Philadelphia Phillies Who Have Hit for the Cycle

August 25, 2011

On August 25th, 1995, Gregg Jefferies of the Phils hit for the cycle in a 17-4 win over the Dodgers. Here’s an article Frank Fitzpatrick wrote a few years ago about the feat.

Nomo couldn’t control his devastating split-fingered fastball that night, and the Phillies sat on his fastball. In the first inning, Jefferies deposited one in the right-field seats for a two-run homer.

Jim Eisenreich was on first and Mickey Morandini on third when Jefferies batted in the third. He sliced a ball to left that Dodgers outfielder Roberto Kelly dived for. It skipped past him, and Jefferies ended up at third with a triple.

“He got the two hardest parts [of the cycle] out of the way early,” Eisenreich said.

Righthander Jim Bruske replaced Nomo, and Jefferies singled off him in the fourth inning.

Then, batting righthanded for the first time that night, against lefty reliever John Cummings in the fifth inning, Jefferies lined a 2-2 pitch into the right-field corner, the double giving the Phillies their first cycle in 5,107 games.

“The cycle,” Jefferies said later, “is just pure luck.”

It got me wondering what other Phils accomplished this rare feat. And then I found something mindblowing about the Philadelphia A’s and the cycle. Here’s the list, followed by the crazy A’s fun fact.

• June 28th, 2004. David Bell. The last Phillie to do so, he did in a 14-6 win over the Expos at Citizen’s Bank Park. (Article here.)

• August 25th, 1995. Gregg Jefferies. The only Phillie to ever hit for the cycle at the Vet. (box score)

• June 27th, 1963. Johnny Callison. He went 4-5 and drove in 4 RBIs in a 13-4 win over the Pirates at Forbes Field. (box score)

• May 26th, 1933. Chuck Klein. He went 4-6 but somehow only drove in 2 runs and the Phillies lost to the Cardinals at Sportsmen’s Park in St. Louis, 5-4. (box score)

• July 1st, 1931. Chuck Klein. He had his first of two cycles at the Baker Bowl in an 11-6 win over the Cubs. He knocked in 5 RBIs and scored 3 runs. The Phillies also recorded a triple play in that game. It is one of only 2 times in MLB history that a cycle and a triple play have taken place in the same game. John Valentin of the Red Sox hit for the cycle against the White Sox on June 6th, 1996, but the Red Sox were the victims of a triple play in that same game. (box score)

• August 5th, 1927. Cy Williams. The only Phillie of the 20th century to do it in just 4 official at-bats. He knocked in 6 runs and scored 3 times, as the Phillies knocked off the Pirates at Forbes Field, 9-7. (box score)

• August 17th, 1894. Sam Thompson. Ah, the great Sam Thompson. The player who was so unsporting that he used to try to hit homers, “one of the least difficult hits known to batting in baseball”. This was a memorable game. Not only did he hit for the cycle, but the Phils set a team record that still stands; they scored 29 runs in the game, crushing the Louisville Colonels, 29-4. They also set an MLB record that still stands with 36 hits in that game. The game took place in 1894 in Philadelphia, but there is no box score, so I don’t know if it took place at Huntington Grounds or at Penn’s Athletic Field. They used both as home stadiums that year.

• April 24, 1894. Lave Cross. The first Phillies cycle took place against the awesomely named Brooklyn Grooms, at Brooklyn’s Eastern Park. The Phillies won the game 22-5. (no box score)

As for the A’s fun fact: Not only did they have more cycles in 54 years of existence (10) than the Phillies have had in 128 years of existence (8), in a span of 2 weeks in 1931 3 different Athletics hit for the cycle! Between August 2nd and August 14th, 1931, Mickey Cochrane, Pinky Higgins, and Jimmie Foxx all performed this rare feat.

Also in The Shibe Vintage Sports History Blog