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33 Innings, 882 Pitches and One Crazy Game

metirish Jun 23 2006 11:24 PM

Cool article. ] By IRA BERKOW Published: June 24, 2006 PROVIDENCE, R.I., June 23 — A few years ago, Bruce Hurst recalled Friday afternoon, he was on a golf course in Scottsdale, Ariz., when he ran into Cal Ripken Jr., the likely Hall of Fame shortstop. "I'm sure he didn't remember me, but of course I knew him," said Hurst, once a standout pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. "And then we went back to that one night, that cold, crazy night when we were in the minor leagues. It seems for any of us who were involved in that game, no matter what else we did in our baseball career, we inevitably come back to that night. We still can hardly believe it." The game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings, the Class AAA affiliates of the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles, began in Pawtucket, R.I., on the night of April 18, 1981, went into the early morning of April 19 (when the game was halted), and concluded June 23. It became the longest game in the history of professional baseball, lasting 33 innings, with a total of 882 pitches thrown and 156 baseballs used over 8 hours 25 minutes. It finally ended with Pawtucket scoring a run in the bottom of the 33rd. A reunion commemorating the 25th anniversary of the game's conclusion was held Friday at a downtown hotel here, with 20 former Pawtucket players and 9 former Rochester players attending a luncheon. There was another ceremony Friday night at McCoy Stadium, the Pawtucket team's home park. The 1981 game began on a Saturday night at McCoy Stadium with 1,740 fans in attendance. When it was stopped, after 32 innings, at 4:09 Easter morning, with the score tied at 2-2, 19 fans were left in the stands. "No, none of the players fell asleep," Hurst said. "We were just trying to stay warm. It was the coldest I've ever been in uniform." Marty Barrett, then the second baseman for Pawtucket, recalled that as the game went on, the temperature began to drop. "It must have been in the mid-30's, and the wind was blowing in at about 15 miles an hour — I bet the wind chill factor was 20 degrees," he said. Barrett said that Bob Ojeda, the eventual winning pitcher, found a 55-gallon trash can and lit a fire with the numerous bats that broke during the game. "I followed baseball statistics and records when I was growing up and knew that the major league record for the longest game was 26 innings," in 1920, Barrett said. "When it went past that, I knew we were involved in something special." The previous pro baseball longevity record was 29 innings, on June 14, 1966, with Miami beating St. Petersburg (managed by Sparky Anderson), 4-3, in the Class A Florida State League. "When I doubled in the tying run in the 21st inning, I didn't know if the guys wanted to hug me or slug me," said Wade Boggs, now a Hall of Famer, who played third base for Pawtucket. "But, being competitors, we did want to win the game." The game seemed ill-fated from the start. Scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., it was delayed because of a problem with the stadium lights. At one point, Sam Bowen, the Pawtucket right fielder, hit a ball that Boggs thought was out of the park. "But the wind blew it back and the left fielder made a running basket catch," Boggs said. Jim Umbarger came in to relieve for the Red Wings in the 23rd inning and threw 10 shutout innings. "I remember calling my father the next day and telling him I got four hits," Boggs said. "He said, 'That's great.' I said: 'Yeah, but I was up 12 times. We went 32 last night.' " Hurst, who pitched the last five innings April 19 — he was Pawtucket's seventh pitcher that night — said he remembered striking out Ripken (who went 2 for 13, and batted 15 times) on a 3-2 curveball. "Why I'm throwing a curveball in that situation, I don't know," he recalled, "but it turned out to be my best 4 a.m. pitch." The game was stopped after repeated calls to Harold Cooper, the president of the International League, in Columbus, Ohio. Cooper had been at a wedding and did not get home until 3 a.m. Hurst said, "I heard that he said: 'You idiot, this is absurd. Call the game.' " The game was amazing to a lot of people, including the wife of Luis Aponte. (Aponte pitched four scoreless innings in relief for Pawtucket.) She had locked the door of their home when he returned at 5 in the morning. "She didn't believe his excuse," Barrett said. Aponte, nearby, laughed in assent. The game resumed in June, when the Red Wings were back to play in Pawtucket. The major league players had gone on strike, so there was a great deal of coverage. Almost 5,800 fans were in the stands. "Before the game," said Joe Morgan, then the Pawtucket manager, "some guy from Australia came over to me and said, 'Sir, do you think this match will be resolved today?' " It was, in 18 minutes. The Red Sox loaded the bases against Steve Grilli, who was relieved by Cliff Speck. The next batter, first baseman Dave Koza, lined a hit into left field, and Barrett scored the winning run at long last. Among the estimated 360 area residents who attended the reunion was Carl Bishop, 74, the retired chief executive of a Rhode Island hospital. "I listened to that game on radio until it was tied after the ninth inning," he said. "I thought, 'This game could go on forever,' and I turned it off and went to sleep. And I was glad, because it did go on forever." http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/24/sports/baseball/24longest.html

Edgy DC Jun 24 2006 12:10 AM

That's a great story. I really dig marathon games. Always have.

Nymr83 Jun 24 2006 12:18 AM

i'd have been the 20th fan still there at 4:00AM.

metirish Jun 24 2006 12:41 AM

I would love to see the full roster of players and see what orther future majot league players played in the game.

Zvon Jun 24 2006 01:11 AM

Nymr83 wrote: i'd have been the 20th fan still there at 4:00AM. Idda been the 21st. :) What a strange twist of fate that the one guy who could call the game was at a wedding until 3am.

The Big O Jun 24 2006 05:14 AM

metirish wrote: I would love to see the full roster of players and see what orther future major league players played in the game. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_baseball_game

smg58 Jun 24 2006 09:40 AM

A few major parts of the Sox 86 WS team -- and of course one major part for the Mets as well. Did Cal play any shortstop before he got to the bigs?

HahnSolo Jun 24 2006 10:34 AM

Rochester only used 6 pitchers! And two of them were only in for the 33rd inning. So four guys combined to go the first 32. Imagine going 8 innings and having only the third longest outing for your team that day!

Edgy DC Jun 24 2006 12:48 PM

Eight of the nine guys in the Paw Sox batting lineup went the distance. The Orioles never should have broken their affiliation with the Red Wings. Nothing good has happened to them since. In fact, the Wings never should have closed Red Wing Stadium/Silver Stadium. It lasted from 1929 to 1996.

seawolf17 Jun 24 2006 04:28 PM

Edgy DC wrote: The Orioles never should have broken their affiliation with the Red Wings. Nothing good has happened to them since. In fact, the Wings never should have closed Red Wing Stadium/Silver Stadium. It lasted from 1929 to 1996. Wrong and wrong. As a former Rochester resident and Red Wings fan, dumping Baltimore was the best thing that could have happened to them. (Unless you meant that nothing good has happened to Baltimore.) First, none of the big-league players ever rehabbed in Rochester, because AA-Bowie is much closer to Baltimore. Rochester was treated like the red-hatted stepchild. There were WAY more Yankees and Mets fans in Rochester than there were O's fans. As far as Silver Stadium/Frontier Field goes, I was there for the first three seasons of the new park, and as storied as the old place was, it was a hard-core dump at the end. Bad neighborhood, uncomfortable seats... it was nowhere near AAA quality. The new place is great; incredible sightlines, great views of the city, plenty of space, and in the first season (1997), they rode our awesome nightly attendance all the way to the International League championship. After that, things fell apart with Baltimore, but now that Minnesota's in town, there's a much more positive attitude around the team, and you definitely see more Twins hats around town. If you want to get technical, maybe they never should have broken ties with St. Louis. (Although that was waaaay before my time.)

Nymr83 Jun 24 2006 04:51 PM

I thought he meant nothing has gone right for the Orioles, not the minor league team, since they split

Frayed Knot Jun 24 2006 05:05 PM

I think he meant Baltimore as well -- except I believe it was more a case of Rochester dumping Baltimore than the other way around.