On Saturday, May 1, 1920, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Boston Braves played to a 1–1 tie in 26 innings, the longest game in terms of innings in the history of Major League Baseball (MLB). The game was played at Braves Field in Boston before a crowd estimated at 4,000. Leon Cadore of Brooklyn and Joe Oeschger of Boston each pitched all 26 innings for their teams, and jointly hold the record for the longest pitching appearance in MLB history.
May 1, 1920, saw rainy weather, and it was unclear whether the game would be played, but the weather cleared enough to allow it to proceed. Brooklyn scored a run in the fifth inning, and Boston in the sixth; thereafter the pitchers became increasingly dominant. The small crowd at Braves Field came to understand what a pitching feat they were witness to, and cheered both pitchers. Since there was as yet no illumination of baseball fields, the umpires called a halt after the 26th inning, with the final twenty innings being scoreless.
There were stories told that the lengthy pitching appearance ruined the arms of Oeschger and Cadore; this was not the case as both pitched several more years in the major league and Oeschger won twenty games in 1921. The performance meant that they did not become as obscure as many former major leaguers. Although 25-inning games were played in the major leagues in 1974 and 1984, each team involved used several pitchers, and the records for endurance posted by Oeschger and Cadore were not threatened. Their record of 26 innings pitched in a game has been repeatedly cited as one that will never be broken.
The Brooklyn Dodgers, or Robins, as they were then sometimes called after managerWilbert Robinson, had won the National League title in 1916.[1] They had fallen to fifth place by 1919, but were well-regarded as the 1920 season began. PitcherLeon Cadore was not the ace of Robinson's pitching staff (that role fell to spitballerBurleigh Grimes) but he had won fourteen games in 1919, his best performance to that point.[2] On May 25, 1919, Cadore was involved in a well-known stunt, pulled by Casey Stengel, then a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates who had been traded from the Dodgers. Cadore captured a sparrow and gave it to Stengel, who placed it under his cap. Called to bat, Stengel received mixed boos and cheers from the Brooklyn crowd as a former Dodger, and doffed his cap, whereupon the bird flew away to great laughter from the crowd.[3] Stengel later stated of Cadore, who was a roommate while both were with the Dodgers, "Wonderful person, wonderful pitcher with a brilliant mind."[4]
The Boston Braves of 1920 were several years on from their great success, the Miracle Braves, the World Series champions of 1914, when manager George Stallings led them from last place on the Fourth of July to sweeping the 1914 World Series.[5] The starting pitcher for the Braves on May 1, 1920, Joe Oeschger, had won 15 games in 1917, but only four in 1919.[2] A year and a day before the May 1 game, Oeschger, then a member of the Philadelphia Phillies, had pitched 20 innings in a 9–9 tie with Brooklyn, with Grimes the pitcher for the Dodgers.[6] Ties, brought on by adverse weather or the fall of darkness, were common in MLB in the time before night baseball.[7]
Oeschger was later in 1919 traded to the New York Giants and then to Boston.[8] Earlier in the 1920 season, Oeschger and Cadore had opposed each other in Brooklyn, with Cadore the winning pitcher over Oeschger, 1–0 in 11 innings.[9][6] The Dodgers had won eight of their first twelve games going into May 1, good for second place out of eight, half a game behind the 1919 World Series winners, the Cincinnati Reds. Boston sported a 4–5 record and was in fifth place, 31⁄2 games behind the Reds.[10][11]
The morning of May 1 saw light rain in Boston, and Cadore and his roommate, Les Mann, were expecting a rainout. Hearing no word from their ball club, they reported to Braves Field for the 3:00 game, and Cadore learned he would be the starting pitcher, if the game was played. By game time, the rain had slowed, and it almost entirely stopped by the end of the first inning, leaving a cold, blustery day. Oeschger remembered, "We didn't think the game would be played, but we had to report to the park. It was a Saturday, and I didn't think I would pitch because Manager Stallings usually pitched me on Sundays because I went to church. He always played his hunches."[12] But with Sunday baseball still illegal in Massachusetts, the Braves had no game the following day, and Oeschger was given the Saturday afternoon start.[13] He was glad to hear that Cadore would be starting for Brooklyn, wanting revenge for the extra-inning loss.[12]
The game
Advertisement for baseball tickets for the May 1 game
Due to the threatening weather, few believed it would be possible to start the game, let alone finish it. Thus, only 4,000 or so fans came to Braves Field to view the contest.[14]
In the top of the second inning, Brooklyn center fielder Hi Myers singled and advanced to second base on Pick's second error of the game, but could get no further; neither could third baseman Tony Boeckel, who singled for Boston in the bottom of the second. After Brooklyn was retired in order in the top of the third inning, Oeschger doubled to center field to lead off the home half of the inning. Powell sacrificed him to third base, but Cadore retired the side without a run scoring. Wheat walked with one out in the top of the fourth inning, but when Myers hit a ground ball, Wheat was ruled out for interference. Myers then stole second and Robinson sent in Wally Hood as a pinch runner (he remained in the game as center fielder). First baseman Ed Konetchy walked, but shortstopChuck Ward flied to left field to retire the side. In the bottom of the fourth, Boeckel singled for Boston with two outs, but was caught stealing to retire the side.[15]
In the top of the fifth, the Brooklyn catcher, Ernie Krueger, walked and Cadore grounded out to advance him to second base.[15] Cadore's hit could have been a double play but Oeschger bobbled it, leaving him with only the play to first.[2] Second baseman Ivy Olson hit a fly ball to shallow left field that dropped, allowing Krueger to score.[15] The Brooklyn run scored on what Oeschger remembered as a broken-bat single.[4] Olson advanced to second base on an Oeschger wild pitch, but the pitcher struck out Neis and got Johnston to line out to left to end the Brooklyn fifth with the Dodgers now leading, 1–0. In the bottom of the fifth, shortstop Rabbit Maranville singled and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from Mickey O'Neil, the catcher. Oeschger struck out, but Olson committed an error that allowed Powell to reach base and sent Maranville to third base. Pick flew out to end the threat.[15]
In the top of the sixth, Oeschger allowed a single to Hood, but he was picked off first base on a throw from O'Neil. In the bottom of the sixth, right fielder Walton Cruisetripled for Boston against the Braves Field scoreboard with one out. Holke's fly out could not advance the runner, but Boeckel singled to tie the game at 1–1. Maranville doubled, but Boeckel was tagged out at home plate for the third out.[15][16]
In the seventh inning, Oeschger retired the Dodgers in order, while Cadore allowed a single to Powell, who advanced to second base on a throwing error by Ward at shortstop, but got no further. Stallings replaced the catcher, Krueger, with Rowdy Elliott. In the top of the eighth, Oeschger allowed a two-out single to Johnston; in the bottom of the inning, left fielder Les Mann singled, advanced to second on a Cruise sacrifice, went to third on a groundout by Holke, but Boeckel popped out to shortstop to end the inning.[15]
In the top of the ninth, Oeschger retired the side in order. Maranville singled to lead off the bottom of the ninth, and Stallings sent in Lloyd Christenbury to hit for O'Neil. The pinch hitter also singled.[15] Christenbury had attempted a sacrifice, but Cadore's throw to first base hit him.[12] Oeschger sacrificed the runners to second and third, and Powell was walked to load the bases with one out. However, Pick hit into a double play to end the threat and send the game to extra innings.[12][15] Maranville had appeared to score the winning run, but Powell was ruled out at second base for running out of the baseline, voiding the run.[2]
Extra innings
The Robins and the Braves celebrated May Day in this ordinarily peaceful city by staging a prolonged, heart-breaking struggle for twenty-six innings at Braves Field and bombing to bits all major league records for duration of hostilities. When darkness drew its mantle over the scene, forbidding further battle, both teams were still on their feet, interlocked in a death clutch and each praying for one more inning in which to get the knockout blow.
As far as results in the chase for the pennant go the game was without effect, for the final score was 1 to 1. In the matter of thrills however, the oldest living man can remember nothing like it, nor can he find anything like it in his granddad's diary worth of comparison. Heart disease was the mildest complaint that grasped the spectators as they watched inning after inning slip away and the row of ciphers on the scoreboard began to slip over the fence and reach out into the Fenway. Nervous prostration threatened to engulf the stands as the twentieth inning passed away in the scoreless routine and the word was passed from the knowing fans to those of inferior baseball erudition that the National League record was twenty-two innings, the Robins having beat the Pirates by 6 to 5 in a game of that length played in Brooklyn on August 22, 1917.
Having pinch hit for his catcher, Stallings substituted Hank Gowdy.[15] The batters were swinging for the one long hit that might win the game. These swings made it easy for the pitchers to retire them.[2] The pitchers allowed few baserunners as the game lengthened through the first part of extra innings: Oeschger retired every batter after the ninth inning until Wheat singled with two outs in the fourteenth. Cadore, after retiring the side in order for the first time in the game in the tenth inning, allowed a two-out single to Gowdy in the eleventh, a two-out walk to Mann in the twelfth, a leadoff single to Holke in the thirteenth and a one-out walk to Powell in the fourteenth. None of these five baserunners was able to advance.[12][15]
In the bottom of the fifteenth, the Braves mounted a threat as Cruise walked and Holke attempted a sacrifice but both men were safe, putting runners on first and second with no outs. Consecutive groundouts by Boeckel and Maranville, each forcing a runner at third base, and a fly ball out by Gowdy, sent the game to a sixteenth inning. Neis singled for Brooklyn with two outs in the sixteenth, but was left at first base, and Boston went in order in the bottom of the inning,[15] though Oeschger nearly won his own game with a long drive to left field that required Wheat to make a leaping catch in front of the wall.[17]
In the top of the seventeenth, Brooklyn mounted its first threat of extra innings. Wheat singled and Hood sacrificed him to second. Konetchy singled, sending Wheat to third base with one out. But Wheat was held at third on a ball hit by Ward to shortstop; Boston could retire no one on the fielder's choice.[15] With the bases loaded, Elliott grounded to Oeschger, who threw home to Gowdy for the force out. The catcher's throw to Holke at first base was off line, and the best Holke could do is knock it down. Konetchy saw this and tried to score, but he was tagged out in front of the plate by Gowdy after Holke threw the ball back to him.[12]
Oeschger remembered, "I was getting tired by the eighteenth inning, but the players kept telling me: 'Just one inning, Joe, and we'll get a run.' Stallings never did ask me if I wanted to come out. But the batters were griping to stop the game. I didn't want to stop."[8] Stallings did assure Oeschger, "Hold 'em, we'll get 'em next inning," while Cadore later stated that had Robinson tried to remove the Brooklyn pitcher from the game, he would have strangled his own manager.[17] By the 19th inning, the crowd was impartially cheering both pitchers, whenever one of them left the pitchers mound or came to bat.[14] There was only one baserunner in the eighteenth through 21st innings, Mann, who singled to lead off the home half of the twentieth inning, but he was picked off first base by a throw from catcher Elliott.[15] During the twentieth inning, Robinson offered to relieve Cadore, but the Brooklyn pitcher said, "If that other fellow can go one more inning, I can too."[12] Explained Oeschger, "If a pitcher couldn't go the distance, he soon found himself some other form of occupation."[12]
In the top of the 22nd, Hood walked with two outs and stole second, but was left there as Konetsky grounded out. There were no baserunners in the 23rd, 24th or 25th innings.[15] The 25th inning broke the MLB record for longest game in terms of innings, with the previous record of 24 set by the Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Red Sox on September 1, 1905.[14] Several of the unused players on the Brooklyn bench, led by Grimes, asked their manager for the opportunity to play in the history-making marathon game, but Robinson stayed with the lineup, and the pitcher, he had.[18]
No one reached base for the Dodgers in the top of the 26th. In the bottom of the inning, Holke got an infield single with two outs, but could not advance.[15] According to Oeschger, the outfielders were complaining they could not see the ball;[4] there was no artificial light as the game preceded night baseball.[19] After the 26th inning, the home plate umpire, Barry McCormick, surveyed the increasing darkness on the field and consulted with the two managers.[8] Olson did not wish to stop, wanting the distinction of having played the equivalent of three games that would come with the 27th inning, and asked McCormick to continue. The umpire responded, "Not without a miner's lamp" and ended the game, which finished as a 1–1 tie.[2] Played on the first day of Daylight Savings Time for 1920, the game lasted three hours and fifty minutes. It finished before sunset by almost an hour, but the overcast conditions meant lighting was poor.[12]
Oeschger stated, "I certainly didn't want it to stop and I'm sure Cadore didn't either."[4] Cadore stated in the clubhouse, "I found myself growing sleepy at the finish."[20] Only three baseballs were used in the entire contest.[21]
The May 1, 1920 game remains MLB's longest in terms of innings as of 2023.[22] Twice, MLB games have gone 25 innings, in 1974 and 1984.[23] In the 1974 game, the St. Louis Cardinals used seven pitchers in a 4–3 victory over the New York Mets, who used six. No pitcher was used for more than 91⁄3 innings.[24] On May 8, 1984, the Chicago White Sox used eight pitchers to defeat the Milwaukee Brewers (who used six), 7–6, with no pitcher used for more than seven innings.[25] Philip J. Lowry, in his 2010 study of extra inning games, predicted a 50 percent chance that the record of 26 innings played by two teams in one MLB game will be broken in the next 60 years.[26] Beginning in 2020, though, the major leagues have instituted a rule that teams start each extra inning with an automatic runner at second base, something that has had the effect of greatly reducing the number of long extra inning games.[27]
Cadore and Oeschger jointly hold the MLB records for longest pitching appearance and longest complete game. The May 1, 1920 game made Oeschger the only pitcher in MLB history to twice pitch twenty innings in a game, a distinction he still holds.[12] No player has pitched twenty or more innings in a MLB game since 1929.[12][28] According to Baseball Almanac, neither the record of 26 innings pitched in a game, nor Oeschger's record of two twenty-inning appearances, will ever be broken.[29] Columnist Harry Missildine wrote in 1970, "You know the line, 'Records are made to be broken'. Seems more likely the one shared by Joe Oeschger and Leon Cadore was made to stand forever."[4] In 2007, sports columnist Bill Valyo agreed the record would never be broken, as the advent of the relief pitcher made it highly unlikely a pitcher could be called upon to pitch so long.[30] According to Warren Corbett of the Society for American Baseball Research, "Today a 26-inning complete game seems preposterous, not to mention abusive."[12]
Oeschger also holds the record for consecutive scoreless innings in a single game, with 212⁄3.[19] Cadore faced 96 batters, a record for a MLB game (second is Oeschger with 90).[31] Cadore's twelve assists in a MLB game by a pitcher tied a record set by Nick Altrock of the Chicago White Sox in 1908; no one has ever broken it.[32] Charlie Pick is the only player in MLB history to have eleven at bats in a game without getting a hit.[12] No one has ever equalled Holke's record of 42 putouts in a game by a first baseman.[33] Those putouts, together with Holke's assist in the 1–2–3–2 double play in the seventeenth inning, gave him 43 total chances, also a MLB record for a first baseman.[15][34]
Reaction and aftermath
James C. O'Leary of The Boston Globe deemed the game "one of the greatest games ever played", and Cadone's and Oeschger's duel "the most wonderful pitching stunt ever performed, and some classy playing in thrilling situations, such as one sees only once in a lifetime".[14] O'Leary stated that the pitching duel "was a battle of giants, fought until both were practically exhausted, but neither giving a sign of giving up. There was glory enough in it for both, and after the 24th inning it really would have been a pity for either one to be declared the loser."[14]
The following day, National League president John Heydler sent both pitchers congratulatory messages. The Dodgers had to travel to Brooklyn that day to play the Philadelphia Phillies and lost in thirteen innings. They then returned to Boston and lost to the Braves in nineteen innings.[35] Thus, they played 58 innings over three days and had only a tie to show for it.[4] Neither pitcher was used again for over a week, with Oeschger pleading a leg muscle he had pulled while running the day after the game, and Cadore that his arm was so tired he could not comb his hair for three days, but each soon returned to his place in the pitching rotation.[35] The tie game was replayed as the second game of a doubleheader on June 25, with Boston winning 4–2. Neither Cadore nor Oeschger pitched in the game, though Cadore was the winning pitcher of the regularly-scheduled first game.[36] Brooklyn was the National League champion for 1920; Boston finished seventh.[2] Both Oeschger and Cadore won fifteen games in 1920.[16] Cadore pitched twice for the Dodgers in their loss to the Cleveland Indians in the 1920 World Series, compiling a record of 0–1.[37]
O'Leary predicted that Cadore and Oeschger had "undoubtedly established a record which will stand as long as they live".[14] A myth arose, which long persisted in baseball, that both pitchers had ruined their arms in the marathon effort.[9][8] In fact, both men pitched effectively if not brilliantly for several years after the game, with Oeschger having the best year of his career in 1921 with 21 wins,[9][29] and Cadore winning thirteen games.[35] Records of the number of pitches they threw on May 1 were not kept; Cadore estimated he had thrown at least 300, while Oeschger put his figure at around 250. The number of pitches for either greatly exceeded the number any present-day pitcher would be allowed to throw, but such matters were not a consideration in 1920.[38]
Cadore died in 1958 at age 66, having played most of his MLB career with the Dodgers, with brief stints with the Chicago White Sox and New York Giants. He compiled a lifetime record of 68–72, marrying the daughter of Brooklyn owner Charles H. Ebbets; he was a stockbroker, and after that ended with the Crash of 1929, held other jobs. During his final hospitalization, his old roommate, Casey Stengel, sent him a telegram, "Hope you catch another sparrow and pitch another 26-inning game."[39] According to his obituary, his 26-inning performance "lifted Cadore from the comparative obscurity of 'an old major leaguer' to fame forever in one of the great pitching feats of all time".[39] Sportswriter Bert Randolph Sugar wrote, "but for Cadore and Oeschger, [the May 1 game] would so intertwine their names that they would forever be known in tandem".[18]
Oeschger retired from MLB in 1925 with a lifetime record of 83–116, and was a junior high school physical education teacher in the San Francisco school system for many years. In 1983, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch in Philadelphia during the World Series. He died in Rohnert Park, California in 1986 at age 94.[19][40] In 1986, Lowell Reidenbaugh for The Sporting News ranked the May 1 game as the sixth most memorable ever played in MLB;[41] in 1994, Sugar ranked it at number 46.[42] According to the Los Angeles Times, neither pitcher ever seemed too impressed by their feat; as Oeschger put it, "a 1–1 contest that goes 26 innings must have been dull to watch".[19]
Formerly the Boston Red Stockings, Boston Red Caps, Boston Beaneaters, Boston Doves, Boston Rustlers, Boston Bees, Boston Braves and the Milwaukee Braves
