Friday, July 17, 2015

Hitting for the cycle in your career as an All-Star

No player has ever hit for the cycle in an All-Star Game*, and no player ever will. What makes me so confident? Well, since the 15-inning ASG in 2008, only one player (Mike Trout this year) has even gotten four plate appearances, and it's awfully hard to hit for the cycle without getting four plate appearances. Mike Trout's home run to lead off the game gave him a the cycle for his career as an All-Star though, and even that's an awfully impressive accomplishment, one I of course found myself wondering about, wondering which others baseball greats had done. it.


*Vince DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Ken Griffey Jr., and Garret Anderson are the only players to collect 3 of the 4 different hits in one All-Star Game.

It turns out there are 9 players who've had at least one single, double, triple, and home run in their All-Star career. Here they are, with their ASG numbers, presented in the order they completed their career ASG cycle:

  • Ted Williams: 14 hits, including 2 doubles, 1 triple, and 4 home runs
  • Willie Mays: A record 23 hits, including 2 doubles, 3 triples, and 3 home runs
  • Ernie Banks: 10 hits, including 3 doubles, 1 triple, and 1 home run
  • Roberto Clemente: 10 hits, including 2 doubles, 1 triple, and 1 home run
  • Steve Garvey: 11 hits, including 2 doubles, 2 triples, and 2 home runs
  • Mike Schmidt: 5 hits, including 2 doubles, 1 triple, and 1 home run
  • George Brett: 7 hits, including 2 doubles, 1 triple, and 1 home run
  • Lou Whitaker: 4 hits, including 1 double, 1 triple, and 1 home run
  • Mike Trout: 5 hits, including 2 doubles, 1 triple, and 1 home run


It should be no surprised that it's an excellent collection of players. Mays and Garvey share the distinction of being the only players to have a "double cycle," or whatever you want to call it. Lou Whitaker has the distinction of being the only player with the career ASG cycle with just four hits, one of each type.

Trout is the youngest ever to complete the ASG cycle (he's still only 23 years old, for crying out loud), and one has to think he'll have plenty of opportunities to add to his All-Star Game numbers.


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