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.

*

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. 

January 27, 1927: Cobb and Speaker Are Cleared

Ty Cobb (left) and Tris Speaker, 1927

January 27, 1927: Two of baseball's greatest players ever are cleared of wrongdoing, in what could have become the greatest scandal in the game's history -- worse than the Black Sox Scandal of a few years earlier, and worse than the Pete Rose gambling scandal of 1989.

Let's take a step back: On November 3, 1926, two of the top baseball players of the last decade -- in the case of one, of the last 2 decades -- resign as player-managers. George Sisler, arguably the greatest 1st baseman who has ever lived to this point, resigns as manager of the St. Louis Browns, but will remain a player. Dan Howley is named his replacement.

On the same day, Ty Cobb resigns as manager of the Detroit Tigers, and announces his retirement from playing baseball. Soon after, a 3rd legend retires as a player-manager, Tris Speaker of the Cleveland Indians.

Cobb still holds the all-time record for highest lifetime batting average, at .366. He had 4,189 hits, which was a record until 1985. A re-check of the records in 1981 forced corrections, as one of his games had previously been counted twice, giving a .367 average and 4,191 hits. However, Pete Rose was still celebrated as breaking the hits record with his 4,192, not his 4,190th. Cobb also stole 892 bases, which was considered a record until broken by Lou Brock in 1977.

Cobb was not, however, celebrated for his defense. He wasn't a liability in center field, but he wasn't great out there, either. Tris Speaker was, considered the best at playing the position until Joe DiMaggio came along. And he was also a great hitter, batting .344 lifetime, collecting 3,514 hits, including 792 doubles, which is still the all-time record. (Before the 1981 revision, he was listed at .345, 3,515 and 793.)

Sisler, known as "Gorgeous George" and "the Sizzler," batted .340 for his career, but just 2,812 hits, albeit 257 of them in the 1920 season, a record until Ichiro Suzuki got 262 in 2004. For his leaving of his managerial post, whom everything seems to have been above-board.

George Sisler

But with Cobb, "the Georgia Peach," and Speaker, "the Grey Eagle," it soon came out that they were coerced into retirement, because of allegations of game-fixing brought about by Hubert "Dutch" Leonard, a former pitcher managed by Cobb.

Not to be confused with the later pitcher Emil Leonard, also nicknamed "Dutch," Hubert, also nicknamed "Hub" (but pronounced "Hyoob"), was a lefthander who, with the Boston Red Sox in 1914, had an earned run average of 0.96. This was long listed in major league records as 1.01, but later revised and corrected. But even at 1.01, it was the lowest ERA for a single full season in major league history, and remains so. The closest anyone has come since is Bob Gibson, with 1.12 for the 1968 St. Louis Cardinals.

Dutch Leonard

Leonard helped the Red Sox win the 1915 and 1916 World Series, and pitched 2 no-hitters. However, he was hurt midway through the 1918 season, and did not pitch in that year's World Series. The Sox traded him to the Yankees, who soon traded him to the Tigers, with whom he played, alongside Cobb and, from 1921 onward, under him.

They already didn't like each other: In 1914, Leonard had hit Cobb in the ribs with a pitch. In his next-at-bat, Cobb dragged a bunt, and Leonard raced him to 1st base, where Cobb spiked him. They openly feuded, with Leonard once calling Cobb a "horse's ass" in front of the other players. Finally, on September 14, 1925, with permission from team owner Frank Navin, Cobb put Leonard on waivers. No team picked him up. He was only 33 years old, with a decent career record of 139-113, but his career was over.

Leonard claimed proof of Cobb and Speaker attempting to fix a game in 1919, so that the Tigers would finish 3rd and qualify for additional postseason money, existed in letters written to him by Cobb and Smoky Joe Wood, the former ace pitcher and hero of the 1912 season before injury wrecked his career, who'd been Speaker's teammate on the Boston Red Sox and again with the Indians.

Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis held a secret hearing with Cobb, Speaker and Wood. A second secret meeting among the American League directors led to the unpublicized resignations of their managerial posts by Cobb and Speaker. Rumors of the scandal led Judge Landis to hold additional hearings, in which Leonard, interestingly, refused to participate.

Was he bought off? Or intimidated into silence? Maybe he had been lying all along, and he realized that Landis, a former federal judge, would see through him. It's also worth noting that Leonard waited an entire year to make his accusation.

Cobb and Wood admitted to writing the letters, but claimed that a horse-racing bet was involved, nothing to do with baseball, and that Leonard's accusations were in retaliation for Cobb's having released him. Speaker denied any wrongdoing.

And so, on January 27, 1927, Judge Landis cleared Cobb and Speaker of any wrongdoing, because of Leonard's refusal to appear at the hearings. Landis allowed both Cobb and Speaker to return to their original teams, but each team let them know that they were free agents, and could sign with any club they wanted.

Speaker signed with the Washington Senators for 1927, and Cobb with the Philadelphia Athletics. Speaker then joined Cobb in Philadelphia for the 1928 season, the last in the majors for each of them. (Sisler played on until 1930.) Cobb said he had come back only to seek vindication, and to say that he left baseball on his own terms.

Cobb's replacement as Tiger manager was George Moriarty, a former Tiger infielder who was, until then, an American League umpire. He remains the only man to hold the positions of player, umpire, scout and manager in Major League Baseball. He will also become the grandfather of Michael Moriarty, who becomes an actor, best known for playing a baseball player in the film Bang the Drum Slowly. Speaker's successor in Cleveland is Jack McCallister, and having succeeded Speaker is about the only noteworthy thing about him.

Leonard became a successful fruit farmer and winemaker in California, living until 1952. Speaker died in 1958, Cobb in 1961, and Sisler (remember, he was never accused) in 1973. Smoky Joe Wood, the other man involved in the alleged conspiracy, lived all the way until 1985.

*

January 27, 1927 was a Thursday. Baseball and football were out of season. Professional basketball was still very minor-league. But there were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Detroit Cougars, 3-1 at the Ottawa Auditorium. The Cougars became the Detroit Falcons in 1930, and the Detroit Red Wings in 1932.

* The Montreal Maroons beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* And the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-2 at the Duquesne Gardens in Pittsburgh. The Pirates were done in by the Depression, first moving in 1930, becoming the Philadelphia Quakers, and then going out of business after one season.