History

There's a sort of myth that hitting for a cycle - a single, double, triple, and home run in the same game - is an unusually rare accomplishment, far rarer than a no-hitter.

Actually, the two feats have just about the same rate of occurrence, with hitting for the cycle a little bit ahead. There have been 266 no-hitters in major league history, and players have hit for the cycle 291 times in the two existing major leagues. (Players also hit for the cycle 18 times in the American Association, when that was a major league. I haven't been able to find a list of those players, however.)

Three players did it three times in their career: Bob Meusel of the New York Yankees, John Reilly of the American Association's Cincinnati team, and Babe Herman, who twice hit for the cycle with the Brooklyn Dodgers and did it a third time with the Chicago Cubs.

Herman's two cycle performances for the Dodgers came in the same year, 1931. He's the only player to have done it twice in a single season in one of the modern major leagues. However, two other players did it for American Association teams: Reilly, in 1883, and Tip O'Neill, with St. Louis in 1887.

One of baseball's rarest accomplishments to hit for the cycle with a grand slam home run. That's been done only six times in major league history, by the following players:

Jay Buhner	Seattle AL	June 23, 1993
Jimmy Foxx	Philadelphia AL	August 14, 1933
Nap Lajoie	Philadelphia AL	July 30, 1901
Tony Lazzeri	New York AL	June 03, 1932
Miguel Tejada	Oakland AL	September 29, 2001
Bill Terry	New York NL	May 29, 1928

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