Playing into the Night: Baseball’s Longest Games

Last Thursday, the San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies had a marathon 22-inning game, the longest baseball game in nearly 15 years. In honor of their longevity, here are some of the longest baseball games in professional baseball history.

September 11^th 1974 – St. Louis Cardinals @ New York Mets (26 innings)
This September game at Shea Stadium is tied for the longest game to a decision in major league history. The game broke the record for the most runners stranded in a major league game, with both teams leaving 45 runners on base.

The teams split runs in the first inning and the Mets took a 3-1 lead in the 5^th on a Cleon Jones two-run homer off Cards starter Bob Forsch. However, in the top half of the ninth, with Met starter Jerry Koosman one out away from a complete game, Ken Reitz hit a two- run home run that would send the game into extra innings.

The Mets’ best opportunity in extra innings was in the 23^rd and 24^th innings, with the bases loaded for Jones in the 23rd, whose home run in the 5^th seemed like it took place years ago. But Sonny Siebert got Jones to fly out to right and the game remained 3-3. The Cards also loaded them up in the 24^th, but Dick Billings grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the threat. The Mets got the bases full again in the home half of the inning but pinch hitter Rusty Staub grounded out.

With Bake McBride on first in the 25^th, Mets hurler Hank Webb threw a pickoff throw away. That, combined with a second error on the play charged to the catcher Ron Hodges, allowed McBride to score the winning run and the Cardinals defeated the Mets 4-3, on a game that ended at 3:13 AM EST.

May 8-9^th 1984 – Milwaukee Brewers @ Chicago White Sox (25 innings)
The Brewers and White Sox currently hold the record for the longest game in American League history, with the official time of the game finishing at eight hours and six minutes. Both teams split runs early but the Brewers took a 3-1 lead in the ninth thanks to RBIs from Ted Simmons and Ben Oglivie.

The Brew Crew brought in Rollie Fingers to close the game for them in the ninth. The first batter of the inning, Tom Paciorek, reached second on a two-base error charged to Bobby Clark. Then, after retiring the next two hitters, Julio Cruz doubled to score Paciorek. The next batter, Rudy Law, brought Cruz in on a base hit of his own and the Pale Hose sent the game into extras thanks to the two unearned runs.

The White Sox had a chance to end the game on the 8^th day of May. They loaded the bases in the 14^th with one man out, but Brewers pitcher Rick Waits got pinch-hitter Marc Hill to strike out and Dave Stegman to pop out in foul territory to end the threat. The umpires suspended the game after 17 innings, on account of the rule that an inning cannot start after 12:59 AM local time.

The next day and in the twenty-first inning, Ben Ogilivie hit a three-run shot of Ron Reed to give the Brewers a 6-3 lead. But in the bottom half of the inning, with the score 6-4 thanks to a Carlton Fisk RBI single, Paciorek brought in two with a single of his own up the middle to re-tie the score at six. Finally, with one out in the 25^th, Harold Baines homered off of Chuck Porter to give the Sox a 7-6 win. Tom Seaver picked up the win in relief for the White Sox, pitching the final three innings. He also started, and picked up the win, in the regularly scheduled game that followed the finish of the previous days’ game, giving him two wins on the same day.

June 14^th, 1966 – Miami @ St. Petersburg – Florida State League (29 innings)
Miami defeated the Sparky Anderson-managed St. Petersburg team, 4-3, in the Class A Florida State League, in what is the longest professional baseball game ever played without interruption.

May 1^st, 1920 – Brooklyn Robins @ Boston Braves (26 innings)
The longest game in major league history was a 1-1 draw between the Robins and Braves, played in Boston. An even more spectacular feat was that Robins pitcher Leon Cadore and Braves hurler Joe Oeschger went the entire twenty-six innings, Cadore allowed 15 hits, striking out eight and walking five, while his counterpart gave up nine hits, struck out four and walked only three in the marathon affair for both pitchers.

The visitors opened up the scoring in the fifth. Ernie Krueger was walked to open up the inning and went to second on a sacrifice bunt by the pitcher, Cadore. The next at-bat, the Robins’ shortstop and leadoff man, Ivy Olson, ripped an Oeschger pitch into left field to give Brooklyn a 1-0 lead. Boston tied it up in the sixth, thanks to a two-out RBI single from Tony Boeckel that scored Walton Cruise. The Braves then had a chance to take the lead on the very next at-bat. Rabbit Maranville hit a double to deep center and Boeckel attempted to score on the play, but was thrown out, 8-1-2 on the putout, to end the inning with the score tied at one.

The game could have been over earlier had it not been for some great defensive plays on both sides. The Braves loaded the bases with one out in the ninth with Charlie Pick at the plate. Pick hit a ground ball to Olson, who tagged a runner on the base paths before making a sensational throw to get the speedy Olson to keep the score tied. In the seventeenth, it was the Robins’ turn, as they had the bases juiced with only one away. The batter, Rowdy Elliott, hit a grounder right back at the mound, which was fielded by Oeschger and thrown to the catcher Hank Gowdy for the force at the plate. Gowdy, trying to turn the 1-2-3 double play, threw a ball in the dirt to first base and Elliott was safe. Ed Konetchy, the runner on second, saw the error an attempted to score on the play but Walter Holke, the first baseman, recovered and made a strong throw to get Konetchy at the plate to end the inning and nullify the go-ahead run.

After twenty-six innings, the umpires finally suspended the game as it was so dark, the players could hardly see the baseball. The game still holds the record for the longest major league baseball game.

April 18-19th, 1981 – Rochester Red Wings @ Pawtucket Red Sox (33 innings)
This International League regular season game still holds the all-time record for the longest professional baseball game of all-time, stretching over two days and elapsing a time of eight hours and 25 minutes. The game even started late, around a half an hour, due to problems with the stadium lights at McCoy Stadium.

Rochester was two outs away from walking away with a 1-0 win but Pawtucket DH Russ Laribee, who went 0-11 with a very rare double golden sombrero (eight strikeouts), brought in teammate Chico Walker on a sacrifice fly to tie the game at one. Another run would not be scored until the 21^st when Wings catcher Dave Huppert, who caught 31 of the 33 innings, recorded his first career Triple-A hit, an RBI single to bring Rochester closer to ending the marathon.

However, Steve Luebber could not hold the lead in his eighth inning pitched, surrendering an RBI double to future Hall-of-Famer Wade Boggs. The game was finally suspended at 4:09 the next morning, after the 32^nd inning, with the score still tied 2-2. The International League actually had a curfew rule that would have suspended the game at 1:00 that morning, but a misunderstanding amongst the umpires allowed the game to continue. Only around two dozen of the original 1,900 fans in attendance stuck around, all of whom were awarded season tickets by PawSox’s owner Ben Mondor.

The game resumed on June 23^rd at McCoy Stadium to a near sellout crowd, but the game only lasted less than a half an hour. With the bases loaded in the home half of the 33^rd, Dave Koza brought in Marty Barrett with a lazy single to left on the 883^rd pitch of the game. Future major league pitcher Bob Ojeda recorded the win for Pawtucket while Steve Grilli, who was pitching with the Syracuse Chiefs when the game started, took the loss on the hill.

The game set professional records for innings played, time, putouts (195), at-bats (219), strikeouts (60), assists (88), most individual at-bats (Lee Graham, Dave Koza, Chico Walker; Pawtucket – 14 each) and most individual plate appearances (Tom Eaton, Dallas Williams, Cal Ripken; Rochester – 15 each)