The Chicago Cubs have achieved some rare feats in Major League Baseball history: Gabby Hartnett’s game-winning “Homer in the Gloamin'” on Sept. 28, 1938; Kerry Wood’s 20-strikeout game on May 6, 1998; and the 2016 World Series championship after a 108-year drought.
On Monday night, catcher Carson Kelly added another rarity to the franchise’s list — he hit for the cycle. In a 18-3 win against the Athletics in West Sacramento, California, Kelly hit a single, double, triple and home run.
“Kelly became the first Cub to hit for the cycle since Mark Grace on May 9, 1993, ending the longest cycle drought by a National League team,” Tribune reporter Meghan Montemurro wrote. “Grace’s feat occurred more than a year before Kelly was born.”
Here’s a look back at previous Cubs players who have hit for the cycle when they were with the team, according to MLB.com and the Tribune archives.
July 28, 1888, and July 1, 1891: Jimmy Ryan
Ryan is the only Cub to hit for the cycle twice. Against the Detroit Black Sox on July 28, 1888, Ryan came up to bat six times, had four hits and an average of .833.
Ryan did it again on July 1, 1891, against Cleveland.
“The day was one continual and lovely picture for Jimmy Ryan,” the Tribune reported. “He went to the bat five times and only one chance for a hit escaped. He commenced with a screaming single in the first; this he followed with a home run over the left wall; then he retrograded some, and his next effort was only a three-bagger. He wound up finally with a drive for two bases.”
June 23, 1930: Hack Wilson
“Winning was merely incidental with the Cubs yesterday,” Tribune reporter Irving Vaughan wrote in the June 24, 1930, edition of the paper. “Their big scheme appeared to be gathering of base hits, and it worked so splendidly that they recorded an impressive assortment of 24, which with errors and other things permitted the champions to run the Phillies breathless by 21 to 8 in the series opener.”
Future Hall-of-Famer Wilson, who drove in a single-season record of 191 runs during the 1930 season, hit his 22nd home run of the year into right field in the first inning. He then picked up a triple, double and two singles.
Sept. 30, 1933: Floyd “Babe” Herman
Herman hit for the cycle twice during the 1931 season — two months apart — when he was with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Two seasons later, he managed his third. Facing Cardinals pitcher Dizzy Dean on Ladies Day in St. Louis, Herman hit a triple in the first inning. He hit his 13th home run of the season in the sixth inning, then added a double and a single in the ninth.
The Cubs won 12-2 and clinched third place in the National League.
June 28, 1950: Roy Smalley
In another game against the Cardinals — this time at Wrigley Field — Smalley blasted his 12th home run of the season over the left-field fence to start his quest for the cycle. He doubled, then singled in the seventh and tripled in the eighth during the 15-3 Cubs win.
July 2, 1957: Lee Walls
The “often lose but never quit” Cubs lost to Cincinnati 8-6 in 10 innings, but the 24-year-old outfielder’s cycle became the first in the MLB in almost three years.
July 17, 1966: Billy Williams
In the second game of a doubleheader against the Cardinals in St. Louis: “The sweet swinger from Mobile way achieved the dream of everyone who ever toted a bat to the plate,” Tribune reporter Edward Prell wrote.
Williams hit a single, double, triple and a homer — precisely in that order — in the Cubs’ 7-2 win.
Aug. 11, 1966: Randy Hundley
Hundley, the Cubs’ 24-year-old rookie catcher, was “the big show” in a 9-8 victory in the first game of a doubleheader at Wrigley Field against the Houston Astros. After whiffing during his first at bat, Hundley hit a triple in the fourth inning, a double off the left field wall in the scoreless sixth, a homer (his 16th of the season) in the eighth and a single in the 11th.
April 22, 1980: Ívan De Jesús
De Jesús had no idea what he had just done until third-base coach Joey Amalfitano congratulated him.
“It’s like pitching a no-hitter. It’s something you’ve never done before. But if I go 5-for-6 in the game, and we lose, it’s not the same,” the young shortstop told reporters after the game.
The Cubs beat the Cardinals 16-12 at Wrigley Field.
April 29, 1987: Andre Dawson
For the fourth time in his career, Dawson collected five hits in a game. It was the first time he hit for the cycle in his 11-year major league career.
Dawson homered in the first inning, doubled in the third, reached on an infield hit in the fourth, tripled to right-center in the sixth and singled again in the eighth.
“The toughest at-bat was probably the triple, because the pitcher (Mike LaCoss) was ahead in the count, and you never know what pitch he’s going to try to get you out with in that situation,” Dawson said after the game. “It was a good pitcher’s pitch, over the plate and on the way down.”
The Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants 8-4.
May 9, 1993: Mark Grace
The Cubs may have lost on Mother’s Day at Wrigley Field, but their first baseman kept the game against the San Diego Padres close. Grace hit a double in the first inning, a single in the third, tripled in the seventh and batted a three-run homer in the ninth that left the Cubs one run short.
“I should get the game film, because I’ll never do it again,” Grace told reporters after the game. “I don’t hit too many triples. I hit fewer triples than I hit home runs, and that’s saying something.”
At that point in his career, Grace had 19 triples and 51 home runs.
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