The Longest Game in Professional Baseball Finally Ends

On June 23, 1981, the Pawtucket Red Sox beat the Rochester Red Wings 3-2 in the bottom of the 33rd inning, ending the longest game in professional baseball history. The final inning took 18 minutes. The first 32 innings had taken eight hours and seven minutes over the course of an April night that stretched into Easter morning.

The game started on April 18, 1981, at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The two International League clubs traded runs early, with Rochester scoring once in the top of the seventh and Pawtucket answering in the bottom of the ninth to force extras. Then neither team scored for 23 consecutive innings. Players shivered in temperatures that dropped into the low 30s. Fans drifted home. The concession stands ran out of food. By the 21st inning, only a handful of spectators remained in the stands.

At 4:07 a.m. on Easter Sunday, after 32 innings, International League president Harold Cooper ordered the game suspended. The teams would finish it the next time Rochester visited Pawtucket.

That resumption came on June 23. A sellout crowd of 5,746 packed McCoy Stadium, joined by 140 reporters from around the world and four television crews. The major leagues were on strike, so the minor league curiosity attracted national attention. In the bottom of the 33rd, Marty Barrett singled, advanced on a sacrifice, and scored on Dave Koza's bases-loaded single to left field. Bob Ojeda pitched the final inning for the win.

The game's roster reads like a future Hall of Fame program. Cal Ripken Jr. played third base for Rochester and went 2-for-13. Wade Boggs played third for Pawtucket and went 4-for-12 with a double and an RBI. Of the 41 players who appeared in the game, 25 went on to play in the major leagues.

The Pawtucket game became the most famous minor league contest ever played, a testament to the stubborn endurance of two teams too competitive to lose.