Mr. Monday: Got Melky?

While I’m not a huge Melky fan and never have been, I am still a Yankees fan and one has to admit that he was mighty impressive yesterday in their 8-5 victory over the Chicago White Sox. After seeing the highlights (because I’d apparently rather spend my Sunday in a muddy park in NJ listening to bands instead of watching my Mets lose and the Yanks finally win), something was brought to my attention which I admittedly never knew had a technical term: the cycle.

For those of you in the same boat as me (which is the boat where we might not know all of the baseball words n stuff), hitting for the cycle means when a player hits each of a single, double, triple, and a home run in the same game. If hit in that order, it’s known as a natural cycle (only 14 of those ever, in HISTORY. EVER).  And as one can assume, both are a relatively rare occurrence.  Melky’s cycle is the first one for the Yankees since 1995, and he’s only the fifteenth player on the Yankees to successfully complete a cycle. He hit a three run homer in the second which gave the Yanks a 3-0 lead, then a double in the fifth, a single in the sixth, and a surprise and goosebump-inducing triple in the ninth.

Mini history lesson! According to retrosheet.org, there have only been 287 cycles in the history of baseball, and Melky’s is the fourth this year (the first three oddly enough were all in April, though Wikipedia does credit another in May to the Twins’ Michael Cuddyer). And surprisingly enough, one of the worst teams currently in baseAhh, I still remember when my other NY team had a cycle – back in 2006 when Jose Reyes wasn’t injured, he managed to pull one off against the Reds….

Nevertheless, congratulations Melky on a kick ass hitting job well done. For that, I dub you as Mr. Monday of August 3.  And just for our amusement (this one’s for you Crane), here is a photo of Cabrera and Burnett for you all to make your own captions for :)