Appendix 1: Quasi-Cycles — Better Than Cycles?

This is the appendix for “Quasi-Cycles — Better Than Cycles?” by Herm Krabbenhoft.Editor’s note: This is the appendix for “Quasi-Cycles — Better Than Cycles?” by Herm Krabbenhoft.

 

DISCREPANCIES

Comparison of Joseph Donner’s “Full List of Players with Five and Four Long Hits in a Game” [The Baseball Research Journal (1993)] with Joseph L. Reichler’s list of “Most Extra Base Hits, Game” [The Great All-Time Baseball Record Book (1993)] yields the following discrepancies:

[A] Players on Donner’s List, but not on Reichler’s list:

• Warren Carpenter [CIN, AA] 7-01-1884
• Jim O’Rourke [BUF, NL] 8-08-1884
• Pete Browning [LOU, AA] 6-01-1885
• John Coleman [PHI, AA] 7-01-1885
• Tom E. Burns [CHI, NL] 7-22-1886
• Jim Andrews [CHI, NL] 5-23-1890
• Al Myers [PHI, NL] 5-16-1891
• Kid Gleason [BAL, NL] 4-20-1895
• Ed Lennox [PIT, FL] 5-06-1914
• Georg Stirnweiss [NYY, AL] 9-03-1945 (2)
• Jim Russell [PIT, NL] 9-01-1946 (1)
• Grady Hatton [CIN, NL] 8-11-1947
• Dusty Rhodes [NYG, NL] 8-29-1954 (2)
• Norm Zauchin [BOS, AL] 5-27-1955
• Johnny Groth [CWS, AL] 5-28-1955
• Duke Snider [BRK, NL] 6-01-1955
• Elmer Valo [KCA, AL] 7-30-1955
• Stan Lopata [PHP, NL] 5-13-1956 (2) … Donner has incorrect date as 7-03-1956.
• Al Kaline [DET, AL] 6-30-1956
• Daryl Spencer [SFG, NL] 5-13-1958
• Roger Maris [KCA, AL] 8-03-1958
• Hank Aaron [MIL, NL] 9-30-1960
• Bill White [SLC, NL] 7-05-1961
• Roger Maris [NYY, AL] 4-29-1962 (2)
• Tito Francona [CLE, AL] 7-03-1964
• Adolfo Philips [PHP, NL] 9-06-1965 (2)
• Roberto Clemente [PIT, NL] 5-15-1967
• Cesar Tovar [MIN, AL] 5-21-1967
• Rusty Staub [MON, AL] 4-17-1969
• Bill Melton [CWS, AL] 6-24-1969 (2)
• Billy Williams [CHC, NL] 9-05-1969
• George Mitterwald [MIN, AL] 4-17-1974
• Tommy McCraw [CAL, AL] 4-29-1974
• Richie Hebner [PIT, NL] 7-21-1974
• Aurelio Rodriguez [DET, AL] 8-04-1974 (2)
• Ron Dunn [CHC, NL] 9-11-1974 (2)
• Graig Nettles [NYY, AL] 9-29-1976
• Larry Parrish [MON, NL] 7-30-1978
• Lance Parrish [DET, AL] 7-19-1980
• Tony Armas [OAK, AL] 9-20-1980
• Dwight Evans [BOS, AL] 10-04-1980 (1)
• Sixto Lezcano [SDP, NL] 7-31-1982 (1)
• Lou Whitaker [DET, AL] 6-08-1983
• Paul Molitor [MLB, AL] 8-19-1986
• Chris Sabo [CIN, NL] 6-18-1988
• Kirk Gibson [LAD, NL] 8-11-1988
• Alan Trammell [DET, AL] 8-12-1990
• Herm Winningham [CIN, NL] 8-15-1990
• Carlos Baerga [CLE, AL] 9-20-1990

[B] Players on Reichler’s list but not on Donner’s list:

• Al Simmons [PHA, AL] 4-19-1930
• Jimmie Foxx [BOS, AL] 9-07-1938
• Rudy York [BOS, AL] 7-27-1946
• Kevin Seitzer [KCR, AL] 8-02-1987
• Fred Pfeffer [CHI, NL] 9-06-1883
• George Gore [CHI, NL] 6-06-1885
• Hardy Richardson [DET, NL] 9-09-1886
• Monte Ward [BRK, NL] 8-22-1892
• Tommy Tucker [BOS, NL] 7-22-1893
• Buck Freeman [WAS, NL] 7-05-1899
• Mike Mitchell [CIN, NL] 8-19-1911
• Sherry Magee [PHP, NL] 6-17-1914
• Gavvy Cravath [PHP, NL] 6-23-1919
• Paul Waner [PIT, NL] 9-11-1926
• Babe Herman [BRK, NL] 6-05-1929
• Lefty O’Doul [BRK, NL] 8-04-1932
• Pepper Martin [SLC, NL] 5-05-1933
• Johnny Frederick [BRK, NL] 8-16-1933
• Johnny Rizzo [PIT, NL] 5-30-1939 (2) … Reichler has the incorrect date as 5-30-1937.
• Walker Cooper [CIN, NL] 7-06-1949
• Duke Snider [BRK, NL] 6-01-1954
• Gil Hodges [BRK, NL] 8-08-1954
• John Reilly [CIN, AA] 9-12-1883
• Tom Brown [COL, AA] 7-09-1884
• Guy Hecker [LOU, AA] 8-15-1886
• Mickey Hughes [BRK, AA] 4-20-1888
• Jack McGeachy [BRK, PL] 7-06-1890

I checked out each of these discrepancies and determined that each of the players in Group [A] did, in fact, achieve a four long-hits game on the date indicated. Thus, Reichler’s list quite inaccurate in that each and every one of the Group [A] players was not included in his list.

Furthermore, according to my checking, I determined that all but three of the players in Group [B] did NOT achieve a four extra-base-hits game on the date indicated. The three exceptions were the Tommy Tucker game on 7-22-1893, the Mike Mitchell game on 8-19-1911 and the Johnny Rizzo game on 5-30-1939 (second game). It is pointed out that Reichler incorrectly lists the date of the Rizzo game as 5-30-1937; Rizzo did not play in the majors until 1938. Thus, Reichler’s list is quite inaccurate in that only three of the Group [B] entries are accurate.

Thus, Donner’s “Complete List” is actually not complete in that Tommy Tucker, Mike Mitchell, and Johnny Rizzo were not included.

There are three discrepancies between the list of players with four or five log hits compiled by Joseph Donner [The Baseball Research Journal, Number 22, 1993] and the list derived from the “Play Index” tool on the Baseball-Reference website (covering the period from 1913 to 2016) and the list of quasi-cycle achievers derived from a computer program written by Tom Ruane (covering the period from 1911-2016):

Frank LaPorte had one double, two triples, and one home run in the second game on August 07, 1911, for the St. Louis Browns; LaPorte is not included in Donner’s list.

Mike Mitchell had two doubles, one triple, and one home run in the second game on August 19, 1911, for the Cincinnati Reds; Mitchell, as indicated above, is not included in Donner’s list.

Lou Gehrig had two doubles and two home runs in the game on May 10, 1934, for the New York Yankees; Donner’s list has Gehrig with one double, two triples, and one home run.

In addition to the above-described discrepancies, there are three other discrepancies according to my research:

Pete Browning had three hits (one single, one double, and one home run) in the game on September 06, 1887, for the Louisville Colonels (versus the New York Metropolitans) according to the box scores given in the New York Tribune and the New York Sun; Donner’s list has Browning with one double, two triples, and one home run.

George Treadway had three hits (one double, one triple, and one home run) in the game on August 20, 1894, for the Brooklyn Bridegrooms (versus the St. Louis Cardinals) according to the accounts in the Brooklyn Eagle and New York Tribune; Donner’s list has Treadway with two doubles, one triple, and one home run.

Fielder Jones had three doubles and one home run in the game on May 18, 1906, for the Chicago Cubs (versus the Washington Senators) according to the accounts in the Washington Post, Washington Star, Washington Herald, and the Chicago Tribune; Donner’s list has Jones with two doubles, one triple, and one home run.

There is also conflicting information for Tip O’Neill’s performance in the game on April 30, 1887. According to the ICI sheets [the Day-By-Day records compiled by David S. Neft and his team of researchers for Information Concepts, Incorporated for the first edition of The Baseball Encyclopedia (published in 1969 by Macmillan)], he had six at bats and five hits (one double, no triples, two homers, and therefore, by difference, two singles); he also had one base on balls. However, according to the list of four-long-hit games given in the 1932 edition of Spalding’s The Little Red Book (page 84) O’Neill had zero doubles, two triples, and two home runs. O’Neill was not included in the same list presented in the previous editions from 1926 (page 73) through 1931 (page 94). Spalding’s The Little Red Book, after not having been published in 1933, became Charlie White’s Little Red Book of Baseball in 1934 which again (page 115) listed O’Neill with zero doubles, two triples, and two homers. Then, beginning with the 1935 edition (page 98) and continuing in each annual edition through the 1938 edition (page 33), which was titled The Pocket Cyclopedia of Major League Baseball (published by Al Munro Elias Baseball Bureau), O’Neill was shown with one double, one triple and two home runs. [The title of the book reverted to The Little Red Book in 1939 and remained such through the 1971 edition before being renamed The Book of Baseball Records in 1972. The title was changed again in 2005, becoming The Elias Book of Baseball Records; it has remained that through the current 2017 edition.] The list of players with four or more long hits in a game was discontinued (permanently) with the 1939 edition. Donner’s list [The Baseball Research Journal (1993)] has O’Neill with one double, one triple, and two homers. Likewise, Reichler’s list [The Great All-Time Baseball Record Book (1993)] has O’Neill with one double, one triple, and two homers. According to the comprehensive and in-depth research carried out by Dennis Thiessen, O’Neill did have one double, one triple, and two home runs in the game on April 30, 1887 (personal communications from Dennis Thiessen to Herm Krabbenhoft, June-2017).