Time to celebrate “Tyrone Horne Day” … and professional baseball’s first “Home Run Cycle” (solo, two-run, three-run and Grand Slam homer all in one game).
Tyrone Horne – Sultan of Swat on this day 20 years ago.
It was on this date (July 27) in 1998 that (Roger) Tyrone Horne, playing for the Double-A Arkansas Travelers, became the first professional player to hit for the “Home Run Cycle” – bashing a solo, two-run, three-run and grand slam home run all in the same game (a 13-4 win over the San Antonio Mission). (Update: This record was tied by the Springfield Cardinals’ Chandler Redmond in 2022.) They were the only home runs in the game, in which Arkansas collected 13 hits. Horne ended the day four-for-five, with four runs scored and ten RBI.
Horne hit three of his four dingers off San Antonia starter Pete Zamora – a two-run shot in the first inning, a grand slam in the second and a solo homer in the fifth. His final homer, a three-run long ball, came in the sixth off reliever Miguel Garcia. The Cardinals’ farmhand came up once more, with two on, in the eighth, but reliever Jeff Kubenka struck him out.
Horne’s feat was the highlight of an outstanding Double-A season, in which the 27-year-old outfielder would go .312 with 37 home runs, 139 RBI, 94 runs scored and even throw in 18 stolen bases in 123 games for Arkansas. His performance at Double-A earned Horne a call up to the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds at the end of the season, where ht hit .364 (four-for-eleven) in three games, with one double, one run scored and one RBI. (The 5’10”, 185-pounder showed good speed throughout his minor-league career, racking up 185 steals in 13 seasons, hitting double digits in steals eight times and topping 20 twice. He also hit double digits in home runs seven times, but only topped 20 twice.)
Appropriately, right after his historic “homer cycle” game, Horne headed off to the Texas League All-Star Game where he proceeded to win the Home Run Derby.
Horne never made it to the major leagues – completing a 13-year (1,286 games; 1989-2001) minor-league career (in the Expos, Yankees, Mets, A’s, Marlins, Cardinals and Phillies systems) with a .288 average and 143 home runs. The bat he used on his historic day with Arkansas, however, has made it to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
Here’s the line score of the game.
July 27, 1998
Arkansas 2 5 0 0 2 3 0 1 0 13 13 0
San. Ant. 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 4 8 3
Time: 2:40 Attendance: 5,010
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