by Dan Trammel

Created on: February 13, 2009

Baseball is one game played without a clock. At the time of the first pitch, there is no way of knowing if the game will finish in 2 hours or 10. All that is known is that there will be a winner. Baseball games do not end in ties. Well, they usually don't. On May 1, 1920, the Brooklyn Robins and Boston Braves battled 26 innings without determining a winner. It still stands as the Major League record for longest game.

Playing in a light rain at Braves Field in front of 2000 fans, the Robins took a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning when catcher Ernie Kruger walked, took second base on a fielder's choice, and scored on second basemanIvy Olsen's single to leftfield. The Braves tied it in the sixth inning after right fielder Walt Cruise tripled to center and third baseman Tony Boeckelknocked him in with a single. Unbeknownst to everyone, that would be the final score of the day, although both teams had their opportunities. The Braves loaded the bases in the ninth inning with 1 out, but second baseman Charlie Pick, on his way to an 0 for 11 night, hit into an inning-ending double play. The Dodgers loaded the bases in the 17th inning but suffered a similar fate. After 26 innings of baseball, the umpires called the game on account of darkness.

Perhaps the most astounding aspect of the game was that both starting pitchers pitched the entire 26 innings. Brooklyn's Leon Cadore scattered 15 hits, walked 5, and struck out 6 batters. Boston's Joe Oeschgerwas even better, allowing only 9 hits, while walking 4 and striking out 7. Unfortunately, neither got credit for a win after pitching the equivalent of nearly 3 full games. However, as Cadore later said, "What a crime it would have been to have a loss marked up against either pitcher."

Although no other game has reached the 26th inning, two games have reached the 25th inning and, unlike the Brooklyn-Boston encounter, determined a victor. On September 11, 1974 at Shea Stadium before 13,460 fans, the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the New York Mets 4-3 with an unearned run in the top of the 25th inning. After a Bake McBride single, an errant pickoff throw by losing pitcher Hank Webb allowed McBride to run around the bases, while a Ron Hodges errorallowed him to score. This game didn't feature the marathon pitching work as that of Cadore and Oeschger, but both bullpens were remarkable, particularly Claude Osteen who pitched 9.1 innings of scoreless relief. This game also saw a record 103 plate appearances by the New York Mets, a record 175 official at-bats for the two teams, and a record 45 runners left on base.

The 25-inning affair was matched by the Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers on May 8, 1984, with the Pale Hose prevailing 7-6 on a walk-off home run by Harold Baines. Unlike the games before it, however, the Chicago-Milwaukee affair was suspended due to a curfew in effect, and finished the next day. This game stands as the American League record for longest game in number of innings, as well as the Major League record for amount of time, lasting an incredible 8 hours and 6 minutes. Interestingly, as the game was completed on May 9, Tom Seaver was the winning pitcher in relief of the May 8 game, and then started the regularly scheduled May 9 game, winning that one too.

The National League record for longest game in length of time was an 8-6 San Francisco Giants win over the New York Mets on May 31, 1964, lasting 7 hours and 23 minutes and consisting of 23 innings. Incredibly, this was the second game of a double header, which the Giants swept from the Mets. The two games combined lasted 9 hours and 52 minutes, a Major League record for longest double header.

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