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Long Memories From a Baseball Classic
"I'll never forget how cold it was, and how hard the wind was blowing -- straight in," said Marty Barrett, crossing the plate with the game-winning run in the 33rd inning, above. "You felt it as soon as you got out there. We all just wanted the night to go real fast."
(Courtesy Pawtucket Red Sox)
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"I remember they wanted us to play the continuation of the game at Fenway Park," recalled Pawtucket third baseman Wade Boggs. "But we as players voted not to cross the [picket] line."
It took exactly one inning on June 23, lasting exactly 18 minutes, to finish the game. After the Red Wings were retired in the top of the 33rd, the PawSox loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom half on a hit batsman, a hit-and-run single and an intentional walk.
On a 2-2 curveball from reliever Cliff Speck, Pawtucket first baseman Dave Koza singled to left field to end the game.
"It was like a gift to me," said Koza, who went 5 for 14 in the game. "Bases loaded, nobody out, and Wade Boggs on deck. There was no pressure on me."
It was, and still remains, the longest game in history.
The winning pitcher, following a scoreless frame in the 33rd, was Pawtucket's Bobby Ojeda, who -- back in April -- had pitched the night before the fateful game, and thus had been unavailable. The losing pitcher, with zero innings pitched, was Rochester's Steve Grilli, who had been in another organization when the game began, and who wound up here because of a waiver claim.
To this day, Grilli, who loaded the bases in the bottom of the 33rd, can still see the disappointed faces of his teammates when he walked off the mound after getting yanked.
"What it took them eight and a half hours to accomplish," Grilli said, "I undid in about two minutes."
That part is not in the box score, either.
Precursor to Hall
Boggs, 22 years old when the game started and 23 when it ended, was Pawtucket's third baseman and top hitting prospect. His Rochester counterpart was Cal Ripken Jr., a 20-year-old phenom who some in the Orioles organization believed might eventually be moved to shortstop. Neither would have impressed anyone seeing them play for the first time that day, particularly Ripken, who went 2 for 13.
"A lot of us," Ripken joked, "had a bad week that day."
While many of the game's artifacts, including the official scorer's scorecard, eventually wound up in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Boggs and Ripken got to Cooperstown by other, more glorious means.
