Baseball's Longest Game: A Different Kind Of Marathon

The Boston Marathon was the big sports news on Monday, but Monday also happens to be the anniversary of another marathon of sorts: the longest-ever game in professional baseball, which had its opening pitch 30 years ago tonight.

It was a relatively unimportant early-season game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings, although the roster included future Hall of Famers Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken Jr.

The PawSox tied it up in the bottom of the ninth. Then the game stayed tied for 33 innings, until the teams finally called it quits for the night at 3:30 in the morning. The tie-breaker that ended the game wouldn't come for another two months.

WBUR's All Things Considered host Sacha Pfeiffer visited McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket to talk about the event with New York Times columnist Dan Barry, author of "Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game," and Lou Schwechheimer, vice president and general manager of the PawSox.