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The Longest Baseball Games In History: From MLB to the Minor Leagues & Beyond

What happens when the concession stands run out of food? Or when the field doesn’t have flood lights?

Dodgers slugger Max Muncy, who was part of the longest game in World Series history in 2018, points up at a pitch clock with a red X through it.
AP/MLB/Joker Mag

There’s something to be said about heading out to the ballpark on a nice sunny day. The aroma of fresh grass, popcorn, hot dogs, the crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd.

However, sometimes too much of a good thing can be too much of a good thing.

For years, there has been grumbling about the length of baseball games.

The ones that drag on thanks to countless pitching changes, time between pitches, and how long a hitter takes to adjust their batting gloves.

What was once a leisurely pastime has now become a game that, for better or worse, operates under a pitch clock as MLB fights the world’s shrinking attention span.

In the pre-pitch clock era, games would morph into a marathon, stretching far beyond the usual time expectancy, testing the limits of everyone involved.

These epic battles, especially during the postseason, could go on for hours, pushing both players and fans to exhaustion – both mentally and physically.

Here are the longest games in baseball history – from MLB to the minors and beyond.

1920: Brooklyn Robins vs. Boston Braves (26 Innings)

The Robins and Braves faced off for a 3-hour and 50-minute affair that took place in front of 4,500 fans at Braves Field on May 1st, 1920.

Long before the days of modernized training and conditioning techniques, there was no doubt that many or all of the players involved were exhausted.

In an act that would never be seen in today’s game, both Leon Cadore (Robins) and Joe Oeschger (Braves) pitched the entire game in a 1-1 epic pitching duel.

“If a pitcher couldn’t go the distance, he soon found himself some other form of occupation.”

Over the course of the game, Cadore allowed 15 hits with 5 walks and 7 strikeouts, while Oeschger gave up 9 hits, 4 free passes, and retired 7 Robins on strikes.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) for fans in attendance, who sat through 20 scoreless innings after the Braves tied the game in the bottom of the sixth, darkness was the deciding factor in the game, which was played before floodlights were a thing.

1984: Chicago White Sox vs. Milwaukee Brewers (25 Innings)

The Robins and Braves may have made history with the longest game by innings, but the White Sox and Brewers own the title for the longest game by time, clocking in at 8 hours and 6 minutes.

When fans walked into Comiskey Park on the evening of May 8th, 1984, they had no idea that they would have to return the next day in order to see the conclusion of the epic battle.

By the time the umpires called the game at 1 am due to MLB American League rules stating games could not continue past midnight, fans who’d traded beer for coffee were questioning whether they’d make it into the office the next morning.

The game, which had been halted at the end of the top of the 18th inning, would restart the next day. By the time Harold Baines cranked a walk-off homer in the 25th inning, a combined 753 pitches had been thrown by 14 different pitchers.

“The thing that impressed me about that long game was that both clubs kept playing hard,” then-White Sox manager Tony La Russa said.

“It’s the first time I’ve managed a suspended game, and I couldn’t get it off my mind when I went home last night. I hope I don’t have to go through that again.”

1974: St. Louis Cardinals vs. New York Mets (25 Innings)

While they were able to combine for 34 hits, the Cardinals and Mets teamed up to post 15 straight scoreless innings in their 7-hour and 4-minute affair on September 11th, 1974.

Although the Sox and Brewers own the record for the longest game, the Cards and Mets game is officially the longest continuous game on record.

After giving up a 3-1 lead in the ninth inning when St. Louis third baseman cracked a two-run homer off of Mets starting pitcher Jerry Koosman, neither team could bring a runner in until the wee hours of the morning.

With an announced attendance of over 13,000 fans, approximately 1,000 were still in the stands to see Bake McBride score all the way from first base on an errant pickoff attempt by Mets pitcher Hank Webb.

The game officially ended at 3:13 am with the scoreboard reading Cardinals 4 – Mets 3.

“I’ve been out til 4 in the morning before, but never on a team bus going from the ballpark to the hotel,” Cardinals equipment manager Butch Yatkeman said following the game.

About 50 players made an appearance in the game and nearly 180 baseballs saw action in the record-setting affair.

1968: Houston Astros vs. New York Mets (24 Innings)

While watching a pitcher’s duel can be exciting for some, most fans want to see some traffic on the bases.

If you were one of the 14,219 fans in attendance during the April 15th, 1968 game at the Astrodome, you may have seen a bit of both.

But it wasn’t until the bottom of the 24th inning that a player crossed home plate.

The Astros and Mets combined for 22 hits (11 each) and thirteen pitchers (Astros 5, Mets 8).

Don Wilson pitched nine scoreless innings allowing just five hits, while Tom Seaver went for ten innings with only a pair of hits against him. From the bottom of the second until the bottom of the tenth, Seaver sent twenty-five batters straight back to their spot in the Houston dugout.

At one point, the Astrodome scoreboard crew got creative, posting, “We hope you are enjoying tonight’s third game as much as you enjoyed the first two.”

With the bases juiced in the bottom of the twenty-fourth inning, Bob Aspromonte’s knocked a grounder that skipped through Mets shortstop Al Weis’s legs, allowing the game to finish on a walk-off error and a 1-0 Astros victory.

1945: Detroit Tigers vs. Philadelphia Athletics (24 Innings)

While it amounted to two and a half games, the Tigers and Athletics still managed to complete their game in just under five hours, clocking in at 4:48.

Unfortunately once again not only would this game wind up being a pitching battle, but it also ended in a 1-1 tie.

With numerous players still finishing their service in World War II, there was a huge absence of talent on both teams on July 21st, 1945, which may have been the reason for the marathon game or lack of scoring, despite the 26 total hits.

Les Mueller proved to be the game’s ironman, throwing for 19 and 2/3 of the two dozen innings, giving up just one run on thirteen hits.

The Athletics countered with the duo of Russ Christopher and Joe Berry, who pitched 13 and 11 frames respectively, with Christopher giving up the lone run in the bottom of the fourth inning.

After the final seventeen scoreless innings, the remaining 4,526 fans at Shibe Park were sent home in the dark when umpire Bill Summers called the game, stating: “After 4 hours and forty-eight minutes behind the plate, I couldn’t see the ball any longer.”

Beyond MLB’s Regular Season: More Long Ballgames

100 Inning Game

In an effort to help with the battle against ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), Brett Rudy and Boston’s Men’s Baseball League created what has become an annual event to donate money towards The Angel Fund.

Created in 2004, the event kicks off Saturday morning and runs through the night, until completion sometime on Sunday.

With each year’s game taking between 27 and 33 hours to complete, the event has raised just short of $1 million towards charity, clocking in at $952,653 all-time.

Triple-A: Pawtucket Red Sox vs. Rochester Red Wings (33 Innings)

Before they were MLB Hall of Famers, Cal Ripken Jr. and Wade Boggs were a part of the longest minor league game in history.

While some say the game lasted two days, technically you could say that it took nearly two months to complete.

A thirty-minute delay due to faulty lighting may have foreshadowed what was to come.

With the first pitch being thrown on April 18th, 1981, the first 32 innings of the game went until 4:07 am before officials decided that not only were the players in jeopardy of injury from fatigue, but they had started to burn their broken bats in the garbage cans in an effort to stay warm.

By 2 am, the 1,740 fans that had started the game had whittled down to under 50, and two hours later attendance was down to less than 20.

After eight hours and seven minutes, with the game knotted at two, officials finally called the game to be continued at a later date.

On June 23rd, in front of over 5,700 fans who had jammed themselves into McCoy Stadium to be part of history, the Red Sox would ultimately walk away victorious 3-2.

MLB Doubleheader: San Francisco Giants vs. New York Mets

The longest doubleheader in MLB history took place on May 31st, 1964, in a National League battle.

After what was a relatively normal nine-inning game that lasted 2 hours and 29 minutes with the Giants capturing a 5-3 victory, the two teams would turn around and head into battle again.

However, the second game was nearly three times longer than the first in both time and innings.

It would take 7 hours and 23 minutes to complete 23 innings before fans were able to leave Shea Stadium.

Unfortunately, they would do so with their stomachs grumbling and heads hanging as the concession stands had run out of food midway through the second game and the Giants had pulled out an 8-6 victory.

MLB Postseason Marathon: Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Boston Red Sox (2018)

Facing a two-game deficit as the teams took to the West Coast for Game 3 of the 2018 World Series, the Dodgers sent the 53,114 fans (or those who stayed for the duration) home happy with a 3-2 extra innings victory.

In a marathon battle of endurance and bullpen depth, Game 3 took 18 innings and lasted 7 hours and 20 minutes.

After the Dodgers snagged an early 1-0 lead, Boston tied the game with a solo homer in the top of the 8th inning.

The 13th inning saw each team record another run, something that wouldn’t happen again until Max Muncy blasted a walk-off homer to seal the deal.

Unfortunately, this would be the only game that the Dodgers would win in the series.

Editor’s Note: Is there a long baseball game we missed? Let me know on Twitter.

Written By

Life-long sports fan and avid basketball junkie in every sense of the word. The same passion I have for the Lakers translates to my extreme dislike for the Duke Blue Devils. As much as I cheer for the favorite and the dynasty, I appreciate and applaud the underdog and the grind whether you are a weekend warrior or a professional, both on and off the field.

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