The 5 longest games in MLB history
There are many facets to MLB games, the absence of a match clock is one of those. No team can claim a victory until it gets the final out; therefore, a comeback is always possible regardless of how big the lead is. As the great Hall of Famer Yogi Berra once famously claimed, "It ain't over, till it's over."
A team must get 27 outs in a game to win it, and sometimes teams need even more if the scores remain tied after nine innings. Extra innings are quite common in baseball, and a few games in history have taken the rule to the most extreme possibilities.
The extra-innings rules have been tweaked by the MLB in recent years with the addition of the ghost runer at second base, so we are unlikely to see such games again. Nevertheless, we take a glimpse at the longest major league games in history since the turn of the 19th century.
Five longest games in MLB history since 1900
#5 July 21, 1945: Detroit Tigers 1, Philadelphia Athletics 1 (24 innings)
This MLB meeting between the Detroit Tigers and the Philadelphia Athletics at Shibe Park held the record for the longest game in the America League until it was surpassed 40 years later.
The encounter lasted for 24 innings, and the two teams were tied at 1-1 when the game was abandoned due to darkness, just like the record-holding clash featuring the Robins and the Braves.
Nevertheless, the game was played for just four hours and 48 minutes, and both teams only deployed two pitchers each.
#4 April 15, 1968: Houston Astros 1, New York Mets 0 (24 innings)
Don Wilson was the starting pitcher for the Houston Astros, while the legendary Tom Seaver took the mound for the New York Mets, and both were outstanding in this historic clash at the Astrodome.
Wilson pitched nine shutout innings, while Seaver had 10 of them while giving up just two hits and retired 25 batters in a row. Eventually the shutout from both teams ended in the 24th inning, setting the record for the longest night game in history at that time.
#3 Sept. 11, 1974: St. Louis Cardinals 4, New York Mets 3 (25 innings)
A total of 13,640 spectators attended the game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Mets on September 11, 1974. But only about a thousand remained in the stands when the game ended at 3:13 a.m. the next morning.
The action lasted for seven hours and four minutes to become the longest continuous MLB game, where the winner was decided at the end. A total of 50 players took part in the contest, and around 180 baseballs were reportedly used during the game.
#2 May 8, 1984: Chicago White Sox 7, Milwaukee Brewers 6 (25 innings)
This game started on the evening of May 8 at Comiskey Park and was suspended at 1 a.m. in the early morning with the score tied at 3-3 after 17 innings.
The American League rules at the time stipulated that no new inning could start after that time. The game ended the next day when Harold Baines hit a walk-off home run in the 25th inning to win it for the Chicago White Sox.
It took eight hours and six minutes of play over two days to reach the result, making it the longest MLB game of all time.
#1 May 1, 1920: Brooklyn Robins 1, Boston Braves 1 (26 innings)
The Brooklyn Robins were the predecessors to the Dodgers franchise, who are now based in Los Angeles, while the Boston Braves were the forerunners of the organization that's now located in Atlanta.
The two teams were locked at 1-1 after 26 innings on that fateful day when the umpires called the game off due to a lack of visibility.
It remains the longest MLB game in terms of innings, although the entire action lasted for just three hours and fifty minutes.