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Two Cycles in One Day

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Two Cycles in One Day
A Japan first occurred on July 1, 2003 when Inaba hit for Japan's fasted cycle and Muramatsu hit a natural cycle on the same day. Inaba and Muramatsu became the 56th and 57th cycle hitters respecitvely, for the 60th and 61st times in Japanese baseball history.

How rare is this? In the Major Leagues, with many more games going on in any given day, two cycles have only been hit once: On August 17, 1920, Bobby Beach (Tigers) hit one against the RedSox in the American League, and George Burns (Giants) hit for the cycle against the Pirates in the National League.

Late breaking news: This evening (July 2, 2003), Hanshin's Hiyama just finished hitting for the cycle in Hanshin's win over Chunichi. The only time that cycles have been hit on back to back days in Japanese history was on May 21-22, 1985 when Kintetsu's Kurihashi Shigeru was followed by the Lions' Okamura (?).

What's with all of these cycles this season? Orix's Jose Ortiz and Chunichi's Fukudome Kosuke hit cycles on May 3 and June 8 respectively this season, now three in two days.
Comments
Re: Two Cycles in One Day
[ Author: Sara B | Posted: Jul 3, 2003 12:38 AM | HT Fan ]

On a linguistic note -- which popped up as I was writing a little essay for my Japanese class -- how do the Japanese say "hitting for the cycle?" I assumed "saikuru [katakana] wo shimasu" but wondered if maybe "saikuru owarimasu" might be correct, too. Minna san, tetsudatte kudasai!
Re: Two Cycles in One Day
[ Author: torakichi | Posted: Jul 3, 2003 9:40 AM | HT Fan ]

It's known as "saikuru hitto." To tell the truth, I've never heard of it being used with "suru" (doesn't mean it isn't, though). I usually hear the term used in such ways as saikuru hitto tassei or saikuru hitto-de shiai-wo...
Re: Two Cycles in One Day
[ Author: torakichi | Posted: Jul 3, 2003 9:40 AM | HT Fan ]

Make that three in two days. Hanshin's Shinjiro Hiyama did it last night!
Re: Two Cycles in One Day
[ Author: btimmer | Posted: Jul 3, 2003 2:40 PM ]

Just a slight correction, the player on the Detroit Tigers was Bobby Veach, not Beach.

And in MLB, there were two players who hit for the cycle last week, Brad Wilkerson of Montreal and Eric Byrnes of Oakland.

Just a whole lot of cycling going on in the world.
Re: Two Cycles in One Day
[ Author: TroyTiger | Posted: Jul 7, 2003 3:41 PM ]

I had the honor of seeing two of cycles in two days in Osaka when I was on vacation. I have been a long time Tiger fan, but never had the chance to see them at Koshien. So I took the opportunity to go to Osaka last week to go, not only to Koshien, but also to Yahoo BB Stadium and Osaka Dome to check out the BlueWave and the Buffalos.

The Hawk-Buffalo game was really wild with a lot of hits and runs (combined 32 hits and 23 runs) and I didn't know that the Hawks' Muramatsu hit for the cycle until I got back to the hotel. I do remember his last hit, a line drive home run that landed below me. But I don't remember any announcement about Muramatsu's cycle.

So the next day, it was off to Koshien to watch the Tiger-Dragon game. After falling behind 1-0 in the first, it was all Tigers and Hiyama. He started by hitting a two run homer in the first. When Hiyama came up to bat in the 7th, only needing a triple, the Tiger fans were well aware of what he had to do. Then he hit the ball to the wall and the crowd exploded - especially when he slid into third. The Tigers would go on and win the game 14-3, but I will always remember how I saw Hiyama hit for the cycle.

I have been thinking it must be pretty rare for me to see back to back cycle hitters.
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