Re-cycled: The Bob Watson Story

Today, in 1979, Bob Watson of the Boston Red Sox becomes the first player in Major League Baseball history to hit for the cycle in both the American League and the National League. A batter hits for the cycle when he or she hits a single, double, triple and a homerun in the same game. Bob Watson first hit for the cycle in 1977 with the Houston Astros of the National League. Two years later, he was the starting first baseman for the Boston Red Sox. On September 15, 1979, those Red Sox were taking on the Baltimore Orioles in Baltimore. The Red Sox would win 10-2, Watson driving in 2 of those runs in route to hitting for the second cycle of his career. So what does Watson's second cycle mean for baseball? In May of 1882, Curry Foley hit for the first cycle in major league history. Over the next 130 years, 271 more players would hit for the cycle. In the last five seasons alone, 26 players have pulled off the feat. However, only 28 players in the history of the game have hit a cycle more than once in their careers. That's just one tenth of all players to hit for the cycle. In addition, only five players in the history of Major League Baseball have hit more than one cycle and had all cycles come on a different team. Rounding up, that's two percent of all cycles. Needless to say, Bob Watson's 1979 cycle for Boston was an incredible feat. However, Watson no longer sits alone in his accomplishment. On June 16, 2001, John Olerud of the Seattle Mariners became the second player in history to hit for the cycle in both the American and National Leagues, 7,945 days after Watson's Red Sox cycle. Will we ever see another player hit a cycle for two different teams from two different leagues again? Well, baseball had to wait 95 years for it to happen once, and 21 more to see it again. So if you average those two periods out, keep your eyes peeled for the 2059 season (47 years from now) and we may just see a third player join Watson and Olerud. Sources for this article: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/feats/feats16d.shtml http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1979/B09150BAL1979.htm http://www.retrosheet.org/cycles_chron.htm http://www.todayinsport.com/day/september/15 Photo from: http://www.astrosdaily.com/history/watson.html