26 Innings of Baseball: Nobody Won.

May 1, 1920. In the city of Boston, the police were uneasy in the murky morning mist. Between intermittent showers, they stood with shoulders hunched against the chilly air as they trudged out in extra details, alert to the morning headlines, “Guard against Bolshevik uprisings here. As it turned out, the only battle that day took place at the local ball field as the Bostons, and the Brooklyns battled for 26 innings and ended up tied. It still stands as the longest game in major league history.

On the mound, that day for Uncle Robbie’s Brooklyn team was Leon Cadore. The 28-year-old Cadore was in his 4th full season in the big leagues. He would post a 15-14 mark that year, helping Brooklyn win the NL pennant. His mound opponent was Joe Oeschger. Always described as jovial, Oeschger was in the beginning of what for him, was a resurgent season. He had finished 4-4 in 1919, playing for three teams, the Phils, Giants, and then Boston. He and Cadore had met 10 days earlier, and Cadore outlasted him, 1-0 in 11 innings. Brooklyn was led by their star outfielder, Zack Wheat. Manager George Stalling’s team was not nearly that talented. They would finish in 7th place in the NL that year with a 60-92-1 record.

It was drizzling when the umpire, Bill McCormick, yelled, “Play ball”. Ivy Olsen, the Robins leadoff hitter, stepped into the box. But the rain stopped abruptly after the first inning, and the crowd settled in to watch the game. Three more scoreless innings would pass. In the fifth inning, Brooklyn’s catcher, Ernie Krueger, worked a walk. Cadore then bounced one back to Oeschger, but he had the ball pop out of his hand, and his only play was to first. Krueger then scored when Olsen singled over Rabbit Maranville’s head.

In the sixth, Boston’s right fielder, Wally Cruise, tripled off of the fence in right-center field. Holke then hit a ball over third base that looked like a hit, but Wheat came flying in and made a shoestring catch and almost doubled Cruise off at third. But then Tony Boeckel lined a single to center, scoring Cruise. The score was tied 1-1.

It was cold and damp, and there was the wind blowing in from the Charles River just beyond center field. It cut down balls that could have been hits, into harmless outs. The crowd huddled together in the cold as the double string of zeros continued to grow. Both of the pitchers were very careful since they knew one mistake could cost them the win.

The harder the players tried to get hits, the easier it was for the pitchers to get them out. In the ninth, however, Boston loaded the bases with two outs. Maranville was on third. Charley Pick hit a hard grounder that Olsen pounced on; he tried to tag Ray Powell but missed, then he threw to first just in time to get Pick. Meanwhile, Maranville crossed the plate, but umpire Eugene Hart ruled that Powell had run out of the baseline, so the run was invalid.

The zeros kept piling up until in the 17th inning, when a New York Times reporter noticed that the zeros were extending beyond the scoreboard. Brooklyn finally got to Oeschger in the 17th and had the bases loaded with one out. Wheat was on third. Elliott hit a grounder back to the pitcher, who threw to C Hank Gowdy for the force. Gowdy’s throw to first went wild, and Holke barely knocked it down. Ed Konetchy tried to score from second. Holke threw to Gowdy, who threw himself across the plate, meeting Konetchy’s spikes with his bare hand.

The zeros kept piling up. When they hit the 23rd inning, they broke the NL record. When they hit 25, they broke the Major League record. When the 26th inning was done, Umpire Bill McCormick surveyed the darkening skies. Ivy Olsen, guessing his intent, ran up to him and spoke, ” Wait one more inning! I want to tell my grandchildren I played the equivalent of three nine-inning games in one day.” “Not without a miner’s lamp.” snapped McCormick. He raised his hands, calling the game because of darkness.

The line score read Brooklyn 1-9-2 Boston 1-15-2. Only two Brooklyn hitters had more than one hit, Wheat, and 3B, Jimmie Johnston. They had no extra-base hits. Boston had a couple of doubles and a triple. The entire game took 3 hours and 50 minutes and was played before 4500 intrepid fans. The Robins left Boston the next day on a train. They then lost a 13-inning game to the Phillies that afternoon. Monday, they were back in Boston, where they lost in 19 innings. In 58 hours, they lost two and had a tie. The game would be finished later in the season, with the Braves getting the win. But Brooklyn went to the World Series, so that had to be some consolation. Oeschger would continue his resurgence the next season, winning 20 games. But he never won in double figures after 1921. He finished his career with Brooklyn in 1925, going 1-2 for a career mark of 82-116. Leon Cadore pitched until 1924, finishing his career with the Giants. He won 13 in 1922 but also never reached double figures again. He finished with a career 68-72 record.

26 innings of baseball. The longest MLB game ever in terms of innings played. There have been games time-wise in the modern era that are much longer. In 1974, the Cardinals and Mets played 25 innings, with the Cards getting the win. In 1984, the White Sox and Brewers also played 25, with the Sox prevailing. That game took 8 hours and 6 minutes. The Cards-Mets tiff took seven hours 23 minutes. The longest 9-inning game timewise was a Yankee win at Boston in 2006, which took four hours 45 minutes. NL record is four hours 30 minutes by the D-Backs and Rockies in 2016 and the Phils and Pirates in 2018.

Both the Brooklyn Dodgers and the L.A. version have 22-inning wins. Brooklyn beat the Pirates 6-5 in Brooklyn in 1917, and LA beat Montreal 1-0 in Montreal in 1989.

Keith Law’s Top 60

See what I have been telling you?

1. Bobby Miller has #1 potential
2. Gavin Stone – I told you so.
3. Look how much Vargas jumped.
4. Don’t count Pages out