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That last set they played was actually a game of basketball — 12 Comments

1. One word: Amazing!

   When it goes on, in my book they both won. And no one can say they weren’t evenly matched, can they?

2. OMG… and neither man fell over unconscious. That’s amazing. Those men are titans now.

3. And, as Andy Roddick quipped during day two,”Doesn’t either one of these guys have to pee?”

4. Two of the previous sets also went to tiebreakers, so, yeah, they were very evenly matched, and played a lot of tennis before it was over. It’ll be interesting to see if Isner has anything left in the tank for his next match.

5. I’m not much of a tennis fan, but I like it when history is made. Wow.

6. It sort of reminds me of a Stanley Cup game a number of years ago (I’m not much of a hockey fan either) that went through several overtime periods. I was watching it at a bar with some friends, and in Pennsylvania last call is at 2:00 AM. The bartender chased out everyone but us regulars, and I finally gave up and left around 3:00. The game was still going on.

7. The bartender chased out everyone but us regulars, and I finally gave up and left around 3:00. The game was still going on.

   The longest baseball game on record (that went into extra innings, that is) was a 25-inning marathon in 1984 between Chicago and Milwaukee (AL). It ran 8 hours and 6 minutes, and fans were joking about having to watch the game in shifts.

8. From Wikipedia:

   The longest game by innings in Major League Baseball was a 1-1 tie in the National League between the Boston Braves and Brooklyn Dodgers in 26 innings, at Braves Field in Boston on May 1, 1920. It had become too dark to see the ball (fields did not have lights yet and the sun was setting), and the game was considered a draw. Remarkably, by modern standards, the game time was only 3 hours and 50 minutes. The game had started at 3:00 p.m., as was the custom in those days, and it was approaching 7:00 p.m. when the game ended. Home plate umpire Barry McCormick decided to call the game when he observed lights appearing in the windows of buildings across the Charles River.

   The longest American League game, and tied for the longest major league game by innings which ended with one team winning, was a 7-6 victory by the Chicago White Sox over the Milwaukee Brewers in 25 innings, at Comiskey Park in Chicago in 1984. The game was begun at 7:30 p.m. on the evening of May 8, and after scoring early runs both teams scored twice in the 8th inning; but the game was suspended after 17 innings with the score tied 3-3 due to a league rule prohibiting an inning from beginning after 12:59 a.m. The game was continued the following evening, May 9, and both teams scored three times in the 21st inning to make the score 6-6; finally, in the bottom of the 25th, the White Sox’ Harold Baines hit a home run to end the contest. Tom Seaver was the winning pitcher in relief. [1] (A regularly scheduled game followed, meaning both nights saw 17 innings played; Seaver also started, and won, the second game.) The official time of the entire 25-inning game was 8 hours 6 minutes, also a major league record. [1]

   On September 11, 1974, the St. Louis Cardinals won a marathon night game against the New York Mets, after seven hours four minutes, and 25 innings, also tied for the longest game to a decision in major league history. Two Mets errors led to the Cardinals’ winning run, starting with an errant pickoff throw that allowed Bake McBride to scamper all the way around from first. St. Louis won, 4—3. [2] The Mets went to the plate 103 times, a record in a major league game; the Cards were not far behind with 99 plate appearances. All told, a record 175 official at-bats were recorded, with a major-league record 45 runners stranded. Only a thousand fans were left on hand at Shea Stadium when the game ended at 3:13 a.m. ET. (Unlike the American League (see above example), the National League did not have a curfew.) This was the longest game played to a decision without a suspension.[2][3]

   On April 15, 1968, the Houston Astros defeated the Mets 1-0 in a 24-inning game at the Houston Astrodome. The six-hour contest, which ended with the Astros’ Bob Aspromonte hitting a grounder through the legs of Mets shortstop Al Weis in the bottom of the 24th, remains the longest shutout game in Major League history.[4]

   The longest American League game to end in a tie was a 24-inning contest between the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Athletics on July 21, 1945. The teams were tied 1-1 when the game was called due to darkness at Shibe Park; the Tigers’ Les Mueller had pitched a record 19 2/3 innings (and only given up one run) before being taken out in the 20th.

   The longest game to end in a scoreless tie was a National League contest between the Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers on September 11, 1946. The teams went 19 innings before darkness fell at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field, forcing the game to be called on account of darkness. In the American League, the longest 0-0 game was played between the Washington Senators and Detroit Tigers on July 16, 1909. The game was called after 18 innings due to darkness at Bennett Park in Detroit.

   The longest doubleheader in Major League history came on May 31, 1964. The San Francisco Giants beat the New York Mets 5-3 in nine innings in the day’s first game at Shea Stadium, and then won the nightcap 8-6 after 23 innings (despite a rare triple play turned by the Mets in the 14th). The two games lasted a combined nine hours, 52 minutes. The Mets’ Ed Kranepool played in all 32 innings of the two games; Kranepool had been called up to the team that day after having played in both games of a doubleheader the day before for their Triple-A farm club in Buffalo.

   If you’re interested, you can look up all of those boxscores at http://www.retrosheet.org/

9. A 26-inning game played in 3 hours 50 minutes is literally unimaginable today. Heck, 9 inning playoff and World Series games routinely take that long, and more.

   I can think of a number of reasons why modern baseball games take longer to play than those of the early 20th century, but two reasons stand out:

   1. Games were not on television or radio, so there were no commercials between innings. The teams changed sides immediately, since there was no reason not to.

   2. There were no lights in the ballparks, and games were often called on account of darkness. Everyone involved had an incentive to keep the game moving so as to reach a conclusion before then.

10. rickl, in addition to the reasons you cited, here is another reason. Current baseball players take much more time between pitches than in the past. The batter gets out of the box more often. The pitcher delays more.

11. I remember when Denny McLain used to pitch for the Tigers (last 30-game winner, in 1968; we won’t discuss his subsequent “issues”, all of which have been well-documented in the court transcripts). Anyway, when Denny pitched, you could count on the game ending in around two hours, sometimes less. If you were the batter, you had to be ready to go when he was on the mound. If you stepped out on him too much, you’d get one under the chin.

12. waltj:
    My family was living in Cincinnati in 1968, and we went to Michigan for a vacation that year. I don’t remember exactly where we went or what we did, but we did make a stop in Detroit and my dad and I took in a game at Tiger Stadium, the only time I was ever there. I didn’t see one of McLain’s 31 wins, but I did see one of his 6 losses. This one.

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