Last night Red Sox 8, Yankees 7 in 11 innings. Mike Napoli hit his second homer of the game with two out to win it.
Sunday, July 21, 2013, 8:05pm, Fenway Park
Attendance: 38,138, Time of Game: 4:46
It took almost five hours.
I recorded the game and set my DVR for four hours. The recording didn't even include all of the ninth inning.
Pitches thrown:
Yankees 459
Red Sox 452
total 911
Brett Gardner walked in the 7th; it took 15 pitches and about ten minutes. That's about three pitches every two minutes.
For most of baseball history a doubleheader meant that one crowd or group of fans watched two games. In 1967 and 1968 I attended twi-night (game one started about 5:00PM) doubleheaders in which game two went into extra extra innings.
Tuesday, August 29, 1967 Yankee Stadium, Attendance: 40,314. It was also the night of the final episode of the TV series "The Fugitive".
Game one Time of Game: 2:10
Red Sox 2, Yankees 1
Tom Tresh homered off Jim Lonborg in the 7th for the only Yankee run. Mel Stottlemyre lost. Both pitchers threw all 9 innings.
Game two: Time of Game: 6:09
Yankees 4, Red Sox 3 in 20 innings
Boston scored in the 11th but Steve Whitaker homered off Sparky Lyle, then pitching for Boston, in the bottom of the 11th to continue the game, much to the chagrin if my cousin Richie who knew I wouldn't leave until the end, which came at about 2:30AM. Jim Bouton pitched five scoreless innings in relief for his first win of 1967. Carl Yastrzemski was 0 for 6.
Boston won the pennant.
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The American League realized that it had a problem and instituted a curfew: no inning could start after 1:00 AM.
Friday, August 23, 1968, Yankee Stadium, Attendance: 33,880
Game one: 5:06PM, Time of Game: 2:23
Yankees 2, Detroit 1
Stan Bahnsen beat Earl Wilson. Wilson homered in the 5th. Bahnsen pitched a complete game. Mickey Mantle went 0 for 3 playing first base.
Game two: 8:03PM, Time of Game: 5:04
Yankees 3, Tigers 3 tie game, 19 innings
Roy White homered in the 8th off Fred Lasher to tie it. Lindy McDaniel pitched seven perfect innings (9 through 15) in relief for the Yankees. Mickey Mantle PH for Gene Michael with one out in the 9th and singled to left off John Hiller. That was the last time I saw Mantle play in person.
The game was made up two days later by playing an entirely new game as part of a Sunday doubleheader, which the Yankees swept. Pressed for pitchers, the Yankees used Rocky Colavito in game one to relieve starter Steve Barber in the 4th; Colavito pitched 2.66 innings and was the winning pitcher. McDaniel pitched two shutout innings for the save. The Yankees also won the Saturday game for a four game sweep.
Detroit won the pennant, the last before divisions were formed and the start of a playoff system.
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Let's examine the three extra innings games mentioned above.
1967 20 innings: 6 hours, 9 minutes (369 minutes) 369/20=18.5 minutes per inning
1968 19 innings: 5 hours, 4 minutes (304 minutes) 304/19=16 minutes per inning
2013 11 innings: 4 hours, 46 minutes (286 minutes) 286/11=26 minutes per inning
What the heck? Outside of Boston and New York, who the heck would watch that entire eleven inning mess last night? In fact inside Boston and New York, who under the age of 75 would watch it all?
Read the previous post about Bud Selig's legacy: dead time between pitches.
1 comment:
I, too, was at The Stadium the night of Aug. 30, 1967. I saw Whitaker's HR in the bottom of the 11th to keep the game going, but we left for home (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) shortly thereafter. We listened on the car radio as Clarke's single won it in the 20th. And I've STILL never seen the series finale of The Fugitive.
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