Dazzling Debuts: First At-Bat Home Runs
Edited by Giselle Stancic, Bill Nowlin, and Jacob Pomrenke
Associate editors: Len Levin and Carl Riechers
Publication Date: October 31, 2024
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-960819-30-7, $9.99
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-960819-31-4, $24.95
8.5″ x 11″, 167 pages

Every baseball player experiences a series of firsts when they step onto the field: the nervous excitement of entering the locker room, the pride of putting on the team uniform, the awe-inspiring moment of exiting the dugout and crossing the white lines. But when a player walks up to the plate and hits a home run in his first major-league at-bat, he creates a wave of excitement among the fans, achieves a rare feat for the record books — and experiences the thrill of a lifetime in his professional career.

Dazzling Debuts: First At-Bat Home Runs celebrates those moments – from inside-the-park homers to grand slams to those hit by pitchers. Some foreshadowed many homers to come; in other cases, the first at-bat homer was the only one the player ever hit.

Each major-league franchise is represented in one way or another, and we also look at first at-bat home runs hit in the Negro Leagues, Japan, Korea, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. We hope to have conveyed some of the excitement of a player entering a game and promptly hitting one outta here!

Explore more online

Our special Featured Spotlight web project complements the new Digital Library book available above. At SABR.org/dazzling-debuts, explore the Dazzling Debuts companion website to find 60 biographies, more than 50 thrilling game recaps with play-by-play accounts, photographs and videos of their memorable swings, plus exclusive oral history interviews of players reliving their first at-bat homers in their own words — including Ed Sanicki (1949), Cuno Barragan (1961), Al Woods (1977), Dave Machemer (1978), Jon Nunnally (1995), and Daniel Nava (2010).

• E-book: Click here to download the e-book version of Dazzling Debuts for FREE from the SABR Store. Available in PDF, MOBI, EPUB/Kindle formats.
• Paperback: Get a 50% discount on the Dazzling Debuts paperback edition from the SABR Store ($15.95 includes shipping/tax; delivery via Amazon Kindle Direct can take up to 4-6 weeks.)

Below: Find player biographies, memorable game stories, and essays from Dazzling Debuts: First At-Bat Home Runs

Biographies

Game Recaps

The Dazzling Debuts book is a collaborative effort of 33 members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Contributors include: Joe Adona, Malcolm Allen, Jorge Colón Delgado, Mike Cooney, Rory Costello, Richard Cuicchi, Joey Elledge, Carlos Fragoso, John Fredland, Dave Gagnon, Craig Garretson, Paul Geisler Jr., Chip Greene, Yoshihiro Koda, Sean Kolodziej, Tara Krieger, Justin Krueger, Bryan Lake, Len Levin, Bill Nowlin, Laura H. Peebles, Zac Petrillo, Jacob Pomrenke, Bill Pruden, Carl Riechers, Tom Schott, Barrett Snyder, Giselle Stancic, Stew Thornley, Michael Trzinski, Joseph Wancho, Bob Webster, and Phil Williams.

The companion website includes contributions from 57 additional SABR members: Davy Andrews, Jeff Angus, Mark Armour, Ed Attanasio, Jeff Barto, Anthony Basich, Gary Belleville, Charlie Bevis, Kurt Blumenau, Brian Bratt, Jude Butler, Warren Corbett, Tom Crisp, Larry DeFillipo, Charles F. Faber, Matt Faltas, Doug Feldmann, Dan Fields, Scott Fiesthumel, Zak Ford, John Gabcik, Gordon J. Gattie, Hayden Goethe, Andrew Harner, Tom Harris, Paul Hirsch, Paul Hofmann, Mike Huber, Bob Hurte, Norm King, Zach Kleiman, Herm Krabbenhoft, Gerard Kwilecki, Bill Lamb, Barb Mantegani, Seth Moland-Kovash, Victoria Monte, Chad Moody, Shawn Morris, Charlie O’Reilly, Tim Odzer, Tony Oliver, Pete Palmer, Chris Rainey, Joel Rippel, Tim Ryan, Rick Schabowski, Herb Schaper, Jason Scheller, Louis H. Schiff, Wyatt Schroeder, Joe Schuster, Jacob Shanker, David E. Skelton, Everett Williams, Tomotada Yamamoto, and Don Zminda.

As tensions between owners, general managers, and players mounted, the winter meetings of 1993 featured battles over the commissioner’s chair, the free-agent process, revenue sharing, and the salary cap. These points of contention collided over four months of meetings that began in early November, when the general managers met in Naples, Florida. The National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, or minor leagues, followed with a much more subdued meeting in December in Atlanta, while the owners used the months of January and February to settle the revenue-sharing issue before the start of the season.

The multiple meetings did little to save the 1994 season, as the players union and the owners could not come to an agreement regarding the proposed salary cap. Further meetings and clashes came to a head when the union went on strike in August 1994.

New Faces, New Positions in Front Offices

Most seasons of major-league baseball end with front-office shuffles as teams at the bottom of the pile seek to clean house to move up the ladder, and 1993 was no different. Between June 1993 and January 1994, eight teams replaced either a general manager or a manager, and the Baltimore Orioles came under new ownership.

The front-office shakeups started in the midst of the 1993 season when the San Diego Padres’ general manager, Joe McIlvaine, resigned and moved to the New York Mets (where he had once been scouting director and assistant general manager) to replace Al Harazin as GM. Randy Smith stepped in to fill McIlvaine’s shoes in San Diego, and he would stay there for two years.

In August 1993, a group represented by prominent Baltimore attorney Peter Angelos bought the Orioles at auction for a then-record $173 million. In the midst of their second season at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the team sat five games off the division lead at the time of the sale. Angelos made no major changes to the organization right off the bat, but he did state that “the primary concern is putting the best ballclub on the field,” a goal he would work toward throughout the 1993 offseason.1 However, after the 1993 season, Larry Lucchino stepped down as president of the club, an office that remained vacant until John Angelos, Peter’s son, took the position for one season in 1999.

The remaining front-office moves took place over the course of the offseason and included four general-manager changes and two managerial changes. General manager Dan Duquette jumped from the Montreal Expos to the Boston Red Sox, with Kevin Malone replacing Duquette in Montreal.2 In Detroit, Joe Klein replaced Jerry Walker as general manager, and Hall of Famer Whitey Herzog retired as general manager of the California Angels with Bill Bavasi reputedly in line for the position.3

The Houston Astros, despite a successful season at 85-77, fired manager Art Howe and replaced him with Terry Collins, who had been a bullpen coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Similarly, the Chicago Cubs cashiered Jim Lefebvre and brought in Tom Trebelhorn, even though Lefebvre had managed the team to an 84-78 record in 1993.

One final change, or rather, reinstatement, took place early in the 1993 offseason. Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott returned to the team after serving eight months of her yearlong ban, imposed for racist comments regarding former Reds players.

GENERAL MANAGERS MEETINGS

After the spending spree of 1992,4 owners forbade general managers to attend the NAPBL meetings in Atlanta. While the GMs traditionally meet after the season for business, the 1993 meetings in Naples gained more import as a result of the ban. Trade talks and organizational changes dominated the news from the meetings, which took place over the first four days of November.

Trades and Signings

Despite the fact that players who had not cleared waivers would not be on the trading block until November 11, the general managers wheeled and dealed as usual. Without the big-ticket names of 1992 (for example, Barry Bonds and Greg Maddux), the 1993 hot stove contained significantly less spark, but a few teams managed to swing notable trades and signings. Most teams focused on a budding star, right-handed hurler Andy Benes, but the San Diego Padres refused to let the All-Star go.

“We may never see another free-agent crop like the one we saw last winter,” said Atlanta Braves general manager John Schuerholz.5

The Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants kicked off the signings by retaining free agents Eric Davis and Erik Johnson, respectively. The Tigers continued their spending by signing six-time All-Star shortstop Alan Trammell to a one-year contract.6

The general managers also worked out a few trades while in Naples, most likely on the links, as is tradition. The Philadelphia Phillies picked up right-handed closer Heath Slocumb from the Cleveland Indians in exchange for outfielder Ruben Amaro. Slocumb saved more than 30 games in 1995 and 1996 but experienced a dropoff in numbers from then on, while Amaro returned to the Phillies in 1996.

The Seattle Mariners and Schott’s Reds worked out a four-player deal during the meetings as well. The Mariners sent second baseman Bret Boone and right-handed starter Erik Hanson to the Reds in exchange for right-handed reliever Bobby Ayala and catcher Dan Wilson. Boone, Hanson, and Wilson each made at least one All-Star Game appearance, and Wilson was widely regarded as one of the finest defensive catchers of his era, leading the league in runners caught stealing in 1995 and 1997.

Reasons for Limited Trade Activity

Other than the high price of free agents in 1992, a few factors contributed to the tame market in the 1993 offseason. A new television contract with ABC and NBC cut payouts to clubs by more than $7 million each.7 Also, the rising price of player contracts8 threatened to push team payrolls to historic new heights.9

As a result, many successful teams sold off or released aging stars and relied on their farm talent to bring success in 1994. The players who debuted in the strike-shortened 1994 season and the 1995 season featured 39 future All-Stars, including Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and Jason Giambi.10 Those players also collected a total of 20 Gold Glove Awards, 27 Silver Slugger Awards, and four MVP Awards.

Four future Hall of Famers were among those released at the end of the 1993 season as teams dumped their standard-bearers in favor of young blood: Robin Yount, Eddie Murray, Rickey Henderson, and Goose Gossage. Yount retired rather than play outside Milwaukee, while Gossage threw his final 47 innings in Seattle before the strike. Murray split the next four seasons between four teams, and Henderson played for 10 more years, leading the league in stolen bases when he returned to Oakland in 1998 at the age of 39.

Several other notable players saw the free-agent market in the winter of 1993, including Jack Morris, Bo Jackson, Kirk Gibson, Tim Raines, Harold Baines, Dave Henderson, Tony Peña, Will Clark, Andrès Galarraga, and Rafael Palmeiro. Morris, Jackson, Gibson, and Henderson would all be retired by the end of 1995.

Cleveland Indians’ Nightmare Year Continues

Shortly after the general managers adjourned their meetings in Naples, Cleveland Indians GM John Hart received a heartbreaking phone call. A recently released relief pitcher, southpaw Cliff Young, had been thrown from his vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene. The 29-year-old appeared in 21 games for the Indians in 1993.

Young was the third Indians pitcher to die in 1993. Relievers Tim Crews and Steve Olin joined starter Bob Ojeda for gator hunting on March 22, the team’s only day off during spring training. The boat ran into an unlit dock, and Crews and Olin were killed. Ojeda sustained severe head injuries but remained conscious, reportedly holding Crews as he died. Ojeda sought psychiatric help and returned to the majors on August 7, 1993. He retired the following year with a career record of 115-98 and a 3.65 ERA.11

Reflecting on the tragedies, Hart said, “You just shake your head and you wonder, why is this happening?”12

The Least Talked About, Most Significant Move of the Offseason

Perhaps the biggest trade of the offseason occurred on November 19, outside of any of the scheduled winter meetings. The Los Angeles Dodgers, who had finished 1993 with an 81-81 record, stepped up to the trading block in an effort to replace second baseman Jody Reed, who decided to test the free-agent market after the season.

The Dodgers were below the league average in almost every offensive category and scored the third fewest runs in the National League. On the other hand, the Dodgers pitching staff, led by right-hander Orel Hershiser, put up above-average numbers in most categories. As a result, Los Angeles used its best bargaining chip, a young relief pitcher named Pedro Martinez.

Montreal Expos general manager Dan Duquette saw the window of opportunity to bolster the team’s four-man rotation and make space for utility infielder Mike Lansing in the everyday lineup. In one of his final moves as GM, Duquette sent the team’s leadoff hitter and stolen-base specialist, infielder Delino DeShields, to the Dodgers in return for the right-handed Martinez.

Martinez went on to become one of the greatest pitchers of all time, winning three Cy Young Awards, a World Series championship, and a plaque in Cooperstown. DeShields, meanwhile, bounced from the Dodgers to the St. Louis Cardinals, the Baltimore Orioles, and finally, the Chicago Cubs over the course of his 13-year career. DeShields moved on to a successful career as a manager in the Cincinnati Reds organization.

One other deal was made that proved to have some significance. The Astros traded their star outfielder, Eric Anthony, to the Seattle Mariners for outfielder Mike Felder and a young lefty, Mike Hampton. Anthony would bounce around to several teams over the next few years, while Felder played just one more season before retiring. Hampton, on the other hand, became a consistent winner in the majors, including a Cy Young Award runner-up year in 1999, when he won 22 games.

World Series Woes Haunt “Wild Thing”

With a nickname like “Wild Thing,” blown saves and late-inning theatrics would be expected from Philadelphia Phillies closer Mitch Williams, but when those collapses come on baseball’s biggest stage in front of one of the most hostile fan bases in sports, the failure can be overwhelming and potentially dangerous.

After a record-setting regular season, the left-handed Williams struggled in the 1993 postseason. In Game Four of the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays, Williams took the loss after allowing the Blue Jays to come back from a 14-9 deficit. When Williams returned to the mound in Game Six, Joe Carter teed off on him for the second World Series walk-off home run in history.

Williams reportedly received death threats throughout the 1993 offseason, which he spent at his ranch in central Texas to escape the fans’ fury. Philadelphia general manager Lee Thomas chose to deal Williams to the Houston Astros (for right-handers Doug Jones and Jeff Juden), stating, “I think he’ll do well in Houston, but I also think he would have had a difficult time coming back to Philadelphia.”13

Williams did not do well in Houston. He earned only six saves. In the final three years of his career after the 1993 World Series, Williams appeared in just 52 games, fewer than in any single season with Philadelphia.

MINOR LEAGUE MEETINGS

The annual winter meetings of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, commonly known as the minor leagues, convened December 10-15 in Atlanta. The 1993 meetings were quieter than usual due to the absence of most major-league executives, but scouts and farm directors gathered to conduct business and to oversee the Rule 5 Draft.

Feelings regarding the absence of executives were mixed. Atlanta GM John Schuerholz made an appearance, as did Pittsburgh’s Cam Bonifay. Interim Commissioner and Milwaukee Brewers owner Bud Selig argued, “We have enormous problems, but the circus atmosphere took the focus away from what we have to do.” Philadelphia general manager Lee Thomas, however, retorted, “It’s a week of free publicity and we’re throwing it away.”14

Baltimore Makes a Blockbuster Deal; Seattle Shuts Down Yankees

The Baltimore Orioles went into the 1993 season looking to make good on Angelos’s promise to put the best ballplayers on the field. To that end, they targeted one man: first baseman Rafael Palmeiro of the Rangers.

Palmeiro rejected Texas’s offer of $26.5 million for five years, and when the Rangers signed former San Francisco Giants first baseman Will Clark, Palmeiro found himself in search of a new team. The Orioles and Palmeiro came to terms on a $30 million deal on December 12, and Palmeiro brought a much-needed bat to the Oriole lineup. In the 1993 season, the slugger had hammered 37 home runs and driven in 105 runs.

Baltimore’s division rival, the New York Yankees, missed their intended target when lefty Randy Johnson agreed to a four-year, $20.25 million deal to remain with the Seattle Mariners. Johnson would have been eligible for free agency after the 1994 season. The Yankees were reluctant to pursue such a big-name signing since owner George Steinbrenner allegedly wanted to keep the team’s 1994 payroll under $45 million.15

Minor Headlines Made Via the Draft

The 1993 Rule 5 Draft, held on December 13, featured few players of note. The New York Mets selected catcher Kelly Stinnett from the Cleveland Indians. Stinnett spent parts of 14 seasons in the majors, working with some of the greatest hurlers of his time, including Cy Young Award winners Dwight Gooden, Bret Saberhagen, Randy Johnson, Zack Greinke, Brandon Webb, Tom Glavine, and Pedro Martinez.

The Florida Marlins picked up Antonio Alfonseca from the Montreal Expos. The right-handed Alfonseca, known for his polydactyly (six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot), pitched six scoreless innings of relief in three games in the Marlins’ 1997 World Series victory. He led the majors in saves in 2000 and was a key piece of the 2002 trade with the Cubs that brought Rookie of the Year phenom Dontrelle Willis to Miami.

More Teams on the Horizon

The successful, smooth expansion of major-league baseball with the addition of the Colorado Rockies and the Florida Marlins in 1993 set the stage for a second round of expansion. While the minor-league meetings commenced in Atlanta, the owners sat down with Jerry Colangelo, owner of the Phoenix Suns in the National Basketball Association, to discuss the possibility of a major-league team in Phoenix.16 St. Petersburg, Florida, remained in the running thanks to a taxpayer-financed ballpark built in 1990.

The possibility of two more teams in the majors pushed the realignment issue to the fore. Adding Colorado and Florida meant the American and National Leagues each had two seven-team divisions. The surfeit of teams made it increasingly difficult for teams to reach the playoffs; in 1993, the San Francisco Giants won 103 games and finished with the second-best record in the majors but missed out on the playoffs after losing the division by one game. However, this point of contention remained unsettled until the owners met in early 1994.

OWNERS’ MEETINGS

When the owners finally sat down after the new year, they found several pressing issues on their plate. First, the office of commissioner remained vacant after Fay Vincent’s resignation following the 1992 season. Second, the looming revenue-sharing agreement and collective-bargaining negotiations threatened the tenuous peace between the owners and the players. Finally, the owners worked on a solution regarding division realignment and league-wide parity.

To solve these issues, the owners met off and on through the offseason, beginning on a blustery January 6 morning in Chicago. The owners would then fly to the warmer climes of Fort Lauderdale to continue the conversation in late January.

Revenue-Sharing Divides Clubs Along Monetary Lines

Club owners butted heads regarding how to share revenue from television broadcasts and playoff games. At the end of the 1993 season, the clubs openly clashed, with large-market teams shutting down meetings and refusing to put increased money into the small-market clubs. To settle the issue, 21 of the 28 clubs would have to be in favor of the revenue-sharing plan. Ten large-market teams (both New York clubs, Baltimore, Boston, Los Angeles, Toronto, Colorado, Florida, St. Louis, and Texas) joined forces to block the plan at meetings in August 1993; the remaining midsize- and small-market teams hoped the Chicago meetings would sway at least three of the 10 clubs.

Interim Commissioner Bud Selig had a significant stake in the agreement. He and his family retained ownership of the small-market Milwaukee Brewers even while Selig oversaw the sport. The Brewers had already dropped mainstays Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, and Jim Gantner, and general manager Sal Bando reportedly needed to cut $5 million off the team’s $25 million payroll before the 1994 season. Many Milwaukee fans saw the offseason meetings as a last-ditch effort to keep the club in Wisconsin.17 Other small-market teams in danger included Cincinnati, Minnesota, Montreal, Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Seattle.

Richard Ravitch, the league’s chief negotiator, insisted that the owners come to a decision regarding revenue before entering into discussions with the players union regarding a new collective-bargaining agreement.18 So important was the revenue deal that many assumed Ravitch would resign if the owners could not resolve the issue in Chicago.19

The Chicago meetings featured numerous caucuses (divided by market size), and at least two different plans. The large-market plan received only 11 votes while Ravitch’s plan garnered 20. Florida and Texas flipped from their original stance, but the deal still fell a vote short when the meetings adjourned. Essentially, the deal could provide as much as $10 million in subsidies to small-market clubs.

Los Angeles Dodgers President Peter O’Malley summed up the conflict by saying, “I was pleasantly surprised with the movement and the amount of money put on the table by the big-market clubs for the small-market clubs today, but this is not just a debate about money. There are a lot of philosophical issues.”20

Compromise in Fort Lauderdale

The owners flew south to continue discussions in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on January 18, 1994. Before the owners even sat down to work out a compromise, rumors indicated that St. Louis and Boston might be the teams to tip the balance in favor of a new revenue-sharing deal.

Two days into the meetings, the owners voted unanimously to approve a revenue-sharing plan proposed by Ravitch. The plan, which would come into effect in 1995, would see the top-earning third subsidizing the bottom third. However, the deal hinged upon the players approving a salary cap, which at the time seemed doubtful.

Players Association executive director Donald Fehr reiterated the union’s stance on the salary cap: “[They] want the union to cooperate in adversely affecting the market. That’s what a salary cap is.”21

Due to the uncertainty of the agreement and the salary-cap negotiations, the owners chose to postpone the decision regarding a long-term commissioner. The search committee had reportedly settled on Northwestern University president Arnold Weber, while George Steinbrenner tried to use his significant clout to push US Olympic Committee executive director Harvey Schiller into the position.22 The owners’ inaction left Bud Selig in the position as interim commissioner.

The animosity between the owners and the players hung over the offseason from that point on. Several publications predicted a work stoppage before the 1994 season, and Richard Ravitch geared up for several rounds of clashes with Donald Fehr. In the absence of a commissioner, Ravitch became chief negotiator for ownership.

Realignment Creates More Opportunity in Baseball

In 1993, teams in the majors had a 14.3 percent chance of making the playoffs, with two divisions in each league sending a team to the postseason, but owners saw an opportunity for increased television revenue through realignment and a wild card.

Realignment long hung over the sport, and many teams made moves in the 1993 offseason with new divisions in mind. In the Fort Lauderdale meetings, the owners made this realignment a reality by implementing a Central Division in each league and adding a wild-card slot to the playoffs.23 This change doubled each team’s chance of appearing in the postseason.

The new rounds in the playoffs also served to ease the tension between the owners and the players. Players would receive 80 percent of the ticket sales for the first three games of the Division Series.24

CONTINUED COLLECTIVE-BARGAINING DISPUTES

For the remainder of the 1993 offseason and into spring training, Ravitch campaigned tirelessly on behalf of the salary cap. The owners pledged not to lock out players, but the players could strike at any point before or during the 1994 season if a collective-bargaining agreement was not reached. Donald Fehr strongly resisted the idea of a salary cap, arguing that the sharing of revenue would put teams on an even playing field and negate the need for a cap.

Ravitch met with the owners once more during their annual meetings in Scottsdale, Arizona, in late February. He developed a plan to open negotiations with Fehr, and Fehr and Ravitch reconvened after a 13-month hiatus when they met on March 7 at a Tampa, Florida, hotel. Players reported to spring training as usual while their union head came to the negotiating table.

While in Florida, Ravitch met directly with players to further his cause. He presented a rather watered-down version of the owners’ plan in hopes that the lack of details would open a dialogue leading to compromise. Fehr, for his part, saw the owners’ absence and lack of transparency as a confirmation of their disinterest in the players’ demands.

“The players care an awful lot about baseball and working with the owners,” Fehr said, “and if the owners shared that view, they would be here. We had 70-odd players here. Not a single owner will come.”25

The continued meetings did not interfere with the start of the 1994 season, which began on Easter Sunday. A sense of foreboding hung over the games, however, with memories of the 1985 strike and 1990 lockout still fresh in many minds.

In mid-April, the owners finally released detailed economic information about each club, a set of documents the players had requested in spring training. With the new information in hand, the union agreed to meet on July 11, the day before the All-Star Game, in addition to a June 3 meeting of team representatives. Meanwhile, the owners met formally and informally throughout the season to adjust their proposal to the union.

On June 7-9, the owners convened at the Westin Hotel in Cincinnati to work on a final proposal regarding the salary cap and to select a new American League president. At these meetings, owners pushed to amend the Major League Agreement; prior to the 1994 season, a strike could be settled by a simple majority, but the resolution at the Cincinnati meetings changed the rule to a three-fourths approval.

The Players Association criticized the move heavily. Donald Fehr said, “That is not a step in the right direction. It’s a direction of people preparing for war.”26

When the owners’ 27-page proposal finally made its way to the players, the union scoffed. The owners hoped to reduce free-agency eligibility to four years and to eliminate arbitration entirely. A more contentious point was revenue-sharing between players and owners. Prior to the 1994 season, the players’ share of the revenue from major-league baseball had risen from 42 percent to 58 percent in five years. The owners’ proposal would bring that share back down to 50 percent, costing the players $80 million to $90 million.27

CONGRESSIONAL ACTION

On top of the ongoing battle between management and the players union in the majors, Senator Howard Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) introduced a bill that, if passed, could change the course of the labor dispute entirely. Metzenbaum sought to repeal baseball’s antitrust exemption. Major-league baseball, at the time, was the only sport to have an antitrust exemption, and the passage of this bill would give players a legal avenue to pursue their grievances without a complete work stoppage.

Unfortunately for the union (and for fans who wanted an end to the bickering), the Senate Judiciary Committee shot down Metzenbaum’s bill by a vote of 10 to 7. Metzenbaum, discouraged by the loss, accused the owners of buying votes with the promise of expansion franchises, an accusation that was roundly denied by Bud Selig.28

A STANDSTILL LEADS TO A STRIKE

Without a meeting of the minds taking place over the All-Star break, Bud Selig pushed the issue even further. He claimed that 19 teams (out of the majors’ 28) were operating in the red so far in 1994, a claim that would later be rebutted by Donald Fehr.

Shortly after Selig’s statement, the players made their counter-offer. Not surprisingly, they rejected outright the proposal of a salary cap and, instead, requested that eligibility for salary arbitration be reduced from three years of service to two and that the minimum salary be raised from $109,000 to at least $175,000. Within a week, Richard Ravitch rejected the players’ proposal.

This final rejection led the Players Association to set August 12 as the strike date. On July 28, the 31 players on the executive board voted to effectively end the season, bypassing the playoffs, on that date.29 Mike Greenwell of the Boston Red Sox did not mince words, saying, “Let’s be honest: We don’t plan to give in and they don’t. This game is in trouble.”30

A few owners stood in opposition to the hard line that Richard Ravitch walked. Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf saw the salary cap as a boon to balance his losses under the new revenue-sharing plan, and first-year Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos publicly disavowed Ravitch’s stance that the players were to blame for the impending strike.

Baseball fans across the country were understandably dismayed by the threatened strike. Fan groups urged counter-protests. Even President Bill Clinton offered his diplomatic skills to put the conflict to rest.

But as the calendar turned to August, another point of contention rose between the owners and the players. The owners missed the August 1 deadline for their annual payment to the players’ pension fund. The payment, based on revenue from the All-Star Game, would have totaled $7.59 million. Ravitch justified the withheld funds by saying, “I think when you’re in the midst of collective bargaining and there’s no agreement, it’s absolutely normal not to make a payment of this nature.”31

In the waning days before the strike took effect, the owners and union came together to lay ground rules. Players would be paid until the day before the strike, and if they happened to be on the road at midnight on August 11, the players would have to pay their fare home.32 Players would collectively lose approximately $5 million, but the union’s strike fund of at least $175 million would cover those losses. For their part, the owners kept a $260 million line of credit in the event of a strike.33

The day after players walked off the field, Ravitch and Fehr requested a mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in hopes that the intervention would save at least the playoffs, if not the season. Meanwhile, teams like the Montreal Expos and New York Yankees, started to drop nonessential personnel from their payroll.

On September 1, the day that major-league rosters can expand to 40 players, the Pittsburgh Pirates, Texas Rangers, and Chicago Cubs each decided to recall players from their minor-league system. With the strike in effect, those players no longer received the salary that they had been receiving with the lower-level club. For example, Pirates pitcher Randy Tomlin lost out on $5,328 per day after being recalled.34 This added fuel to the labor-negotiation fire.

On September 14, interim Commissioner Selig declared an end to the 1994 season. A last-ditch effort by the union failed to sway the owners. For the first time since 1904, the World Series was canceled. Selig announced the cancellation with the support of 26 of the 28 owners.35 (The two dissenting voices belonged to Orioles owner Peter Angelos and Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott.)

The financial cost of the strike proved detrimental to both players and owners. Players lost $150 million in salary over the course of the strike, and the cancellation cost the owners an estimated $600 million. The battle continued throughout the 1994 offseason and into the 1995 season, making it the longest strike in major-league baseball history.

Notes

1 Murray Chass. “Going, Going, Sold: Orioles Auctioned for $173 Million,” New York Times, August 3, 1993: B9.

2 After the strike-shortened 1994 season, Montreal, led by Malone, sold off most of its talent, leading to a decade of irrelevance and an eventual move to Washington.

3 Herzog spent 38 years involved in MLB in some way, beginning his playing career with the Washington Senators in 1956. He gained fame as a manager, and his philosophy of small ball and hard-nosed defense brought his St. Louis Cardinals a World Series championship in 1982. The Cardinals retired Herzog’s number shortly after he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010.

4 In the three-day span of the 1992 meetings, teams spent $225 million on 35 free agents, according to USA Today. See “Winter Meetings Split,” USA Today, November 1, 1993: 7C.

5 Mark Maske, “Most GMs Prepare to Cut Payrolls; It’s New Ballgame During Offseason,” Washington Post, November 7, 1993: D08.

6 Trammell spent 19 seasons playing for the Detroit Tigers, winning four Gold Glove Awards and three Silver Slugger Awards. He returned to the Tigers as the manager from 2003 to 2005, amassing a 185-298 record.

7 The resultant network, The Baseball Network, paved the way for such sport-owned networks today as the NFL Network and MLB TV. But the network lasted only until 1995, when baseball aligned with Fox Sports, a broadcast partnership that as of 2017 was contracted to last until 2021.

8 Bonds’ 1992 contract broke the record for most guaranteed money at $43.75 million, but it wouldn’t even fall in the top 100 contracts of all time. Giancarlo Stanton’s 2015 deal guaranteed him $325 million over 13 years, the richest contract signed as of July 2016.

9 For example, in 1983, the New York Mets led the league in team payroll at $11.6 million. By 1993, the Toronto Blue Jays took top honors with a team payroll of $51.9 million. Ten years later, in 2003, the New York Yankees paid out $149.7 million, and in 2013, the Yankees paid out $228.8 million.

10 Many of these rookies were implicated in the scandals of the Steroid Era. All-Stars Matt Lawton, Mike Cameron, and Alex Rodriguez each served a ban for violating baseball’s drug policy. Jason Giambi, Andy Pettitte, Gregg Zaun, and Paul Byrd were all named in the Mitchell Report but did not serve any bans imposed by major-league baseball.

11 Laura Lippman, “Relief at Last,” Baltimore Sun, October 19, 1995.

12 “Tragedy Strikes Again for Indians Baseball,” Los Angeles Times, November 6, 1993: 2.

13 Ross Newhan, “A Wild Day in Baseball Transactions,” Los Angeles Times, December 3, 1993: 1.

14 Ross Newhan, “Some Baseball Officials Frown at Owners’ Curve on Meetings,” Los Angeles Times, December 9, 1993: 5.

15 The future Hall of Famer, known as “The Big Unit,” donned pinstripes for two years, earning a career-high $16 million.

16 Murray Chass, “Baseball Is Considering New Round of Expansion,” New York Times, December 7, 1993: B15.

17 Tom Haudricourt, “Brewers’ Future in Owners’ Hands; Important meeting Thursday,” Milwaukee Sentinel, January 4, 1994: 4B.

18 Murray Chass, “Snow Blows, Fog Arrives, Revenue Meetings Swirl,” New York Times, January 7, 1994.

19 Haudricourt.

20 Ross Newhan, “One Vote Shy of Accord,” Los Angeles Times, January 7, 1994: 14.

21 Mark Maske, “Baseball to Share Revenue; Conditional Plan Adopted by Owners,” Washington Post, January 19, 1994: B1.

22 Mark Maske, “First in Owners’ Lineup — a Commissioner; Meetings Lead Off With Search for Boss,” Washington Post, January 17. 1994: C4.

23 Claire Smith, “Central Divisions Added to Baseball’s Lineup,” New York Times, January 20, 1994.

24 The 1994 season ended in a strike so the divisional alignment experiment would not take place until the 1995 postseason. No further changes to the playoff structure would take place until 2013, when a second wild card was added.

25 Murray Chass, “Owners Promise to Open the Books,” New York Times, March 8, 1994: B16.

26 Jerome Holtzman, “Union Cries Foul After Owners Pass Strike Amendment,” Chicago Tribune, June 9, 1994: 3.

27 Larry Whiteside, “Players’ Union Not Ready to Play Ball With Owners,” Boston Globe, June 15, 1994: 52.

28 Richard Justice, “Exemption Survives Senate,” Washington Post, June 24, 1994: C4A.

29 July 28, 1994, featured another historic baseball moment: Kenny Rogers of the Texas Rangers tossed the 12th perfect game in baseball history (13 if one counts Don Larsen’s gem in the 1956 World Series).

30 Bob Berghaus, “Battle Lines Are Drawn as Strike Date Is Set for Aug. 12,” Milwaukee Journal, July 29, 1994: 1C.

31 “Pension Dispute Latest Snag in Strike Talks,” Chicago Tribune, August 3, 1994: 2.

32 In solidarity with the players, Donald Fehr refused to be paid his seven-figure salary once the strike began. Richard Ravitch, on the other hand, continued to be paid his $750,000 annual salary.

33 Ross Newhan, “Players Vow Readiness for a Long Strike,” Los Angeles Times, August 10, 1994.

34 “Recall of Players Sparks More Conflict,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 2, 1994: 4C.

35 Murray Chass, “Owners Terminate Season, Without the World Series.” New York Times, September 15, 1994.

One of baseball’s highest-regarded feats is the cycle: “A single, double, triple, and home run (not necessarily in that order) hit by a player in the same game.”1 In the history of major league baseball (1876–2023) there have been 351 documented regular-season cycles, including seven in the Negro Leagues.2 The distribution of the starting defensive positions of the players who achieved these cycles is provided in Table 1.

No starting pitcher has ever achieved the feat.3 With the notable exception of Shohei Ohtani, pitchers have rarely batted since 1973 in the AL and since 2022 in the NL. Thus, the feat of achieving a cycle is limited to non-pitchers, and the cycle has become a de facto “Batter’s Cycle” (BC). What about pitchers? How about a cycle exclusively for pitchers?

The three principal goals of the research described in this article are:

1. Devise a viable definition for a Pitcher’s Cycle that is equivalent to the Batter’s Cycle.
2. Compile a list of all Pitcher’s Cycles from 1893 forward.
3. Highlight the special features and characteristics of the various Pitcher’s Cycles.

To pursue the first objective, I looked up various definitions for the word “cycle.” I wanted to adhere to the basic definition of a cycle, “a sequence of a recurring succession of events or phenomena,” and create an equivalent to the batter’s cycle: a series of pitching achievements commensurate to a batter collecting the series of types of safe hit.4 A batter’s primary objective is to get on base, which he can achieve entirely by himself by getting a safe hit, of which there are the four types. A pitcher’s primary objective is to retire the batter, which he can do entirely by himself by striking out the batter, who occupies one of the nine positions in the batting order.5

Since a regulation baseball game consists of nine innings, a seemingly reasonable cycle would require the pitcher to strike out at least one batter in each inning. However, this definition has a couple issues. First, not all games last nine innings. Some are shortened due to weather, some go into extra innings, and some forego the bottom of the ninth because the home team is ahead. This variability would lead to different categories of Pitcher’s Cycles, such as a six-inning PC or a seven-inning PC. Second, a player could achieve a PC by striking out a few players multiple times. While striking out at least one batter in each inning of a regulation nine-inning game is a noteworthy accomplishment, it doesn’t merit the same level of regard accorded to the BC.

Since there are nine different players in the batting lineup, a reasonable cycle would be for the pitcher to strike out each of the opposing batters at least once in a game. One difficulty with this idea is that a player could be replaced before the pitcher had a chance to face him. To address this circumstance, the concept can be modified slightly: the pitcher must strike out at least one batter from each of the nine recurring batting slots. This would still require the hurler to fan at least nine different batters in the same game. And since, in a regulation nine-inning game, the batting order recurs at least three times, adherence to the basic definition of a cycle is achieved. Furthermore, in striking out at least one player from each of the nine batting slots, the pitcher achieves a complete set (series) of strikeout victims.

Thus, my definition of a Pitcher’s Cycle: “The series of at least one player from each of the nine repeating batting slots (not necessarily in order) struck out by one pitcher in the same game.”

My definition of a Pitcher’s Cycle essentially paraphrases The Dickson Baseball Dictionary definition of a Batter’s Cycle.6 Similarly, while a batter hits for his cycle, a pitcher hurls for his cycle. A batter collects specific hits for his cycle while a pitcher collects specific strikeouts for his cycle. While the Pitcher’s Cycle requires a player to pitch at least three innings, it does not require the player to be a starting pitcher. Moreover, just like there is no limit to the number of plate appearances it takes a player to achieve the Batter’s Cycle, there is no limit to the number of innings it takes a player to achieve the Pitcher’s Cycle.7

With a viable definition of a Pitcher’s Cycle in place, the next step was identifying the players who accomplished the feat. The 1893 season was chosen as the starting point because that was the first year for the current 60’ 6″ distance between the pitcher’s rubber and home plate.

RESEARCH PROCEDURE

Since a player needs a minimum of nine strikeouts to accomplish the Pitcher’s Cycle, I started by generating a list of pitchers who amassed at least 9 strikeouts in an “ML” game. “ML” is enclosed in quotation marks to indicate that only the National, American, and Federal Leagues were considered for the research described in this article. My research on Pitcher’s Cycles achieved in the Negro Leagues has been initiated and the results will be disseminated as soon as possible.

For the 1893–1900 period, I utilized the game-by-game pitching statistics provided in the ICI (Information Concepts Incorporated) sheets, digitized versions of which were graciously provided to me by Retrosheet’s Dave Smith. For the 1901–2023 period, I used Baseball Reference’s indispensable Stathead search engine. I queried for pitchers with nine or more strikeouts, then examined the box score and play-by-play to ascertain the batting order of the victims.

There are 87 games from the 1901–1915 period for which the box scores omit strikeout information about the batters. Fortunately, Jonathan Frankel has done some phenomenal research on strikeouts for the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He graciously provided information that filled many of the gaps.8 Nonetheless, 54 games remain for which it has not yet been determined whether the pitcher achieved a Pitcher’s Cycle. See Supplement A below for pertinent information for these 54 games. Finally, John Rickert graciously wrote a computer program using the Retrosheet database to confirm the validity of my methodology for the 1901–2023 seasons.9

RESULTS

From 1893 to 2023, there were (at least) 483 Pitcher’s Cycles by 276 different players, along with 316 Batter’s Cycles by 279 different players.10 Despite a difference of 167, the two sums are in the same ballpark and have the same order of magnitude. Table 2 provides a decade-by-decade comparison and Figure 1 provides a graphical comparison of the corresponding cumulative numbers.

Table 2 shows that the bulk of the 167-cycle difference has occurred in the last few decades; starting in 1990 and picking up speed in 2010. Thus, while the number of Batter’s Cycles was greater than the number of Pitcher’s Cycles for nearly every decade up to the 1940s, the situation has been reversed since the 1950s. The total number of Pitcher’s Cycles surpassed the total number of Batter’s Cycles during the 1990s. From 1949 to 2019, home runs increased by 81.3% while strikeouts increased by 139.9%.11 Pitchers are throwing harder and batters are focused on exit velocity and launch angles. These changes unavoidably lead to more strikeouts and more Pitcher’s Cycles.

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Because the Pitcher’s Cycle is a new concept, it features several aspects that merit exposition, such as a team-by-team summary of PCs, the chronology of the career leaders, and postseason PCs. These topics and others are covered in the Appendix and Supplement below.12 The remainder of this article will focus on these four topics:

1. Relief Pitcher’s Cycles
2. Perfect Pitcher’s Cycles
3. Super Pitcher’s Cycles
4. The only major-league player with both a Batter’s Cycle and a Pitcher’s Cycle

1. RELIEF PITCHER’S CYCLES

As seen in Table 3, Six of the players who achieved a Pitcher’s Cycle did so in relief. Also, as described in Appendix G, Jesse Barnes earned a relief PC in the 1921 World Series.

Rube Marquard took over for Christy Mathewson after the first inning. Big Six pitched an uneventful first inning, but in the bottom of the frame, the Giants scored 13 runs. “Having the game on ice, [manager John] McGraw made several changes in his lineup. He took Mathewson out of the box, so as to save him for another game and he put Marquard in the box.”13 Marquard carved out his Pitcher’s Cycle as the Giants emerged victorious, 19–5. Mathewson was credited with the win and Marquard was retroactively credited with a save.14

Gene Conley essentially pitched a complete game that he did not start. Starter Seth Morehead got rocked by the Cubs in the first frame, allowing a single to leadoff batter Tony Taylor, hitting the next batter, George Altman, walking the third batter, Lee Walls, and surrendering a bases-clearing double to clean-up hitter Ernie Banks. Conley came in from the bullpen at this point. The fireman got next batter, Bobby Thomson, to fly out, but then yielded an RBI triple to John Goryl before striking out Alvin Dark and Cal Neeman. Conley pitched rest of game, striking out 11 and blanking the Cubs for nine innings (a full-route pseudo-shutout).15 Unfortunately, the Phillies were unable to overcome the first-inning deficit, losing 4–3. Morehead was charged with the loss. “Gene Conley pitched nine shutout innings for the Philadelphia Phillies today,” wrote the Associated Press, “but had nothing to show for his efforts except self-satisfaction. In all, he fanned 11, two shy of the club record held by Ray Benge, Robin Roberts, and Jack Sanford, and whiffed every Cub in the starting lineup at least once. Conley, now figured to move into the Phils starting rotation, was obviously pleased with his performance. ‘I’m ready now,’ he said after the game. ‘This is just what I needed. I’m ready for whatever the skipper (Eddie Sawyer) wants me to do, starting or relieving.’”16

Dave Hillman, who started for the Cubs in Conley’s relief Pitcher’s Cycle, achieved his own relief PC just a few weeks later. In an “It’s-déjà-vu-all-over-again” twist, Seth Morehead, who had been traded from the Phillies to the Cubs on May 12, was once again the starting pitcher. Morehead walked Dodgers leadoff batter Junior Gilliam and gave up a single to Charlie Neal before he struck out Don Demeter. He then intentionally walked Gil Hodges immediately before Rip Repulski smashed a bases-clearing double. After walking Dick Gray, he was replaced by Hillman. Hillman threw a wild pitch to Johnny Roseboro, then walked him intentionally. Hillman then got things under control by striking out pinch hitter Duke Snider and opposing pitcher Stan Williams. Hillman pitched brilliantly for 72⁄3 innings to complete the bottom of the eighth. In the top of the ninth, the Cubs rallied for a pair of runs to take a 7–5 lead. In the bottom of the ninth, Hillman walked Snider to lead off the inning. Don Elston was then summoned from the bullpen and retired the next three batters to secure the triumph for Chicago. Elston was rewarded (retroactively) with a save and Hillman was awarded the W, a nice complement to his second Pitcher’s Cycle. He earned the first as a starting pitcher in 1958.

Dick Radatz earned his Pitcher’s Cycle in an ideal payback manner. Radatz, nicknamed “The Monster,” achieved his PC in a duel of relief pitchers at Tiger Stadium on June 11, 1963. Going into the bottom of the seventh, the BoSox clung to a 3–2 lead. Southpaw Wilbur Wood was on the hump for the Red Sox. Don Wert led off with a single and Dick McAuliffe sacrificed him to second. With Tigers starter Jim Bunning due up, Detroit manager Bob Scheffing called on the right-handed Bill Freehan to pinch hit. Boston Manager Johnny Pesky countered by calling on the Monster, a right-hander. Scheffing went to his bench again, summoning left-swinging Whitey Herzog to bat for Freehan. Radatz proceeded to strike out Herzog before passing Jake Wood. That brought up Bubba Phillips, a right-handed batter, and more managerial chess. Scheffing called on the left-handed batting Bill Bruton to pinch-hit for Phillips. Pesky stood pat with Radatz. Bruton delivered a single to knock in Wert with the tying run, which was officially charged to Wood. Radatz induced a groundout from Al Kaline to end the inning. While Radatz was not charged with Wert’s run, he was retroactively charged with a blown save. The game remained knotted going into the top of the 15th inning, at which point the Red Sox took a 7–3 lead. In the last of the 15th, the Monster struck out pinch-hitter Frank Kostro and got Jake Wood to pop out, bringing up Bill Bruton. As it had happened, Bruton’s number-two spot was the only strikeout Radatz needed. He simultaneously secured the victory and the PC: a Walk-off Strikeout Pitcher’s Cycle.

Randy Johnson got his record-breaking eighth NL Pitcher’s Cycle in a bizarre relief role against the Padres on July 19, 2001. The night before, Arizona’s starting pitcher, Curt Schilling, had set down the first six batters in order. The D-backs had pushed across a run to provide a 1–0 lead going into the top of the third. With the bases empty and nobody out, Schilling was in the batter’s box. The count was 0-and-2. “Transformer Explosion Suspends Padres Game” was the headline in the next day’s newspaper story.17 After a delay of over an hour, the backup lighting was deemed inadequate and the game was suspended, to be completed the next day as the first game of a “doubleheader.” Upon resumption the next day, Brian Anderson replaced Schilling in the batter’s box; he struck out looking and the strikeout was charged to Schilling. Johnson replaced Anderson in the Arizona lineup and nearly tossed a perfect game. He walked just one batter and gave up one hit, a harmless single. He struck out 16. After the game, Johnson said, “By no means do I go out and try to strike people out. It’s probably one of the hardest things to do, especially against major league hitters. But I got in a groove. [Catcher] Damian [Miller] made some big blocks when I threw my breaking ball in the dirt.”18 Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenly jokingly added, “He may be the best long man, huh.”

Tyler Alexander established an amazing relief-pitcher record in the first game of a doubleheader at Comerica Park. With each game scheduled for seven innings because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Alexander entered in the top of third with the Reds leading his Tigers, 3–0. Nick Castellanos had just hit a homer off starting pitcher Rony Garcia. Alexander struck out the next three batters in succession: Mike Moustakas (five pitches, swinging), Eugenio Suarez (three pitches, looking), and Jesse Winker (three pitches, swinging). In the top of the fourth, Alexander struck out the side: Nick Senzel (four pitches, swinging), Josh VanMeter (three pitches, looking), and Freddy Galvis (eight pitches, swinging). Alexander did it again in the fifth: Tucker Barnhart (four pitches, looking), Shogo Akiyama (four pitches, looking), and Castellanos (five pitches, swinging). The Detroit Free Press wrote, “Nine men up. Nine men down [via strikeouts]. It tied an American League record, set by the Tigers’ Doug Fister against the Royals on September 27, 2012. Alexander’s reaction—somewhere between ‘meh’ and ‘whatever’—was perhaps as bewildering as his pitches. ‘I don’t know about special,’ he said. ‘I normally don’t try to strike people out. But I would say that after about the fifth strikeout I was trying to strike people out. I don’t know about special. We were just trying to get outs and keep us in it. It’s surprising, I guess,’ he said. ‘I normally do throw a lot of strikes, and when I miss, I miss over the plate. I made a big focus on missing down. I didn’t have very many bad misses and the mistakes I made were in the dirt so it gave me a chance for them to swing at it.’ Alexander wasn’t aware of the record until it was announced in the [virtually empty] stadium after he struck out Castellanos to end the fifth inning.”19 In the top of the sixth, Alexander terminated his string of strikeouts by hitting Moustakas.

2. PERFECT PITCHER’S CYCLES

When a pitcher strikes out nine batters in succession, he automatically achieves a Pitcher’s Cycle, as just described. Such a feat is herewith dubbed a Perfect Pitcher’s Cycle.20 Table 4 shows the 13 documented Perfect Pitcher’s Cycles. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw one each. So far there have been 11 in the twenty-first century. Nice snippets about each of the Perfect Pitcher’s Cycles are available in an article on MLB.com.21 For four (or five) of the players, the Perfect Pitcher’s Cycle was the only PC they achieved in their big-league careers. Mickey Welch and Pablo López achieved their Perfect Pitcher Cycles at the beginning of the game, while Tom Seaver ended the game with his. For Welch’s 1884 Perfect Pitcher’s Cycle, the distance from the front of the pitcher’s box to home plate was only 50 feet.

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3. SUPER PITCHER’S CYCLES

As mentioned previously, striking out at least one batter in each inning of a nine-inning game is a noteworthy accomplishment, though it doesn’t quite measure up to the Batter’s Cycle. However, combining that achievement with a Pitcher’s Cycle affords an impressive feat herewith termed a “Super Pitcher’s Cycle.”22 To earn credit for a Super Pitcher’s Cycle, the player must strike out at least one batter in each of nine consecutive innings and at least one batter from each of the nine batting slots. A complete game is not required, so he could be removed after striking out a batter in the ninth inning or enter with an out already recorded in the first. The Super Pitcher’s Cycle has been achieved 31 times by 23 players. Tables 5a and 5b present the pertinent details for the players who achieved a Super Pitcher’s Cycle.

Four of those pitchers did not hurl complete games: Johnny Allen (1934), Mike Flanagan (1978), Nolan Ryan (1986), and Randy Johnson (2001). Allen struck out Eric McNair for the second out in the ninth inning, but injured his arm in the process and had to leave the game. Flanagan was replaced by Don Stanhouse to start the 10th inning with the score tied, 2–2. Ryan was relieved in the 10th inning with two runners on and one out in a scoreless game. Johnson was replaced to begin the 10th inning with the score tied, 1–1. Five players achieved multiple Super Pitcher’s Cycles: Sandy Koufax (2), Tom Seaver (2), Ryan (4), Roger Clemens (3), and Pedro Martinez (2). Bill Hallahan achieved the first Super PC (1931). It was the only PC in his career. Vince Velasquez earned the most recent Super PC in 2015. Perhaps the most phenomenal Super PC was accomplished by Nolan Ryan. The Express struck out at least one batter in each of the 11 innings he pitched en route to a 19-K Super PC performance. In spite of this stellar complete-game effort, he lost the game, 1–0. Finally, as described in Appendix G, Bob Gibson accomplished a Super Pitcher’s Cycle in Game 1 of the 1968 World Series.

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4. THE ONLY PLAYER WITH BOTH A BATTER’S CYCLE AND A PITCHER’S CYCLE: SHOHEI OHTANI

Shohei Ohtani has achieved one Batter’s Cycle (thus far) in his major-league career, on June 13, 2019, at Tropicana Field versus the Tampa Bay Rays. Batting third as the Angels’ designated hitter, Ohtani slugged a three-run homer off Ryan Yarborough in the first inning, doubled off him in the third, and tripled off him in the fifth. He singled off Hunter Wood in the seventh. Fittingly, the Angels won the game, 5–3, thanks in part to the four runs Ohtani produced. In the batting cage before his final at bat, Ohtani expressed to infielder David Fletcher that more than anything he wanted to increase the Angels’ tenuous two-run lead. “I went and saw him in the cage and said, ‘all you need is a single,’” Fletcher said. “He was like, ‘No, I want another homer.’ I don’t think he was trying to hit a single. He was definitely trying to hit another homer if you watch the at bat. But I’m glad he got the single.”23

After the game Ohtani said through a translator, “You need some power to hit the home run, some speed to accomplish a triple. To be able to do that at the major league level is going to lead to a lot of confidence. The important thing now is to try to continue this tomorrow.” He then added, “I wasn’t necessarily trying to hit a single. I was just trying to get on base, whether it was a base on balls or any other way because it was still a close game.”24 Responding to a postgame question about being the first Japanese player to hit for the cycle, Ohtani said, “Simply very happy to accomplish this. There’s been so many great Japanese players that have come before me. Being the first one to accomplish it [makes me] really happy and makes for a lot of confidence down the road.”25

Ohtani has achieved two Pitcher’s Cycles (thus far) in his major-league career. The first came on April 20, 2022, at Minute Maid Park against the Houston Astros. Ohtani struck out a dozen over six innings. In the first, he fanned leadoff batter Jeremy Pena (slot one) and Michael Brantley (two). In the second he whiffed clean-up hitter Yordan Alvarez (four). He struck out the side in the third and fourth: Niko Goodrum (seven), Jason Castro (eight), and Jose Siri (nine), Pena, Brantley, and Alex Bregman (three). Alvarez flied out in the fifth, snapping Ohtani’s string of six consecutive strikeouts. Ohtani then resumed his strikeout clinic by fanning Kyle Tucker (five) and Yuri Gurriel (six), giving him the Pitcher’s Cycle. Also of significance, Ohtani had retired each of the first 15 batters; he was hurling a perfect game. In the sixth, he fanned leadoff batter Goodrum for his 12th strikeout, but Castro lined a single to center, breaking up the perfecto. Ohtani closed out the frame with a popout, a walk, and a groundout. “Ohtani threw 81 pitches [55 strikes] on a night [Angels manager Joe] Maddon had said he would be limited to 85. But, Maddon said after the game that he would not have pulled him with a perfect game intact regardless of the pitch count. ‘There’s no number,’ Maddon said. ‘He was going to pitch a perfect game. I’m not going to get in the way of a player’s greatness—ever.’ Ohtani was asked if he was thinking about the perfect game. ‘I was aware of it, but I knew the pitch count was getting up there, and I was thinking I wouldn’t be able to finish it,’ he said. Ohtani was also the designated hitter, batting leadoff for the Angels. Facing Jake Odorizzi, he started the game by drawing a base on balls, and, as the Angels proceeded to bat around, he also clouted a two-RBI double off Blake Taylor. In the third, facing Cristian Javier, he lined out to third base. In the top of the sixth, again squaring off against Javier, he bunted for a single. After leaving the mound, Ohtani flied out to left in the bottom of the eighth. The final result was a 6–0 triumph for the Angels, with Ohtani as the winning pitcher. “Ohtani was asked if it was his top performance in the majors. ‘It could be,’ he said with a smile in Japanese through a translator.” He had achieved the Pitcher’s Cycle and was halfway to a Batter’s Cycle.

Ohtani’s second PC came on May 3, 2023, at Busch Stadium. He hurled the first five innings, striking out 13 Cardinals. In the bottom of the first, he fanned leadoff batter Lars Nootbaar (slot one), Paul Goldschmidt (two), and Wilson Contreras (five). He also gave up a homer to Nolan Gorman. Ohtani whiffed three batters in the second: Dylan Carlson (seven), Brendan Donovan (eight), and Tommy Edman (nine). In the third inning he atoned for the homer he yielded by striking out Gorman (three) and Nootbaar. In the fourth, Ohtani struck out Alec Burleson (six) and Donovan, but he was touched for three runs on two doubles and another home run (by Carlson). In the fifth, he struck out three: Nootbaar (for the third time), Goldschmidt (for the second time), and Nolan Arenado (four), giving him the Pitcher’s Cycle. At the end of five innings, the Angels trailed, 4–3. Ohtani had thrown 97 pitches while striking out 13 batters. His 13th strikeout was the 500th of his career, putting him in select company: in major-league history, only he and Babe Ruth have accumulated 500 strikeouts and 100 home runs.27

Wrote Rhett Bollinger, “Ohtani had a strange start outside of his strikeout total, however, as he allowed four extra-base hits, walked a batter, hit another and threw two wild pitches. So while it was special for Ohtani to reach yet another milestone, he was frustrated he only made it through five frames. ‘I gave up a couple homers and I wanted to get through six or seven innings, minimum,’ Ohtani said through interpreter Ippei Mizuhara. ‘So more than the strikeouts, I’m just disappointed I couldn’t pitch deeper in the game.’”28 Ohtani made three plate appearances as the pitcher. He singled in the first, then again in the third, driving in a run to give the Angels a 2–1 lead. He popped out in the fifth. Ohtani had two plate appearances as the DH. He grounded out in the seventh and doubled in the ninth, eventually coming around to score the go-ahead run.

SUMMARY

A viable definition of a Pitcher’s Cycle has been devised to characterize a feat commensurate with the Batter’s Cycle. From 1893 to 2023, there were 483 Pitcher’s Cycles, achieved by 276 different pitchers. At present, Randy Johnson holds the career records for the most Pitcher’s Cycles in the major leagues (21) and the National League (11). He shares the American League record (10) with Chris Sale. Because of the huge increase in strikeouts during the past few decades, Pitcher’s Cycles have become more frequent than Batter’s Cycles, perhaps dimming the luster of the PC. From 1893 to 1949 (57 seasons), there were 113 BCs and 41 PCs, a difference of negative 72. From 1950 to 1999 (50 seasons), the corresponding numbers were 105 and 185, a difference of positive 80. From 2000 to 2023 (only 24 seasons), the corresponding numbers are 98 and 257, a difference of positive 159. Of the 13 Perfect Pitcher’s Cycles, 11 were achieved since 2007. Super Pitcher’s Cycles have been accomplished 31 times by 23 pitchers; Nolan Ryan holds the record with four Super PCs. Shohei Ohtani is the only player in history with both a Batter’s Cycle and a Pitcher’s Cycle.

DISCUSSION

The most important question is whether the Pitcher’s Cycle, as defined here, is as noteworthy a feat as the Batter’s Cycle. Table 6 lists some typical single-game batter’s feats, along with (in my opinion) commensurate feats for pitchers.29

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Based on the information provided in Table 6, I contend that the answer is a resounding yes! The Pitcher’s Cycle is a noteworthy feat, just as the Batter’s Cycle is. Significantly, the Pitcher’s Cycle and the Batter’s Cycle are accomplishments achieved—entirely by the player himself—via skill. However, it would be fair to describe both the Pitcher’s Cycle and the Batter’s Cycle as quirky or fluky.

With regard to skill, achieving the Batter’s Cycle requires the batter to employ each of the three keystone skills of offense: collecting four hits in a game requires hitting for average, collecting three extra-base hits requires hitting for power, and hitting a double and a triple requires speed. However, the requirement of collecting each of the four types of hits in one game imparts quirkiness and/or flukiness to the Batter’s Cycle. A player can use expertise to specifically try for a single by bunting or employing the Willie Keeler approach of hitting ’em where they ain’t. Similarly, a player can swing for the fences to purposely try for a home run. However, doubles and especially triples are not likely to be achieved by a player trying to specifically hit them on purpose. Thus, while each individual type of base hit requires skill, assembling the complete series involves some luck. To wit, when Rod Carew achieved his Batter’s Cycle on May 20, 1970, he told reporters, “Lots of luck. That’s it, lots of luck.”30 At least two players, Kelly Gruber and Jeff Frye, eschewed a sure extra-base hit by “skillfully” stopping at first base complete the Batter’s Cycle with a single.31

Achieving the Pitcher’s Cycle also requires skill. Strikeouts are valued especially because they preclude balls in play that could result in an error or an out that allows an existing base runner to advance. There are different types of hitters, such as free swingers, go-with-the-pitch hitters, high-ball hitters, and so on. As with the Batter’s Cycle, while skill is needed to strike out any one batter, striking out at least one batter from each batting slot requires some luck. To illustrate this, let’s consider these two games:

• September 21, 1954, (2nd) at Fenway Park: Frank Sullivan of the Boston Red Sox emerged with a 4–3 victory over the Philadelphia Athletics. He surrendered eight hits and issued three walks in 81⁄3 innings before being relieved. He allowed two earned runs on solo homers by Jim Finigan and Bill Renna. He struck out nine batters, one from each slot, earning the Pitcher’s Cycle. After the game, Sullivan said, “I wasn’t pitching right. My back is killing me. I hope I didn’t hurt myself.”
• May 11, 2016, at Nationals Park: Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals emerged with a 3–2 victory over the Detroit Tigers. He threw a complete game, walking none and scattering six hits. Both runs were earned, coming on solo homers by Jose Iglesias and J.D. Martinez. Scherzer struck out 20 batters, at least one in each inning, but, he did not earn the Pitcher’s Cycle. He failed to strike out Victor Martinez, the clean-up hitter, who went 3-for-4 with three singles and a groundout. After the game Scherzer said, “There’s something [special] about 20. Tonight was an emotional game, facing a former team and all those guys I have so much respect for. And so to have a game like this against that caliber of hitter on their side, it really puts a feather in my cap.” Going into the ninth inning, Scherzer had already set down 18 batters on strikes, giving him the chance to tie Tom Cheney’s single-game record of 21 strikeouts. “It crossed my mind,” said Scherzer. “I was thinking of all the different scenarios in an 0–2 count that I could do to be able to get that last strikeout.” Instead, James McCann ended the game by grounding into a 5–4 force out. Nonetheless, Scherzer’s 20 K’s equaled the record for strikeouts in a nine-inning game, shared by Roger Clemens (1986 and 1996), Kerry Wood (1998), and Randy Johnson (2001). “That’s some serious company,” said Scherzer. “It won’t sink in right now, but it’s an amazing accomplishment. Had to go through some tough, tough hitters there with Miggy [Miguel Cabrera], J.D., and Victor, and all those guys over there. Those guys are unbelievable and they gave me a heck of time tonight.”33

While Scherzer turned in a phenomenally skillful performance, he was not fortunate enough to achieve the Pitcher’s Cycle. It would have marked the fourth PC of his career (he currently has eight). Sullivan turned in an acceptably skillful performance while fortunately accomplishing his first and only PC.

The first use of the word “cycle” to describe a player collecting a single, double, triple, and home run in one game was in 1921; after 70 cycles had already been achieved: “George Sisler on August 13 [1921] hit the cycle by getting on [via] a single, double, triple, and home run, and by getting an extra double in the same game.”34 Furthermore, as Mike Huber and Allison Davidson subsequently reported, the term did not again appear in print over the next 10 years, during which time another 22 cycles were achieved. According to Huber and Davidson, “By 1938, it seems that the phrase [“hitting for the cycle”] to describe this rare event was indeed commonplace.”35 So while nowadays regarded as a prestigious feat, the Batter’s Cycle had an induction period of roughly 60 years. The Pitcher’s Cycle, if also eventually deemed a prestigious feat by baseball fans, might follow a similar course. 

HERM KRABBENHOFT is a retired chemist (PhD, University of Michigan, 1974) and author of Leadoff Batters of Major League Baseball (McFarland, 2001). Among various baseball research topics he has pioneered are: Ultimate Grand Slam Homers, Consecutive Games On Base Safely (CGOBS) Streaks, Quasi-Cycles, Imperfect Perfectos, Downtown Golden Sombreros, Pitcher’s Cycles. Krabbenhoft has received three SABR Research Awards (1992, 1996, 2013).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

With grateful appreciation, I heartily thank all the people who have contributed to Baseball Reference and Retrosheet, thereby making their websites phenomenal baseball-research-enabling vehicles. Special thanks are gratefully extended to John Rickert for graciously writing a computer program using the Retrosheet database to generate a complete list of players who achieved the Pitcher’s Cycle during the 1901–2023 period, thereby confirming my hands-on research and ensuring that the players who achieved the Pitcher’s Cycle were identified. It is a pleasure to again thank Jonathan Frankel for providing his superb strikeout research to me. I thank Dave Smith (Retrosheet) for kindly providing digitized versions of the ICI sheets for the 1893–1900 seasons. I also thank Rick Schabowski for providing game accounts in the Milwaukee Journal and the Milwaukee Sentinel for the Milwaukee-vs-Detroit game on July 03, 1901. I thank Cliff Blau for providing me with “batters struck out” details from the New York Evening Telegram for two 1899 games. I thank Matt Spitz for coining the term “Perfect Pitcher’s Cycle.” I thank Patrick Todgham for dubbing the term “Super Pitcher’s Cycle.” I thank Pete Palmer for his guidance on strikeouts statistics and the “large lead rule” (note 14). I thank Kevin Johnson and Tom Thress for providing the pertinent information the seven players from the Negro Leagues who achieved Batter’s Cycles. I thank Steve Hirdt, Jeff Robbins, and Gary Stone, for especially helpful discussions.

DEDICATION

I enthusiastically and appreciatively dedicate this article to Dixie Tourangeau, my friend and baseball research colleague. Thanks so much for all the superb research help you’ve provided to me over the past so-many years and for all of the good times we’ve enjoyed at Fenway and the various SABR Convention ballparks.

NOTES

1 Paul Dickson, The Dickson Baseball Dictionary (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009), 237.

2 (a) “Hit for the Cycle,” Baseball Almanac, accessed October 3, 2023, https://www.baseball-almanac.com/hitting/Major_League_Baseball_Players_to_hit_for_the_cycle.shtml. (b) According Retrosheet’s list of cycles, https://www.retrosheet.org/cycles_chron.htm, George Hall hit for the cycle on June 19, 1876. (c) Baseball Almanac’s list includes a postseason cycle by Brock Holt, on October 8, 2018, which gives the grand total of 344 cycles. (d) According to information provided by Tom Thress of Retrosheet and Kevin Johnson of Seamheads, seven verified cycles were achieved in the Negro Leagues. According to Johnson, another 12 “known” Negro League cycles are awaiting corroboration by balanced box scores. Email exchanges with Kevin Johnson and Tom Thress, July 04-07, 2024; discussion with Kevin Johnson, August 10, 2024.

3 Jimmy Ryan of the White Stockings completed his July 28, 1888, cycle as a pitcher after having started the game as Chicago’s center fielder. Ryan, who was the leadoff hitter for the White Stockings, singled to open the game in the first inning. He followed with a triple in the top of the second inning. In the bottom of the second, with the Wolverines leading, 7–4, Ryan switched positions with Chicago’s starting hurler, Mark Baldwin; the bases were loaded with two outs. Ryan struck out the first batter he faced, Count Campau, to retire the side. Ryan remained on the mound for the rest of the game. In the fourth inning, Ryan walloped a 2-run homer. In the fifth frame he added another triple to his batting line. In the seventh, he reached on a fielding error by the left fielder (“a rattling liner that was too hot for Twitchell’s hands”). In what turned out to be his final plate appearance, in the eighth, Ryan clouted a double, giving him the cycle. Thus, for the entire game, Ryan collected a single and a triple while he was Chicago’s center fielder, and a homer, triple, and double while he was a relief pitcher. His pitching line was 7.1 innings, 10 runs allowed on 9 hits (including one homer), four strikeouts, two walks, one hit batter, and two wild pitches. The White Stockings emerged victorious, 21–17. Complete details of Ryan’s accomplishments are given in the following newspaper accounts: (a) “Home Runs All Around,” Chicago Tribune, July 29, 1888, 14; (b) “They Hit the Ball Hard,” The (Chicago) Inter Ocean, July 29, 1888, 2; (c) “Sluggers Outslugged,” Detroit Free Press, July 29, 1888, 4; (d) “Was Waterloo Thus?,” Detroit News, July 29, 1888, 8.

4 “Cycle Definition & Meaning,” Merriam-Webster, accessed August 26, 2024, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cycle.

5 Although the catcher must hold on to the third strike to actually retire the batter, the pitcher alone is credited with a strikeout.

6 Dickson, 237.

7 Thus, accomplishing the Pitcher’s Cycle by hurling in extra innings is fully acceptable. For example, two of the players who have hit for the Batter’s Cycle since 1893 achieved their cycle-clinching hit in the 14th inning. George Brett (double in his seventh plate appearance on May 28, 1979) and Jay Buhner (triple in his seventh plate appearance on June 23, 1993).

8 Jonathan Frankel, email exchanges, September 4–October 5, 2023, and January 2–4, 2024.

9 John Rickert, email exchanges, October 12–November 21, 2023.

10 A chronological register of the 483 Pitcher’s Cycles is provided on a decade-by-decade basis in Supplement B.

11 Herm Krabbenhoft, “Going Downtown with a Golden Sombrero— Combining Baseball’s Best and Worst True Outcomes,” Baseball Research Journal, Fall 2023, Volume 52, Number 2, 55.

12 See appendices and supplements below.

13 (a) “Did Anyone See Bresnahan’s Goat?,” The (New York) World, Evening Edition, May 13, 1911, 1. (b) “Giants In Run Cataclysm,” The (New York) Sun, May 14, 1911, 13. (c) “Bang! Slam! Went Giants,” New York Daily Tribune, May 14, 1911, 10.

14 That Mathewson is credited with being the winning pitcher is a consequence of “the large lead rule.” Pete Palmer, email correspondence, November 2, 2023: “If you leave the game with a large lead, you can get the win because the manager is saving you for the next game. I don’t know when that practice was in effect. There were no [official] rules for ‘winning’ and ‘losing’ pitchers until 1950.” See also: (a) Frank Vacarro, “Origin of the Modern Pitching Win,” Baseball Research Journal (Volume 42, Number 1, Spring 2013) 50; (b) Frank J. Williams, “All the Record Books Are Wrong,” The National Pastime, 1982, 50; (c) Joe Wayman, “The Matty-Alex Tie,” Baseball Research Journal (Number 24, 1995), 25.

15 Allen Lewis, “Cubs’ 4 in 1st Defeat Phils Despite Relief by Conley,” Philadelphia Inquirer , May 03, 1959, S1.

16 “Gene Conley Ready To Take Over As Starter For Phils,” Danville (Virginia) Register , D1.

17 “Transformer explosion suspends Padres game,” The (Palm Springs, California) Desert Sun, July 19, 2001, D4.

18 Richard Obert, “Big Unit K’s 16 to finish suspended game,” Arizona Republic, July 20, 2001, D1.

19 Carlos Monarrez, “Swift Wiffs,” Detroit Free Press, August 03, 2020, B1.

20 The origin of “Perfect Pitcher’s Cycle” is as follows: I attended the September 10, 2023, Giants-Rockies game at Oracle Park with three friends. I cheered for every Colorado batter Keaton Winn struck out. While I was scoring the game, I explained my Pitcher’s Cycle research to my friends and was carefully charting each K that Winn achieved. When Winn struck out Austin Wynns to end the fifth inning, I enthusiastically exclaimed that Winn just needed to K two more batting slots, two and six, to accomplish the Pitcher’s Cycle. A couple of Giants fans seated in front of me asked what I was talking about. I gave a brief account of my research project and, to provide some perspective, I mentioned that Nolan Ryan had 12 Pitcher’s Cycles and that Randy Johnson had 18 through the 2001 season, the most recent season I had completed at the time. I also mentioned that there were 13 pitchers who had struck out at least 9 batters in a row and that, therefore, they had automatically achieved the Pitcher’s Cycle. One of them responded matter-of-factly, “So they had perfect cycles.” I replied, “Yeah! That’s cool! A Perfect Pitcher’s Cycle! What a neat way to express that! I got his name—Matt Spitz— and said I would give him credit for coming up with the term. Thanks, Matt! As it turned out, Winn did not strike out the second-slot batter, Ezequiel Tovar),in the sixth. Similarly, Winn did not have the opportunity to strike out the sixth-slot batter, Hunter Goodman, as the Giants brought in a relief pitcher in the seventh inning.

21 Matt Kelly and Sarah Langs, “Most Consecutive Strikeouts by a Pitcher,” MLB.com, April 10, 2023, accessed October 30, 2023, https://www.mlb.com/news/most-consecutive-strikeouts-by-pitcher-in-game. For additional information about Mickey Welch’s Perfect Pitcher’s Cycle, see: (a) Harry Simmons, “An Overlooked Feat,” The Sporting News, October 23, 1941, 6; (b) George Buckley, “Why Did Mickey Smile?” Baseball Research Journal (Volume 11, 1982), 127.

22 The origin of the “Super Pitcher’s Cycle” is as follows: At a hot stove league discussion on December 3, 2023, at the Cambridge Common & Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA, the topic of Pitcher’s Cycles came up, along with the feat of a pitcher striking out at least one batter in each inning of a nine-inning game. I mentioned that while there were nearly 500 PCs, there were only 30-some instances where the PC player also struck out at least one batter in each inning (of a nine-inning game). Patrick Todgham then said, “Those should be called ‘Super Pitcher’s Cycles.’” I agreed and said I would give him credit for the term. Thanks, Patrick!

23 Maria Torres, “A night to remember for Ohtani,” Los Angeles Times, June 14, 2019, D1.

24 “Angels’ Ohtani first Japanese player to hit for cycle,” Associated Press, June 13, 2019, accessed November 5, 2023, https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/triad/ap-top-news/2019/06/14/angels-ohtani-first-japanese-player-to-hit-for-cycle0.

25 J. Scott Shaffer, “June 13, 2019: Shohei Ohtani becomes first Japanese player to hit for cycle,” SABR Games Project, accessed November 5, 2023, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/june-13-2019-shohei-ohtani-becomes-first-japanese-player-to-hit-for-the-cycle/.

26 Kristie Rieken, “‘Virtuoso’ Ohtani Mows Down Astros,” Los Angeles Times, April 21, 2022, B10.

27 Lynn Worthy, “Gallegos coughs up late lead, Cards lose,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 4, 2023, page B1.

28 Rhett Bollinger, “Make room for Shohei! Ohtani joins Babe in another club,” MLB.com, May 3, 2023, accessed October 23, 2023, https://www.mlb.com/news/shohei-ohtani-joins-babe-ruth-in-500-strikeout-100-home-run-club?game_pk=718320.

29 Stathead.com. Other sources consulted: (a) Seymour Siwoff, The Elias Book of Baseball Records (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009), 237; (b) The Major League Baseball Ultimate Book of Baseball Records (Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Fenn/McClelland & Stewart, 2013), 132; (c) Lyle Spatz, Editor, The SABR Baseball List & Record Book (New York: Scribner, 2007), 191; (d) Joseph Dittmar, Baseball Records Registry (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 1997); (e) Joseph L. Reichler, Revised by Ken Samelson, The Great All-Time Baseball Record Book (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1993), 181; (f) David Nemec, Great Baseball Feats, Facts, & Firsts (New York: NAL Penguin,Inc., 1987), 237.

30 (a) “Royals’ Metro in Awe as Carew Keeps Hitting,” (Saint Cloud, Minnesota) Daily Times, May 21, 1970, 29; (b) Tom Briere, “Twins Win 7th Straight,” (Minneapolis) Star-Tribune, May 21, 1970, 31. See also: Herm Krabbenhoft, “From Kralick to Lopez and Carew to Polanco— Interesting Aspects of the Pitcher’s Cycles and Batter’s Cycles Achieved by Minnesota Twins Players,” The National Pastime, 2024, 60.

31 Herm Krabbenhoft, “When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It,” Baseball Research Journal (Volume 47, Number 1, Spring 2018) 72.

32 Hy Hurwitz, “Hy and Inside,” Boston Globe, September 22, 1954, 8.

33 Ian Quillen, “Nats top Tigers 3-2,” The Park City Daily News (Bowling Green, KY), May 12, 2016, C8.

34 (a) Herm Krabbenhoft, “Quasi-Cycles—Better Than Cycles?,” Baseball Research Journal (Volume 46, Number 2, Fall 2017) 107; (b) Chuck McGill, email correspondence, June 1, 2017; (c) From the Tennessean (Nashville, Tennessee, August 21,1921, 12) was the following news item: “George Sisler on August 13 hit the cycle by getting on a single, double, triple, and home run, and by getting an extra double in the same game.” (d) The Dickson Baseball Dictionary cites a 1933 Washington Post article as the first to use the term “cycle”: Paul Dickson, The Dickson Baseball Dictionary (New York: W,W, Norton & Company, New York, 2009) 237. (e) In this issue, John Racanelli reports an earlier date: June 10, 1920. John Racanelli, “Desperately Seeking Singles,” Baseball Research Journal 53, no. 2, (Fall 2024) 46.

35 Michael Huber and Allison Davidson, “Origin of the Phrase ‘Hitting for the Cycle’ and An Approach to How Cycles Occur,” Baseball Research Journal (Volume 47, Number 1, Spring 2018) 112.

APPENDICES

• Appendix A: Each Franchise’s First and Most-Recent Pitcher’s Cycle
• Appendix B: Franchise-Record Holders
• Appendix C: The Chronology of the Career Leaders
• Appendix D: The All-Time Top-10
• Appendix E: Extra-Inning Pitcher’s Cycles
• Appendix F: Pitcher’s Cycles in Consecutive Games
• Appendix G: Postseason Pitcher’s Cycles

SUPPLEMENTS 

The Supplements for this article provide the following (click on a link below to scroll down to that section):

• Supplement A: Pitchers With Nine or More Strikeouts in a Game and Incomplete “Batters Struck Out” Statistics
• Supplement B: Chronological Register of Players Who Achieved a Pitcher’s Cycle (1893–2023)
• Supplement C: Alphabetical Register of Players Who Achieved a Pitcher’s Cycle (1893–2023)
• Supplement D: Team-by-Team Registers of Players Who Achieved Pitcher’s Cycles

Supplement A — Pitchers with Nine or More Strikeouts and Incomplete Statistics

Table SA-1. NL and AL Pitchers (1894–1903)

Table SA-2. NL and AL Pitchers (1904–1905)

Table SA-3. NL and AL Pitchers (1905–1907)

Table SA-4. NL and AL Pitchers (1907–1911)

Table SA-5. Federal League Pitchers with Nine or More Strikeouts and Incomplete Statistics

Supplement B — Chronological Register of Players With a Pitcher’s Cycle (1893–2023)

Table SB-1. Players Who Accomplished a Pitcher’s Cycle (1893–1909)

Notes: (1) Entries in the OPP column with an asterisk indicate the game was played at the opponent’s ballpark. (2) The Batters column gives the number of different batters the pitcher struck out. (3) The parenthetical entries in the Batters column give the batters in the starting lineup who were not struck out by the pitcher. Thus, for Bob Ewing, the entry “9 (X: 9-2)” indicates that Ewing struck out 9 different batters and that one batter in the starting lineup was not struck out; that batter occupied the #9 slot in the batting order and had 2 plate appearances against the pitcher. (4) Entries in the IP column bracketed with asterisks indicates the pitcher pitched a complete game.

Table SB-2. Players Who Accomplished a Pitcher’s Cycle (1910–1919)