May 1, 1920: Major League Baseball's Longest Game

Leon Cadore (left) and Joe Oeschger

May 1, 1920: The longest game in the history of what we now call Major League Baseball takes place. Though the 2 teams involved have since moved, it only seems like they did so in the middle of the game.

Only an estimated 4,500 fans filed into Braves Field in Boston to see the Boston Braves take on the Brooklyn Robins, as the Dodgers were known while Hall-of-Famer Wilbert Robinson was their manager from 1914 to 1931.

The Boston starter was Joe Oeschger, a righthander from Chicago, about to turn 28. He had been a member of the Philadelphia Phillies team that won the National League Pennant in 1915. The Brooklyn starter was Leon Cadore, also righthanded, also from Chicago, and already 28. He had helped the Dodgers/Robins win the NL Pennant in 1916. Both men were considered decent pitchers, though neither was especially noteworthy.

Until this day. Oeschger helped his own cause by hitting a leadoff double in the bottom of the 3rd, and got to 3rd base on a sacrifice bunt, but was stranded. The Robins got men on 1st and 2nd in the 4th, but no runs. The Robins scored in the top of the 5th, when Ernie Krueger drew a leadoff walk, got sacrificed to 2nd by Cadore, and singled home by Ivy Olson.

But with 1 out in the bottom of the 6th, the Braves got a triple from Walton Cruise. Walter Holke flew to left, but it wasn't deep enough to score Cruise. Tony Boeckel singled Cruise home with the tying run. But when Walter "Rabbit" Maranville doubled to center, Boeckel tried to score the go-ahead run, and was through out at the plate by relay from center fielder Hi Myers to Cadore, to catcher Ernie Krueger.

The Braves came close to going ahead in the bottom of the 8th: Les Mann led off with a single, Cruise sacrificed him to 2nd, and a Holke groundout got him to 3rd. But Boeckel popped up to end the threat.

They had another chance in the bottom of the 9th: Maranville led off with a single, and Lloyd Christenbury singled him to 2nd. Today, the Braves' manager would probably have pinch-hit for the pitcher. Instead, with nobody out, George Stallings led Oeschger bat for himself, and bunt the runners over. And when Ray Powell walked to load the bases, it looked like the strategy would work. But Charlie Pick grounded into a double play, and it was on to extra innings.

No one had any idea just how many extra innings there would be.

Oeschger and Cadore kept putting up goose eggs. Neither team would seriously threaten again until the bottom of the 15th inning. Cruise led off with a walk. Holke bunted him over to 2nd. But Boeckel and Maranville grounded into force plays, and Hank Gowdy flew out.

The Robins had a good chance in the top of the 17th. Zack Wheat led off with a single. Wally Hood bunted him over to 2nd. Ed Konetchy singled, but Wheat had to stop at 3rd. Chuck Ward grounded to short. Again, Wheat couldn't score, and Ward was thrown out. And Rowdy Elliott grounded into a double play.

If anything, Oeschger and Cadore seemed to be growing stronger. After Konetchy's single, there wasn't another baserunner, on either side, until the bottom of the 20th, when Mann led off with a single -- and was picked off 1st. With 2 out in the top of the 22nd, Wally Hood drew a walk, and stole 2nd. But Konetchy grounded out.

And there was only 1 more baserunner for the rest of the game. In the top of the 26th inning, Ward popped to 1st, Elliott flied to right, and Cadore, batting for himself, flied to center. In the bottom half, Mann popped to 2nd, Cruise hit a weak grounder in front of the plate, Holke singled up the middle, and Boeckel grounded to 1st, ending the 26th inning.

It was then that home plate umpire Barry McCormick called the game due to darkness, 15 years before the 1st MLB game with lights. For the Braves: 1 run, 15 hits, 2 errors, 17 men left on base. For the Robins: 1 run, 9 hits, 2 errors, 11 men left on base.

It was nearly 3 full games' worth of innings, and yet the time of the game was "only" 3 hours and 50 minutes. Today, if the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves played a 9-inning game that lasted 3:50, nobody would think it was anything unusual.

For the Braves, Boeckel went 3-for-11, Maranville went 3-for-10, Oeschger went 1-for-9, and poor Charlie Pick went 0-for-11, an entire slump's worth of at-bats in a single game. For the Robins, Cadore and Chuck Ward went 0-for-10.   

Cadore appears never to have given an interview about the game. Oeschger did, saying, "If a pitcher couldn't go the distance, he soon found himself some other form of occupation."

I can find no record of how many pitches each man threw. Perhaps none was kept, given that, as Oeschger suggested, in those days, nobody cared. It's just as well: Reading those figures would probably give Brian Cashman a stroke.

UPDATE: In 2025, reading that the official record for most pitches thrown in an MLB game is 235, by Nolan Ryan over 13 innings of a 15-inning California Angels win over the Boston Red Sox on June 14, 1974, a Google search suggests that Cadore threw 360 pitches, and that this is the unofficial record.

You may be wondering what happened to the pitchers after this. Cadore was bypassed for his next start, and only went 4 1/3rd innings in his next one, but settled back into a regular rhythm, and finished the season 15-14 with a 2.59 ERA. Oeschger ended up missing 2 starts. And he did lose his next 2. After that, though, he was fine, finishing the season with a record of 15-13 and a 3.46 ERA.

Cadore continued pitching in the major leagues until 1924, with a career record of 68-72. He married Maie Ebbets, daughter of team owner Charles Ebbets. He died in 1958. Oeschger continued pitching in the major leagues until 1925, with a career record of 82-116. In 1983, as the last living member of the Pennant-winning 1915 Phillies, he was invited to throw out the ceremonial first ball before Game 1 of the World Series. He lived until 1986.

McCormick, like most umpires in those days, was a former player, having been a major league infielder from 1895 to 1904, mostly with the team now known as the Chicago Cubs. He umpired in the Federal League in both of its seasons, 1914 and 1915; in the American League in 1917; and in the National League from 1919 to 1929. He died in 1956.

The longest MLB game played to a conclusion? Two of them have gone 25 innings. On September 11, 1974, the St. Louis Cardinals beat the New York Mets, 4-3 at Shea Stadium. And on May 8, 1984, then suspended and resumed on May 9, the Chicago White Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-6 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. At 8 hours and 6 minutes, that White Sox-Brewers game is the longest MLB game ever by time.

The Mets also lost a 24-inning game in Houston in 1968, and a 23-inning game at home to San Francisco in 1964. The Dodgers and Braves (this time, it was the Braves trying a new name that didn't stick, the Boston Bees) played to 23 innings, called because of darkness, in a 1939 game.

The longest in Yankee history? June 24, 1962, at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The Yankees blew a 6-0 lead against the Detroit Tigers, but won anyway, 9-7, when Jack Reed hit a home run off Phil Regan in the top of the 22nd inning. Rocky Colavito went 7-for-10 for the Tigers, one of only 6 7-hit single-game performances in baseball history.

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May 1, 1920 was a Saturday. A full slate of MLB games was played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-0 at the Polo Grounds. Bob Shawkey pitched a 4-hit shutout, defeating Herb Pennock, who the Yankees traded for in 1923. Babe Ruth went 2-for-4 with his 1st home run as a Yankee, off Pennock, over the right field roof.

To this point, only Ruth himself, once before, with the Red Sox, and Shoeless Joe Jackson had hit a ball over the right field roof at the Polo Grounds. Mel Ott also did it later on. The only ball known to be hit over the left field roof came in 1951, the 1st major league home run of Willie Mays.

* The New York Giants lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-2 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Washington Senators, 9-4 at National Park in Washington. (It was renamed Griffith Stadium in 1922.)

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-3 at Navin Field in Detroit. (It was renamed Briggs Stadium in 1938, and Tiger Stadium in 1961.) Tris Speaker not only managed the Indians to victory, but went 4-for-5 with a home run and 7 RBIs. Ty Cobb went 1-for-4 for the Tigers.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs, 12-4 at Cubs Park in Chicago. (It was renamed Wrigley Field in 1926.) Rogers Hornsby went 3-for-4. So did Jack Fournier, but, while Hornsby had no RBIs, Fournier had 5.

* And the Chicago White Sox beat the St. Louis Browns, 8-5 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Shoeless Joe Jackson went 3-for-5 with 3 RBIs for Chicago, while George Sisler went 0-for-4 with 3 RBIs for St. Louis. How did that happen? A sacrifice fly and 2 RBI groundouts. Perhaps not as unusual as a game going 26 innings, but pretty unusual.

And in the last game of their Football League Division One season, Arsenal defeated Bradford Park Avenue (a Yorkshire team, now defunct), 3-0 at Highbury, North London.