Extra! Extra! Longest game in baseball history turns 30

Actually, the headline to this post is only about 66 percent true. The famous 33-inning game between the Rochester Red Wings and Pawtucket Red Sox in 1981 started on April 18, was suspended in the 32nd inning at 4:09 a.m. on April 19 and was finally resumed (and completed) two months later on June 23.

We'll celebrate Pawtucket's 3-2 victory Tuesday, though, because Heath Bintliff of Dempsey's Army just wrote an excellent post on the game over on MASN's Orioles Buzz that you should take the time to go read.

Note: The box score to your right is how the game looked after 32 innings, not the full 33.

Among the contest's most interesting tidbits:

? The game between Baltimore and Boston's Triple-A affiliates had its share of future major league players, including Cal Ripken, Wade Boggs, Marty Barrett, Rich Gedman, Bruce Hurst, Chico Walker and Bobby Ojeda. Of course, the Joe Morgan who managed the Red Sox in the game�was not that Joe Morgan. (The Hall of Fame player was still playing for the San Francisco Giants that season.)

? Future manager Kevin Kennedy was on the�Pawtucket team, but was the only player from either side that didn't participate.

? Only 19 fans remained at Pawtucket's McCoy Stadium when the game was suspended on April 19 and they were all given lifetime passes as a reward for their loyalty.

?�With major league players on strike, over 5,800 fans showed up to see the game's completion on June 23. But while the first installment of the game took 8 hours and 7 minutes, only 18 minutes were needed for the resolution after Barrett scored and won the game on a Dave Koza single.

? Fourteen single-game professional records were set during the game, including most at-bats (219), most strikeouts (60) and most pitches thrown (882).

? The game was delayed 30 minutes at the beginning of a power outage. The light towers in left-center and right field did not work afterward.

? Ripken went 2 for 13 with his second hit of the marathon not coming until the top of the 33rd inning. And since the game didn't become official until late June, dropping in the results of a continued game had a big impact on everyone's season statistics. "There were several of us who had bad weeks that game," Ripken famously quipped.

If you'd like to learn more about the game, the PawSox have some good interviews here, Baseball-Reference has a full page devoted to the game and the Sun Chronicle also just published an anniversary article up in New England.

Also, in case you're wondering, the longest game in big league history by time was a May 8, 1984 matchup between the Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers that lasted 25 innings and took 8 hours and 6 minutes. The longest big league game, by inning, was the 26-inning affair between the Boston Braves and Brooklyn Robins in 1920. That one took place on May 1 and famously ended in a tie when the game was called on account of darkness.

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