Imagine a 33-inning baseball game being stretched out over 66 days. It happened.
Saturday, April 18, 1981, is when it all began. Triple-A International League baseball, two clubs that were no strangers to fans in Western New York and New England, began their day as any during their 140-game season schedule. During a time when clubs charged $4 for box seats, and bleacher seats could be had for $1.50, anticipation ran high for a game between the rivals on the evening before Easter Sunday.
The rosters would feature 27 future and former MLB players in the game. Two players, Wade Boggs (Pawtucket) and Cal Ripken Jr. (Rochester), would have Hall of Fame careers that landed them in Cooperstown, N.Y., in retirement.
Extra innings are no strangers to ball clubs. Playing beyond the scheduled nine innings to break a tie is something managers have planned for since organized baseball began. But—33 innings?
Due to technical difficulties at Pawtucket’s McCoy Stadium on that Saturday evening, the game began 30 minutes late. As the game went on, the score remained deadlocked at a run apiece through the top of the 21st inning. Once inning 32 had been reached, a phone call from then International League President Harold Cooper mercifully put a stop to the game—at 4:07 a.m. Easter Sunday.
An official game attendance reported as 1,740 fans during regulation play, and when April 19 arrived, 20 loyal fans of the Pawtucket Red Sox remained for the final pitch of the morning.
Steve Grilli, who had thrown in one game for the Toronto Blue Jays two MLB seasons earlier, which would be the last of his 70 appearances on that level, played a major role in finally putting what was then seen as “the never-ending game” to rest. Released earlier in the season by Toronto while pitching for their Triple-A club in Syracuse, N.Y., Grilli was mulling over an offer by then New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner to join the Columbus Clippers (Yankees International League affiliate), when Baltimore made him an offer too good to refuse.
“I wasn’t with the [Rochester] club for the first game in April,” Grilli told The Epoch Times. “When I arrived in the clubhouse on June 23, our manager, Doc Edwards, had left a clean ball in my locker. That’s how I knew that I would be starting the game, picking up where things ended two months earlier.”
For as long as the 32 innings lasted in April (8 hours 25 minutes for all 33 innings), Grilli’s contributions lasted as he remembers for “minutes,” which led to the outcome of a 3–2 Pawtucket victory.
“When I went out to the mound, I treated the game as any other that I pitched in. The wind was blowing strong that day. I remember this well,” said Grilli, who is recovering from a recent stroke.
The first Pawtucket hitter, Marty Barrett, Grilli plunked—man on first. Next, Chico Walker singles—men on first and second bases. Up next, Russ Laribee walks. Grilli puts three men on base. Cliff Speck comes in to relieve Grilli and promptly offers up a hit to David Koza. Pawtucket scores. Game over. There were no outs when the winning run was scored.
“I took the loss. There was a fella from the Baseball Hall of Fame in the clubhouse afterwards who asked if he could have my hat. Sure, I said. At the time there were no MLB Games, they were on strike. We [minor leagues] were the only game in town, so our game in Pawtucket received more attention than normal. I finished my career with Rochester, and lived the dream,” says Grilli, who today resides in the Syracuse area, and with his wife Kathleen operates Change of Pace Sports Bar in “Salt City.”
Grilli doesn’t second-guess his decision to join the Red Wings in mid-season, and going into the official box score as the losing pitcher in baseball’s longest game. He tells of playing the waiting game for Steinbrenner to make an official offer to join the 1981 Yankees, who ended up winning the American League pennant that October. The solid offer extended to Grilli by the Orioles for a spot in Rochester’s pitching staff was one that he jumped at. A career that began in July 1970 as a free agent with the Detroit Tigers closed its book a couple of months after that historic performance at McCoy Stadium.
The statistics surrounding the longest game are mind-blowing, with totals that doubleheaders often don’t achieve: most at-bats in one game at 219, 59 strikeouts (34 by Rochester hitters), 11 pitchers, and umpire Dennis Cregg was behind the plate for all eight hours and 25 minutes played (882 pitches).
Grilli is one of only two pitchers who can say they pitched in the bottom of the 33rd inning of any professional game. A member of the Syracuse Sports Wall of Fame, Grilli is thankful for being part of baseball history, even with coming out on the losing end of the game.
