Game time was 7:05, but play did not start until 8 because of problems with one of the light stanchions. Little did they realize that this was an omen.
The game was scoreless into the 7th inning, when the Red Wings broke on the scoreboard. Pawtucket tied it in the bottom of the 9th, and the fun started.
A series of pitchers took the mound for each club, throwing goose egg after goose egg. Rochester finally broke through in their half of the 21st inning, but the Pawsox re-tied it.
At that point, Pawtucket tried to remind the umpires of an International League rule forbidding an inning from starting after 12:50 a.m. The umps said, "We've never heard of such a rule. Get back out there and play ball."
It was three hours later that the umps finally learned of the rule. Seems the rule sheet they got at the start of the season omitted the curfew, which was known to the general managers. The game might not have been stopped if not for a call from the league president at 4:00, ordering that play be stopped at the end of the inning.
The 32d inning came to a halt at 4:07, with the score still tied, 2-2. The clubs were scheduled for another game the next day, Easter Sunday, but it was decided to complete this game on Rochester's next visit, June 23, and to just play the scheduled game Sunday. Thankfully, that one only went nine innings.
Originally, the story of the marathon was treated as a footnote by the media. However, the Major League Baseball Players Association went on strike June 12, making the game's completion a major story. All three networks, as well as ESPN, descended upon Pawtucket to catch the finish, which lasted just 18 minutes. Dave Koza's single drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 33d inning.
As of August 1999, the only players from that game still active in baseball were the starting third basemen, Wade Boggs of the Pawsox and Cal Ripken of the Red Wings. Ripken came up to the Orioles as soon as the strike ended in August, later moving to shortstop, and in May 1982 he started a consecutive-game playing streak that eventually reached a record 2632 games. Boggs moved up to the Boston Red Sox and won several American League batting titles for them before being traded to the New York Yankees and, later, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Ironically, both "marathon men" were closing in on 3000 hits as of this revision.
Winning pitcher Bobby Ojeda worked for about a dozen years with the Red Sox, New York Mets, and Cleveland Indians before retiring after the 1994 season. Other familiar names from the game include Dave Valle, Marty Barrett, Rich Gedman, and Bruce Hurst.
The box score:
COMPLETION OF SUSPENDED GAME (April 18)
ROCHESTER ab r h bi PAWTUCKET ab r h bi
Eaton 2b 10 0 3 0 Graham cf 14 0 1 0
Williams cf 13 0 0 0 Barrett 2b 12 1 2 0
Ripken 3b 13 0 2 0 Walker lf 14 1 2 0
Corey dh 5 1 1 0 Laribee dh 11 0 0 1
Chisholm ph 1 0 0 0 Koza 1b 14 1 5 1
Reyford c 5 0 0 0 Boggs 3b 12 0 4 0
Logan 1b 12 0 0 0 Bowen rf 12 0 2 0
Valle 1b 1 0 0 0 Gedman c 3 0 1 0
Bourjos lf 4 0 2 1 Ongarato ph 1 0 0 0
Hale lf 7 0 1 0 LaFrancois c 8 0 2 0
Smith lf 0 0 0 0 Valdez ss 13 0 2 0
Hazewood rf 4 0 0 0
Hart rf 6 0 1 0
Bonner ss 12 1 3 0
Huppert c 11 0 1 1
Putnam ph 1 0 0 0
Grilli p 0 0 0 0
Speck p 0 0 0 0
TOTALS 105 2 18 2 TOTALS 114 3 21 3
Rochester 000 000 100 000 000 000 001 000 000 000 000 -- 2
Pawtucket 000 000 001 000 000 000 001 000 000 000 001 -- 3
None out when winning run scored.
Game-winning RBI -- Koza (1).
E -- Eaton, Logan, Bonner, Valdez. DP -- Rochester 4, Pawtucket 3.
LOB -- Rochester 30, Pawtucket 23. 2B -- Koza 2, Walker, Boggs,
Huppert. SB -- Eaton. S -- Williams 2, Logan, Hart, Huppert 2.
SF -- Laribee.
IP H R ER BB SO
ROCHESTER
Jones 8 2-3 7 1 1 2 5
Schneider 5 1-3 2 0 0 0 8
Luebber 8 6 1 1 2 4
Umbarger 10 4 0 0 0 9
Grilli L,0-3 0 1 1 1 1 0
Speck 0 1 0 0 0 0
PAWTUCKET
Parks 6 3 1 1 4 3
Aponte 4 0 0 0 2 9
Sarmiento 4 3 0 0 2 3
Smithson 3 2-3 2 0 0 3 5
Remmerswaal 4 1-3 4 1 1 3 3
Finch 5 3 0 0 1 3
Hurst 5 2 0 0 3 7
Ojeda W,9-5 1 1 0 0 0 1
HBP -- Laribee by Schneider, Eaton by Parks, Bonner by Aponte,
Barrett by Grilli. WP -- Jones, Hurst, Smithson. T -- 8:25.