers at Milwaukee’s County Stadium.6 Minnesota won both ends of the first twin bill.

For the first game of the second doubleheader, Milwaukee sent left-handed veteran Mike Caldwell to the mound. Caldwell was in search of his 14th win of the season, and had a 4.12 earned-run average. Although he was making his 30th start of the season, this was only the second time that Caldwell had faced the Twins. He had allowed one earned run in seven innings on May 16, but the Brewers’ bullpen lost the game.

Minnesota also started a lefty, Geoff Zahn, who had 12 wins and a 4.58 ERA. This was Zahn’s 32nd start of 1980, but also only his second time facing the Brewers. He didn’t make it out of the first inning in a 14-11 May 17 loss.

Consistent with a platoon, Ward was batting leadoff and playing left field. It was his fourth game since his call-up. Four days earlier, on September 14, he had three hits, including a double and a triple, in a game started by Chicago White Sox left-hander Ross Baumgarten.

Ward began the game by lining a double to center against Caldwell. He advanced to third on a groundout but was stranded there. In the second inning, the Twins took a 1-0 lead. Caldwell gave up a one-out single to right by Pete Mackanin, who reached third on an error by right fielder Dick Davis. Bombo Rivera’s two-out single into left field brought Mackanin home.

Zahn had retired the Brewers’ top three batters, Paul Molitor, Robin Yount, and Cecil Cooper, in order in the bottom of the first, but Milwaukee exploded for seven runs in the second inning. Ben Oglivie singled with one out and Davis reached on shortstop Roy Smalley’s error. Sal Bando’s RBI single tied the game.

Zahn then walked Jim Gantner to load the bases. Charlie Moore’s sacrifice fly brought in Davis. Singles by Molitor and Yount drove in three more runs. Cooper capped the inning with his 22nd homer of the season, and Milwaukee led 7-1. Minnesota’s John Verhoeven came on in relief after the Cooper home run.

Ward led off the top of the third and pulled a single to left. He was forced at second by John Castino’s grounder to third, and then Ron Jackson hit into an inning-ending double play.

In the top of the fifth, Ward hit his first major-league home run, a solo blast to deep left. In three at-bats, he had collected three hits – a single, double, and home run.

Milwaukee had runners on in each of the third, fourth, and fifth innings, but Verhoeven kept them from scoring. The right-hander was giving his team a chance to come back.

The Twins did start a comeback in the sixth. With two outs, José Morales and Mackanin hit back-to-back doubles to left field. Butch Wynegar’s single to right drove Mackanin home, making the score 7-4. Caldwell departed with six innings pitched and a three-run lead.

In the home half of the sixth, Verhoeven retired the Brewers in order, and in the top of the seventh, the Twins took the lead. With Reggie Cleveland now on the mound for the Brewers, Greg Johnston singled. Ward lined a pitch into right-center for an RBI triple. He had completed hitting for the cycle. After the game, he told reporters, “I was just looking for something to hit to right-center because I come out of the box faster when I hit to right. I had been pulling the ball all night, so they thought I’d be pulling, but I wasn’t.”7

Castino’s sacrifice fly brought Ward home and it was a one-run game. Mike Cubbage pinch-hit for Jackson and singled to left. John Flinn relieved Cleveland. Smalley greeted the new Milwaukee pitcher by hitting an RBI double to right. Smalley advanced to third on Morales’ fly out. A walk to Rob Wilfong, pinch-hitting for Mackanin, put runners at the corners. Wynegar reached on a fielder’s choice and Smalley scored.8 Minnesota had turned a six-run deficit into a one-run lead.

Flinn retired the next seven batters he faced.9

The score was still 8-7 in favor of the visitors going into the bottom of the ninth. Taking over for Verhoeven, rookie righty Doug Corbett had pitched scoreless frames in the seventh and eighth for the Twins, and he retired Molitor and Yount to begin the ninth.

But Milwaukee’s sluggers denied him his 20th save of the season.10 Cooper singled to right. This was his 200th hit of the season, making him the first player in Brewers franchise history to attain that mark.11 Gorman Thomas, who had been 0-for-3 with a walk, hit the very next pitch into the left-field bleachers for his 35th home run. This gave the Brewers a walk-off win. Thomas finished the season with 38 homers, three behind both teammate Oglivie and New York’s Reggie Jackson, who had tied for the league lead.12

Milwaukee went on to win the nightcap, 5-0, completing the doubleheader sweep. Ward did not play.

Ward went 4-for-5 with two runs batted in and two runs scored. Through the first four games of his call-up, he was batting .500 (7-for-14) with five extra-base hits, and he had an OPS of 1.643. When asked whether or not the two losses took away from his performance, Ward said, “It was great for me. I love it.”13

Ward’s performance marked the fourth time in 1980 that a player had hit for the cycle; there were five in all. The others were Iván DeJesús (Chicago Cubs, April 22, against the St. Louis Cardinals), Fred Lynn (Boston Red Sox, May 13, against the Twins), Mike Easler (Pittsburgh Pirates, June 12, against the Cincinnati Reds), and Charlie Moore (Brewers, October 1, against the California Angels). Ward became the sixth Minnesota Twins player to accomplish the rare feat.14

In 13 games (10 starts) at the end of the 1980 season, Ward had 46 plate appearances. Because his two September call-ups had resulted in fewer than 130 at-bats and less than 45 days of service, he retained rookie eligibility as the season ended.

Of the 344 players in AL or NL history who had hit for the cycle as of the end of the 2023 season, Ward is the only one whose cycle occurred before the season in which he exceeded rookie eligibility, which turned out to be 1981 for Ward. In that year, he played in 85 games for the Twins and finished with a .264 average, 3 home runs, and 29 RBIs. At the end of the season, he was given one vote in the AL’s Rookie of the Year balloting.15 In addition, Ward’s cycle performance came in just his 14th major-league game, second-fastest all-time.16

Ward remained in the major leagues through 1990, getting selected for All-Star teams in 1983 with the Twins and 1985 with the Texas Rangers. He never played in the minors again after 1980.

Ward’s son, Daryle Ward, was 5 years old in 1980. On May 26, 2004, as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Daryle hit for the cycle against the St. Louis Cardinals. It made the Wards the first father-son pair to hit for the cycle in AL or NL history.17

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Tom Brown and copy-edited by Len Levin. The author thanks John Fredland, Kurt Blumenau, and Gary Belleville for their insights and recommendations.

Sources

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/MIL/MIL198009181.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1980/B09181MIL1980.htm

Photo credit: Gary Ward, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Gary Ward became the 198th major leaguer to hit for the cycle. (This number includes players from the American Association, American League, Federal League, and National League). The 12 actual rookies to hit for the cycle before 1980 are Chippy McGarr (Philadelphia Athletics, September 23, 1886), Bill Van Dyke (Toledo Maumees, July 5, 1890), Bill Hassamaer (Washington Senators, June 13, 1894), Bill Collins (Boston Doves, October 6, 1910), Cliff Heathcote (St. Louis Cardinals, June 13, 1918), Roy Carlyle (Boston Red Sox, July 21, 1925), Mike “Pinky” Higgins (Philadelphia Athletics, August 6, 1933), Moose Solters (Boston Red Sox, August 19, 1934), Leon Culberson (Boston Red Sox, July 3, 1943), Bill Salkeld (Pittsburgh Pirates, August 4, 1945), Vic Wertz (Detroit Tigers, September 14, 1947), and Randy Hundley (Chicago Cubs, August 11, 1966). The Opta Analyst lists both Buddy Rosar and Dave Kingman as rookies when they each hit for the cycle (see Matt Sisneros, “The Most Cycles in a Season, Career and More in MLB History,” Opta Analyst, August 25, 2023, https://theanalyst.com/na/2023/08/the-most-cycles-in-a-season-career-by-a-team-and-more-across-mlb-history), but both Rosar (who hit for the cycle on July 19, 1940) and Kingman (April 16, 1972) had exceeded the 45-game rookie limits. As of the end of the 2023 season, a total of 24 players (not including Ward) had hit for the cycle in their rookie seasons.

2 In his three seasons with Toledo, Ward batted .294 (14 home runs), .263 (13 HR) and .286 (13 HR) respectively. In his eight total seasons in the minors (969 games), Ward batted .266 with 101 home runs and 507 RBIs.

3 All four of Ward’s hits in 1979 were singles; he had just one run batted in.

4 Sid Hartman, “Jottings,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, September 20, 1980: 14.

5 As of September 16, 1980.

6 One of the doubleheaders included the makeup of a September 11 Twins home game. Because that rainout occurred on the Brewers’ last visit of the season to Metropolitan Stadium, the game was made up in Milwaukee and played as a Brewers’ home game. The other doubleheader was the result of a rainout in the scheduled September 16 series opener in Milwaukee.

7 Mike O’Brien, “Brewers Sweep Twins,” St. Cloud (Minnesota) Times, September 19, 1980: 27-28.

8 There are no details about the play. Both Baseball-Reference and Retrosheet report that Smalley scored on the fielder’s choice, Wilfong went to second and Wynegar to first. The author could not find details in the newspapers either, such as where the ball was put into play.

9 This was Flinn’s third career victory; in four major-league seasons, he won just five games.

10 Corbett posted 23 saves in 1979. He finished third in the AL Rookie of the Year balloting.

11 Cooper finished the season with 219 hits, second-most in the majors, behind Kansas City’s Willie Wilson (230). This was also a career high for Cooper.

12 Thomas had led the American League with 45 home runs in 1979.

13 O’Brien, “Brewers Sweep Twins.”

14 If the Washington Senators are included (the Senators moved to Minnesota in 1961 to become the Twins), then Ward was the 10th player in franchise history to hit for the cycle. As of the end of the 2023 season, a total of 15 Washington/Minnesota players had hit for the cycle.

15 Ward tied with teammate Brad Havens for ninth place in the balloting (each garnered a single vote). Another Minnesota teammate, Dave Engle, received four total votes. New York’s Dave Righetti ran away with the award, receiving 23 of 28 first-place votes.

16 St. Louis Cardinals rookie Cliff Heathcote hit for the cycle on June 13, 1918, just his sixth major-league game.

17 As of the end of the 2023 season, the only other father-son pair of major leaguers to hit for the cycle were Craig Biggio (Houston Astros, April 8, 2002) and Cavan Biggio (Toronto Blue Jays, September 17, 2019).