The Main Event
- August 2, 1933 – Mickey Cochrane hits for the cycle for the second time in his career, in a 16–3 rout of the Yankees — the only catcher in MLB history to hit for the cycle twice.
Hitting for the cycle is one of baseball’s rarest single-game achievements. It has happened only a few hundred times in major league history, and pulling it off once is enough to cement a player’s name in a box score forever. Pulling it off twice, from behind the plate, has happened exactly once. That distinction belongs to Mickey Cochrane, the Hall of Fame catcher who cycled for the Philadelphia Athletics on July 22, 1932, and again exactly one year and eleven days later, on August 2, 1933, against the New York Yankees. No other catcher in major-league history has done it more than once.
Who Was Mickey Cochrane?
Gordon Stanley “Mickey” Cochrane was born April 6, 1903, in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and broke into the majors in 1925 with Connie Mack‘s Philadelphia Athletics. He quickly established himself as one of the best all-around catchers the game had seen — a rare combination of contact hitting, speed, durability, and defensive command.
Cochrane anchored the Athletics dynasty of 1929–1931, when Philadelphia won three straight American League pennants and back-to-back World Series titles in 1929 and 1930. His 1928 season was good enough to earn him American League MVP honors, and Connie Mack himself credited Cochrane as one of the most important pieces of that championship core, prized as much for how he handled a pitching staff that included Lefty Grove and George Earnshaw as for what he did with the bat.
The Great Depression forced Mack to sell off his stars, and after the 1933 season Cochrane was dealt to the Detroit Tigers, where he became player-manager in 1934. He promptly delivered an AL pennant in his first season and won a second MVP award, then led the Tigers to their first-ever World Series championship in 1935 — a title he clinched by scoring the winning run in Game Six, a moment he later called the highlight of his career.
Cochrane’s playing days ended abruptly and violently. On May 25, 1937, at Yankee Stadium, he was struck in the head by a fastball from New York’s Bump Hadley — reportedly thrown in retaliation for a home run Cochrane had hit his previous at-bat. The pitch fractured his skull in three places and left him in a coma for ten days. He survived, but at 34 years old, he never played again. Cochrane was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1947, finishing his career with a .320 batting average, a .419 on-base percentage, and a reputation as one of the finest catchers the sport has produced.
The First Cycle: July 22, 1932, at Griffith Stadium
Cochrane’s first cycle came in a lopsided road win over the Washington Senators, the only game played in the American League that day. The Athletics cruised to an 8–4 victory behind Rube Walberg, who scattered 15 hits but got plenty of help from sloppy Washington baserunning — the Senators managed four singles and no runs in the eighth inning alone.
Cochrane went 4-for-4 against Senators starter Alvin “General” Crowder, building his cycle with a triple in the first inning, a home run in the third, a double in the sixth, and finally a single in the seventh that chased Crowder from the game. He scored three runs and drove in four, powering the Athletics’ offense from the catcher’s spot. It was the ninth cycle in Athletics franchise history — and set the stage for something no other A’s player, or catcher, would ever match.
The Second Cycle: August 2, 1933, at Yankee Stadium
A year and eleven days later, Cochrane did it again, this time against the defending World Series champion Yankees in front of roughly 5,000 fans wilting through a 100-degree heat wave in the Bronx. The Athletics, mired in third place and coming off a six-game losing streak, routed New York 16–3 to complete a three-game sweep.
Cochrane opened the scoring in the first inning with his tenth home run of the season off Yankees starter Red Ruffing, coming around right after Max Bishop‘s leadoff homer. In the third, he lined a hit to left and tried to stretch it into an inside-the-park home run, only to be gunned down at the plate on a perfect relay from shortstop Frankie Crosetti — the play was scored a triple, since he’d safely reached third before being thrown out advancing. He drew two walks off Yankees reliever Danny MacFayden, then singled in the seventh off Jumbo Brown before capping the cycle with a two-run double in the eighth off George Uhle. By day’s end, Cochrane had reached base six times, scored three runs, and driven in four, while Philadelphia starter George Earnshaw picked up the win despite scattering seven hits and seven walks over seven innings.
The performance prompted the Philadelphia Inquirer to write that Cochrane “paced his mates with a bludgeon,” and it raised his batting average to .289 en route to a torrid August in which he hit .417 for the month.
A Cycle-Filled Summer
Cochrane’s second cycle was part of an unusually crowded month for the feat. Eight different players hit for the cycle across the majors in 1933, tying a single-season record, and four of those eight cycles came in August alone — every one of them involving the Athletics. Pinky Higgins cycled against Washington just four days after Cochrane’s feat, Jimmie Foxx cycled against Cleveland on August 14, and Cleveland’s Earl Averill turned the trick against the Athletics on August 17. It was, briefly, the cycle capital of baseball.
A Record That Still Stands
Nearly a century later, Cochrane remains the only catcher to hit for the cycle twice in a career, and the only Athletics player to do it more than once. It’s a fitting footnote for a player remembered less for power numbers than for all-around excellence — a catcher who could beat you with his glove, his bat, and, twice, with every kind of hit the rulebook allows in a single afternoon.
ICYMI
- Philly Baseball News – Phillies are Seen as Desperate Buyers at Trade Deadline
Philadelphia Baseball Birthdays for August 2
- Jim Holmes (born 1881) — Pitcher who made his major-league debut with the Philadelphia Athletics on September 8, 1906, appearing in three games for Connie Mack’s club before finishing his brief career with the Brooklyn Superbas in 1908.
- Red Ames (born 1882) — A 17-year National League pitcher best known for his years with the New York Giants, Reds, and Cardinals, Ames closed out his career with the Phillies in 1919, making his final major-league appearance for Philadelphia that September.
- Humberto Quintero (born 1979) — Backup catcher who played 24 games for the Phillies in 2013, hitting .250 in a reserve role behind the plate.
- Grady Sizemore (born 1982) — Former All-Star outfielder who signed with Philadelphia in 2014 and played 99 games for the club across 2014–15 before being released mid-2015.
- Casey Steward (born 2001) – Phillies 19th round pick in the 2023 Draft, Steward pitched for High-A Jersey Shore. He has not pitched this season, and underwent Tommy John surgery in June.
- Dylan Moore (born 1992) – Started the season with the Phillies and was outrighted to Lehigh Valley where he is batting .293/.362/.473 in 55 games.
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