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The longest game in baseball history featured rising stars Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken Jr., and one for the record books that the Red Wings Dallas Williams wishes wasn't in his name.
Jim Mandelaro
MinorLeagueNews.com
April 18, 1981 was one of the most momentous dates in baseball history. For a few weeks, the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings would receive national attention worthy of a Yankees-Red Sox ALCS series, and Dallas Williams would go into the record books, even though he didn’t want to.
The Longest Game in Baseball History
The game on that April 18th between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings was the longest ever recorded in the professional ranks: A 33-inning marathon at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, R.I., that took 65 days to complete.
The early Spring game began ominously: The start was delayed 30 minutes while maintenance men repaired a bank of lights.
A crowd of 1,740 was on hand for the first pitch.
McCoy Stadium was famous for being a hitter's park, but on this brisk Spring evening, pitching ruled as starters Larry Jones of the Rochester Red Wings and Danny Parks of the Pawtucket Red Sox matched zeroes for six innings. PawSox reliever Luis Aponte pitched the seventh through 10th innings and struck out 14 batters.
Rochester broke through in the seventh when Chris Bourjos singled home Mark Corey. The PawSox came back though, tying it in the bottom of the ninth when Chico Walker doubled off the center-field wall, moved to third on Jones' wild pitch, arguably the key pitch in the game, and scored on Russ Laribee's sacrifice fly.
Fewer than 100 remained as the game rolled into the morning hours.
