We have been conditioned to want to see the cycle, rather than a less magical "odd" combination of multiple hits. At some point in history, someone decided it was newsworthy to hit for the cycle. We (people) generally like things that are neat and complete rather than messy and incomplete. The cycle is special, one of each type of hit recorded, COMPLETION.
The cycle is not a team award, nor may it necessarily help contribute to a teams overall performance. A no hitter could be looked at the same way. It is definitely an individual accomplishment. Although the team helps preserve the no hitter, the pitcher gets the credit. The team probably still wins with a 1 or 2 hit shutout, but we want that pitcher to have no hits, the clean image of the 0 0 0 line on the scoreboard looks much better than 0 1 0.
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