Day five of vacation. As I mentioned earlier this week, I've been reading this book while in South Haven. A few chapters in, they discuss a 1981 minor league game between Cal Ripken and Wade Boggs. The game lasted 33 innings and 8 hours and 25 minutes.
Boggs and Ripken were top prospects for the Red Sox and Orioles, respectively. The Pawtucket Red Sox hosted the Rochester Red Wings on a cold and windy spring Saturday, April 18. After 32 innings, with the game tied at 2, the decision was made to finish the game at a later date. It was 4:09 AM. According to reports, 19 fans remained in the stands; each one was granted lifetime passes to games at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket. The Red Sox won the game 3-2 in 33 innings when the game resumed on June 23.
Ripken and Boggs combined to go 6-25, while playing all 33 innings at third base. 14 pitchers combined to throw over 800 pitches and use a reported 160 baseballs. The list of records set is a long one:
- Longest time: 8 hours, 25 minutes
- Most innings: 33
- Most plate appearances by a player: 15 (Tom Eaton, Cal Ripken, Dallas Williams)
- Most strikeouts: 60
- Most pitches: 882
- Most putouts: 195
Ripken won the 1982 AL Rookie of the year, while Boggs finished third. Both went on to Hall of Fame careers. Boggs reached base more often, but Ripken had more than triple the home runs.
| Name | Seasons | Hits | HR | BA/OBP/SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wade Boggs | 18 | 3,010 | 118 | .328/.415/.443 |
| Cal Ripken | 21 | 3,184 | 431 | .276/.340/.447 |
For more on this game, check out this New York Times article, NPR feature, and Reddit thread.
Baseball is here! And more importantly, that means the over/under game is back. It seems as though everyone is an expert this time of year. Somehow we convince ourselves that we are better at predicting baseball outcomes than everyone else. Well, AFITB is putting that to the test for the third year in a row. Think you know more about baseball than us? You probably do. But go ahead and prove it anyway.