Ripken puts on a hitting clinic to complete the cycle
At the end of the 1983 season, Cal Ripken Jr. was at the top of his game. In only his second full season in the major leagues, he helped the Baltimore Orioles defeat the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series and won his first American League Most Valuable Player Award the same year.
The following season, at the 27-game mark, the Orioles had a 13-14 record. But after winning their two previous games against the Rangers, the Orioles looked to sweep the series on May 6, 1984.
Ripken was experiencing somewhat of a slump, not common for a player already acknowledged as one of baseball’s best. After a great start to the year, Ripken’s stats dwindled from a batting average of .352 on April 30 to .314 by May 5, a 2-for-17 mark over five days.
After flying out in the first inning, Ripken got his first hit in the third when he hammered a triple off the Rangers’ Frank Tanana that drove home Rich Dauer.
In the fifth inning, Ripken singled to lead off the inning but was forced out on the next play as the Orioles held a 5-0 lead. Then in the seventh, Ripken doubled to lead off the frame and was stranded.
Going into the ninth inning, Baltimore led 5-1 and the chance for Ripken to record a cycle was about the only drama left. But Ripken was not dwelling on it.
“Maybe in the on-deck circle you think it’d be” on his mind, Ripken told the Baltimore Sun. “But when you get to the plate, you just think of hitting the ball hard.”
Ripken faced Rangers relief pitcher Dave Tobik in the ninth. Tobik entered the game with a 3.07 ERA over nine games and had not allowed a run against the Orioles that day. But Ripken homered off him with one out in the ninth to complete the first cycle of his career and just the second in Orioles history following Brooks Robinson’s in 1960.
“I hadn’t been feeling that good; I had been swinging at some bad pitches,” Ripken told the Sun. “What does it mean? It means four hits. Where they all go is luck.”
Ripken finished the season batting .304 with 27 homers and 86 RBI. His 10.0 Wins Above Replacement figure that year would lead all of Major League Baseball. But he would never again hit for the cycle.
Ripken was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007.
Khadifi Madison was the spring 2026 Jim Murray Scholars intern at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
