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Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game
On April 18, 1981, a ball game sprang eternal. For eight hours, the night seemed to suspend a town and two teams between their collective pasts and futures, between their collective sorrows and joys--the shivering fans; their wives at home; the umpires; the batboys approaching manhood; the ejected manager, peering through a hole in the backstop; the sportswriters and broadcasters; and the players themselves--two destined for the Hall of Fame (Cal Ripken and Wade Boggs), the few to play only briefly or forgettably in the big leagues, and the many stuck in minor-league purgatory, duty bound and loyal forever to the game.
With "Bottom of the 33rd," celebrated "New York Times" journalist Dan Barry delivers a lyrical meditation on small-town lives, minor-league dreams, and the elements of time and community that conspired one fateful night to produce a baseball game seemingly without end. An unforgettable portrait of ambition and endurance, "Bottom of the 33rd" is the rare sports book that changes the way we perceive America's pastime--and America's past.
257 pages, Paperback
First published April 12, 2010
About the author
Dan Barry
103 books67 followersDan Barry is a longtime columnist and reporter for The New York Times and the author of four books, including the forthcoming “The Boys in the Bunkhouse: Servitude and Salvation in the Heartland.” Set to be released in May 2016, the book tells the story of dozens of men with intellectual disability who spent decades working at an Iowa turkey-processing plant, living in an old schoolhouse, and enduring exploitation and abuse – before finding justice and achieving freedom.
As the “This Land” columnist for the Times, Barry traveled to all 50 states, where he met the coroner from “The Wizard of Oz,” learned the bump-and-grind from a mostly retired burlesque queen, and was hit in the chest by an Asian carp leaping out of the Illinois River. He has since recovered -- though the condition of the carp remains unknown.
He has reported extensively on many topics, including the World Trade Center disaster and its aftermath and the damage to the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He has also been the City Hall bureau chief, the Long Island bureau chief, a sportswriter, a general assignment reporter, and, for three years, the “About New York” columnist – all for the Times.
Barry previously worked for the Journal Inquirer in Manchester, Conn., and for The Providence Journal, where he and two other reporters won a George Polk Award for an investigation into the causes of a state banking crisis. In 1994, he and the other members of the Journal’s investigative team won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles about Rhode Island’s court system; the series led to various reforms and the criminal indictment of the chief justice of the state’s Supreme Court.
Barry has also written “Pull Me Up: A Memoir”; “City Lights: Stories About New York,” a collection of his “About New York” columns; and “Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball’s Longest Game,” which received the 2012 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing.
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April 20, 2023
In the song Take Me Out to the Ballgame there is a particular line that comes into play here. Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack. I don’t care if I never get back. That sentiment was put to the test on April 18, 1981, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, when the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings played the longest game in professional baseball history. Given that the song is generally sung in the middle of the 7th inning, or after six and a half innings of play, the fans, had they been of a mind, could have sung the tune four more times before the game was finally concluded.
Dan Barry, a sports columnist for the New York Times, a guy who had lived in Pawtucket for four years, uses this singular game as a structure around which to build his depiction of minor league baseball, more particularly Triple-A level baseball, using the example here to stand in for the whole.
Dan Barry - image from Roger Williams University
His approach is one that would give anyone with a generous dose of OCD a thrill. I did not keep track of the number of individuals who are mentioned and for whom Barry offers at least a little biographical info, but I expect it easily squirts past the defenders into triple digit territory. There is no index available for cheating and coming up with a credible number. Leave it that if a cat had wandered into the field during that game, Barry probably interviewed it, and I expect had he been able to identify the gulls that were in attendance, they would undoubtedly be pretty sick of him asking them about the game, and checking their eggs to find out if the unborn heard anything their feathered parental units might have mentioned about it. I do not mean this as a knock, but merely to offer a sense of Barry’s overall approach. It is reminiscent of an actual baseball field, a wide swath, covered in grass, only inches deep, but with particular parts that emerge, and form the more significant elements of his story, the mound, the bases. One or two deserve mention.
In one of the true rarities in baseball, the owner of the Pawtucket Red Sox sounds like he was a pretty decent guy. We learn about him lending a helping hand when the help really was for someone else and not just a roundabout way of helping himself. The best element was Barry’s look at Dave Koza, a career minor-leaguer who was known for his home runs, but whose major league career only had warning track power, a Crash Davis sort. Barry looks at Koza (really, some wag must have nicknamed him “Lost,” but we never come across that here.) His story carries all the hope-and-dream elements that drive so many of these young men. Dave was the fellow who would get the game-winning hit in the bottom of the 33rd.
Barry gives us an illuminating look at the history of the stadium in which the game was played, tells us about the umpires, the ball boy, the intern, the security guard, the where-are-they-nows, the whole nineyards innings, or in this case thirty three. In a way it struck me as having something in common with rain delays, when hapless broadcasters (yes, he looks at those guys too) have to work extra hard to come up with material to cover the dead air between pitches. Barry certainly does work hard, and manages not only to fill in the blanks, I think he may have actually created some to give himself more time to fill.
If you are a baseball fan, this is a fun book. It is nice to know that Rich Gedman, Wade Boggs, Bruce Hurst, Cal Ripkin Jr,. Bobby Ojeda, and a few other eventual pros took part in the game, and that a game of such duration was ultimately made possible by a cut-and-paste failure in the updating of the league rule book. It is nice to learn of Bobby O’s role in sparking behavior that had once gotten a batboy ejected from a game. It is fun to hear that Mike Hargrove’s extended at-bat preparations earned him the moniker “The Human Rain Delay.” If you are not a baseball fan, Bottom of the 33rd offers a look at a piece of American culture that is as true today as it was forty years ago.
I can tell you from painful personal experience that it is generally a bad idea to go to a ballgame in New York City in April. Hell, May, and maybe even June, can feel like a wind-blown tundra in NY stadiums. Farther north and east it must be even worse. It is no shock that only nineteen spectators made it through the entirety of the game. The book will take a lot less time to read than the game took to be played, and you will not be in danger of having bodily parts crystallize and drop off while you are completing it.
Bottom of the 33rd may not be a grand slam, but it is at least a hustle-triple. And it is definitely a good idea to Root, root, root for the home team.
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s FB and Twitter pages
Barry's articles for the New York Times
2/24/15 - Barry wrote a heart-wrenching piece about the decision to move the Pawtucket team to Providence. Baseball writing at its best. A must-read for any real baseball fan. Brought tears to my eyes - A City Braces for Its Ballpark to Go the Way of Its Mills - Through Years of Change, Pawtucket, R.I., Always Had McCoy Stadium
5/12/21 - A follow up to the above, Barry looks at the state of McCoy Stadium now that the PawSox have become the WooSox of Worcester, MA, and the aging facility stands empty - The PawSox Moved, but Pawtucket Has Yet to Move On
Dan Barry, a sports columnist for the New York Times, a guy who had lived in Pawtucket for four years, uses this singular game as a structure around which to build his depiction of minor league baseball, more particularly Triple-A level baseball, using the example here to stand in for the whole.
Dan Barry - image from Roger Williams University
His approach is one that would give anyone with a generous dose of OCD a thrill. I did not keep track of the number of individuals who are mentioned and for whom Barry offers at least a little biographical info, but I expect it easily squirts past the defenders into triple digit territory. There is no index available for cheating and coming up with a credible number. Leave it that if a cat had wandered into the field during that game, Barry probably interviewed it, and I expect had he been able to identify the gulls that were in attendance, they would undoubtedly be pretty sick of him asking them about the game, and checking their eggs to find out if the unborn heard anything their feathered parental units might have mentioned about it. I do not mean this as a knock, but merely to offer a sense of Barry’s overall approach. It is reminiscent of an actual baseball field, a wide swath, covered in grass, only inches deep, but with particular parts that emerge, and form the more significant elements of his story, the mound, the bases. One or two deserve mention.
In one of the true rarities in baseball, the owner of the Pawtucket Red Sox sounds like he was a pretty decent guy. We learn about him lending a helping hand when the help really was for someone else and not just a roundabout way of helping himself. The best element was Barry’s look at Dave Koza, a career minor-leaguer who was known for his home runs, but whose major league career only had warning track power, a Crash Davis sort. Barry looks at Koza (really, some wag must have nicknamed him “Lost,” but we never come across that here.) His story carries all the hope-and-dream elements that drive so many of these young men. Dave was the fellow who would get the game-winning hit in the bottom of the 33rd.
Barry gives us an illuminating look at the history of the stadium in which the game was played, tells us about the umpires, the ball boy, the intern, the security guard, the where-are-they-nows, the whole nine
If you are a baseball fan, this is a fun book. It is nice to know that Rich Gedman, Wade Boggs, Bruce Hurst, Cal Ripkin Jr,. Bobby Ojeda, and a few other eventual pros took part in the game, and that a game of such duration was ultimately made possible by a cut-and-paste failure in the updating of the league rule book. It is nice to learn of Bobby O’s role in sparking behavior that had once gotten a batboy ejected from a game. It is fun to hear that Mike Hargrove’s extended at-bat preparations earned him the moniker “The Human Rain Delay.” If you are not a baseball fan, Bottom of the 33rd offers a look at a piece of American culture that is as true today as it was forty years ago.
I can tell you from painful personal experience that it is generally a bad idea to go to a ballgame in New York City in April. Hell, May, and maybe even June, can feel like a wind-blown tundra in NY stadiums. Farther north and east it must be even worse. It is no shock that only nineteen spectators made it through the entirety of the game. The book will take a lot less time to read than the game took to be played, and you will not be in danger of having bodily parts crystallize and drop off while you are completing it.
Bottom of the 33rd may not be a grand slam, but it is at least a hustle-triple. And it is definitely a good idea to Root, root, root for the home team.
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s FB and Twitter pages
Barry's articles for the New York Times
2/24/15 - Barry wrote a heart-wrenching piece about the decision to move the Pawtucket team to Providence. Baseball writing at its best. A must-read for any real baseball fan. Brought tears to my eyes - A City Braces for Its Ballpark to Go the Way of Its Mills - Through Years of Change, Pawtucket, R.I., Always Had McCoy Stadium
5/12/21 - A follow up to the above, Barry looks at the state of McCoy Stadium now that the PawSox have become the WooSox of Worcester, MA, and the aging facility stands empty - The PawSox Moved, but Pawtucket Has Yet to Move On
January 7, 2019
A micro history of the longest game ever played in baseball history. Hall of Famers Cal Ripken, Jr and Wade Boggs played in this game as did many others who never made it to the majors. While mildly entertaining, there have been better books written on minor league baseball. Yet imagine freezing for eight hours and 32 innings only to find out that your game has been suspended. The hoopla surrounding the game provided me with enough intrigue to stay with this one to the end, just like the game itself, which was completed 65 days later. This was our monthly Baseball Bookclub read and thankfully there is always next month.
3 stars
3 stars
March 13, 2015
Posted to The Literary Lawyer.ca
My #2 Read of 2014
Best Baseball Book I Have Ever Read - 5 Stars
I am writing this review about 9 months after having read this. I have been putting off writing this review as I have been finding it difficult to express my feelings on the subject. For me, the game of baseball holds a special place in my heart. Whenever I have a chance to sit down and watch a game, it brings back feelings that I have had since childhood. Feelings of excitement, anticipation, potential and awe. My first heroes (that were not within my own family) were all out on the baseball diamond and graced the faces of my baseball card collection. Maybe Kelly Gruber is no one to you, but the former third baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays was my hero! For me, this story distills these feelings and infuses them into the real life people in this real life story.
In short, the book tells the story of the longest baseball game played. It was a 33 inning affair that occurred between two minor league baseball teams. The game was filled with players who would go on to successful careers and players who would go on to non baseball related jobs. The author does a superb job of detailing the game itself while at the same time providing insight and back story into the players playing the game and various persons connected with the game and in the stands.
If you thought that authors such as Patrick Rothfuss and Anthony Ryan were skilled at detailing the creation of myth over thousands of pages, than you will be amazed at the authors ability to create legend within a mere 257 pages. The book also serves a case study in myth making. He takes a game that is a footnote to history and an unimportant game in the career of future hall of famers, Cal Ripken Jr. and Wade Boggs but by adding the emotion of the game, the history of the players and a wide array of other stories, he has created something bigger than the sum of its parts.
This is my best effort at reviewing what may be the best piece of non-fiction I have ever read. My reaction to the book was quite emotional. It may hold interest to a passive fan but it will be absorbed and understood by everyone who knows that baseball is more than just a game.
My #2 Read of 2014
Best Baseball Book I Have Ever Read - 5 Stars
I am writing this review about 9 months after having read this. I have been putting off writing this review as I have been finding it difficult to express my feelings on the subject. For me, the game of baseball holds a special place in my heart. Whenever I have a chance to sit down and watch a game, it brings back feelings that I have had since childhood. Feelings of excitement, anticipation, potential and awe. My first heroes (that were not within my own family) were all out on the baseball diamond and graced the faces of my baseball card collection. Maybe Kelly Gruber is no one to you, but the former third baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays was my hero! For me, this story distills these feelings and infuses them into the real life people in this real life story.
In short, the book tells the story of the longest baseball game played. It was a 33 inning affair that occurred between two minor league baseball teams. The game was filled with players who would go on to successful careers and players who would go on to non baseball related jobs. The author does a superb job of detailing the game itself while at the same time providing insight and back story into the players playing the game and various persons connected with the game and in the stands.
If you thought that authors such as Patrick Rothfuss and Anthony Ryan were skilled at detailing the creation of myth over thousands of pages, than you will be amazed at the authors ability to create legend within a mere 257 pages. The book also serves a case study in myth making. He takes a game that is a footnote to history and an unimportant game in the career of future hall of famers, Cal Ripken Jr. and Wade Boggs but by adding the emotion of the game, the history of the players and a wide array of other stories, he has created something bigger than the sum of its parts.
This is my best effort at reviewing what may be the best piece of non-fiction I have ever read. My reaction to the book was quite emotional. It may hold interest to a passive fan but it will be absorbed and understood by everyone who knows that baseball is more than just a game.
February 8, 2017
In the cold night of a Rhode Island April, two minor league teams began a baseball game that would not be over for another 8 hours. Thus begins the journalistic novel by Dan Berry about the 1981 game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings both of the International League.
Well researched and balanced, this entertaining account is more than just the story about the longest recorded game in baseball history, Berry has masterfully combined history, psychology and sociology to tell a modern day story of America itself. Tragic, comic, endearing, and all the while reported with a brutally honest theatrical irony, Berry has a gem of a baseball book and a good read in it’s own right.
I gave it 4 stars because it was so well written, if you’re a baseball fan, consider that this should be a 5 star book, very good, I’ll think about this book often.
Well researched and balanced, this entertaining account is more than just the story about the longest recorded game in baseball history, Berry has masterfully combined history, psychology and sociology to tell a modern day story of America itself. Tragic, comic, endearing, and all the while reported with a brutally honest theatrical irony, Berry has a gem of a baseball book and a good read in it’s own right.
I gave it 4 stars because it was so well written, if you’re a baseball fan, consider that this should be a 5 star book, very good, I’ll think about this book often.
January 9, 2019
Like a boat slipped off its mooring, a baseball game in Pawtucket floats away upon the open waters of the night. The accepted length of 9 innings, established in 1857 by the Rules and Regulations Committee of the National Association of Base Ball Players, has provided no winner, no anchor of resolution.
Dan Barry’s Bottom of the 33rd is impeccably researched and a well written micro-history. I don’t know that I have ever learned as much about a singular event that was “just” some eight hours long.
The final score of this epic minor league game, played on a cold and windy New England night in April 1981 between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings, was just 3-2. I won’t tell you who won, but it’s the kind of book where you won’t find yourself rooting for one team anyway. It is a bit of a paradox that the premise for the book is the record setting length of the game, because it’s also the book’s downfall if there is one. There are a boatload of innings, 29 of them in fact, where there are no runs scored.
When the clock passes midnight sometime in the early to mid extra innings, it is now Easter morning. A glitch in transcribing the official rules omitted the provision that a game shall be suspended if still tied after 12:30 AM. Finally by 4 am a league official is contacted by an umpire and the okay is given to call the game after the 32nd inning which is what happened. So in fact the final and anti-climactic last inning of the game was played some two months later.
So to make up for this lack of run-scoring excitement, the author uses the pages to tell the stories of the teams, the building of the ballpark in Pawtucket, the stories of the individual players, the announcers, the managers and even some fans that he was able to interview.
In a bit of dark humor, the reader learns that the state police and local hospital were getting numerous calls in the wee hours in the morning. In an age without cell phones concerned spouses and parents had expected their loved ones back home and were understandably concerned that they might be dead or perhaps their car was wrapped around a telephone pole somewhere.
We recognize many future major leaguers in the book who played in the game including Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken Jr. so there is a fair bit of nostalgia to be sure. However the author tries to cover every player with a story. The minutiae was probably too much even for this baseball fan with an above average attention span.
So I give this book a four star rating. The research was five stars, the writing was four stars and the actual story was more like three stars. Possibly a three star book if you are not a baseball fan, but there is a great deal of journalistic prowess on display in this book regardless.
Dan Barry’s Bottom of the 33rd is impeccably researched and a well written micro-history. I don’t know that I have ever learned as much about a singular event that was “just” some eight hours long.
The final score of this epic minor league game, played on a cold and windy New England night in April 1981 between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings, was just 3-2. I won’t tell you who won, but it’s the kind of book where you won’t find yourself rooting for one team anyway. It is a bit of a paradox that the premise for the book is the record setting length of the game, because it’s also the book’s downfall if there is one. There are a boatload of innings, 29 of them in fact, where there are no runs scored.
When the clock passes midnight sometime in the early to mid extra innings, it is now Easter morning. A glitch in transcribing the official rules omitted the provision that a game shall be suspended if still tied after 12:30 AM. Finally by 4 am a league official is contacted by an umpire and the okay is given to call the game after the 32nd inning which is what happened. So in fact the final and anti-climactic last inning of the game was played some two months later.
So to make up for this lack of run-scoring excitement, the author uses the pages to tell the stories of the teams, the building of the ballpark in Pawtucket, the stories of the individual players, the announcers, the managers and even some fans that he was able to interview.
In a bit of dark humor, the reader learns that the state police and local hospital were getting numerous calls in the wee hours in the morning. In an age without cell phones concerned spouses and parents had expected their loved ones back home and were understandably concerned that they might be dead or perhaps their car was wrapped around a telephone pole somewhere.
We recognize many future major leaguers in the book who played in the game including Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken Jr. so there is a fair bit of nostalgia to be sure. However the author tries to cover every player with a story. The minutiae was probably too much even for this baseball fan with an above average attention span.
So I give this book a four star rating. The research was five stars, the writing was four stars and the actual story was more like three stars. Possibly a three star book if you are not a baseball fan, but there is a great deal of journalistic prowess on display in this book regardless.
December 30, 2022
One of the beauties of baseball is that the game has no clock – there is no set time in which a game must be completed, such as 60 minutes for football and hockey or 48 minutes for professional basketball. It just requires that 9 innings be completed with one team ahead. If the teams are tied after those 9 innings, they keep playing innings until one team is ahead.
The only time that it took 24 additional innings to decide a game was on a chilly night in Rhode Island in April 1981. Because of a simple omission in the league rule book, a game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings that began at 7:30 on the Saturday before Easter didn’t stop until after 4 AM on Easter Sunday. And THEN the game wasn’t technically over – the two teams had played 32 innings before the International League president was finally contacted and he said to suspend the game. It was later concluded in the 33rd inning on June 23 on national television as it was the biggest baseball story of the day because the major league players were on strike.
This book by Dan Barry takes this game and weaves so many different stories about so many different people who were involved in the game in some manner. Of course, the major emphasis is on players who participated. The two most recognizable names were Hall of Famers Wade Boggs, who played third base for the Red Sox and Cal Ripken Jr., who also was at the hot corner for the Red Wings. While their contributions to the game didn’t affect the final outcome, their stories were minor compared to some of the other people.
People like Dave Koza, the Red Sox first baseman whose story is the major focus of Barry’s prose and the reader will get attached to him and his wife Ann, who sat in the cold stadium for the entire game, rooting for her husband to not only get that hit, but also to get that chance to play in the major leagues.
The history of the stadium is also discussed in this book as are the history of the town of Pawtucket, the follies of the team and its owners. One amusing story is the reason why Budweiser beer was not available at McCoy Stadium. So is the plight of a young clubhouse attendant. Determined to make the visiting Red Wings a decent meal at the end of the game, he had a chicken and pasta spread ready for them in the ninth inning (a big improvement over the usual fare for post-game meals in the minor leagues) only to have it ruined as the game kept going and going.
So many other people have stories to share – the Red Wings general manager-turned-radio broadcaster calling all of those innings and frequently wishing anyone listening back in Rochester a Happy Easter. The 9 year old boy who with his dad sat through every inning as the temperature kept dropping. And speaking of dropping temperatures, the umpires whose hands kept turning colder because there was only one pair of gloves to share were also prominent in the story. When they could not find the rule in the new version of the rule book that stated an inning could not start after 12:50 AM, their stubborn sticking to the “rules” was both admirable, confounding and ultimately historic.
This long review barely scratches the surface of all the wonderful stories shared in this mostly fast-paced book. Like the game itself when players were just trying to end it, it does start to drag near the conclusion, but this just added to the excellence in the writing as it plays along exactly as the game does. It is a wonderful addition to any baseball library and is recommended for all baseball fans.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
The only time that it took 24 additional innings to decide a game was on a chilly night in Rhode Island in April 1981. Because of a simple omission in the league rule book, a game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings that began at 7:30 on the Saturday before Easter didn’t stop until after 4 AM on Easter Sunday. And THEN the game wasn’t technically over – the two teams had played 32 innings before the International League president was finally contacted and he said to suspend the game. It was later concluded in the 33rd inning on June 23 on national television as it was the biggest baseball story of the day because the major league players were on strike.
This book by Dan Barry takes this game and weaves so many different stories about so many different people who were involved in the game in some manner. Of course, the major emphasis is on players who participated. The two most recognizable names were Hall of Famers Wade Boggs, who played third base for the Red Sox and Cal Ripken Jr., who also was at the hot corner for the Red Wings. While their contributions to the game didn’t affect the final outcome, their stories were minor compared to some of the other people.
People like Dave Koza, the Red Sox first baseman whose story is the major focus of Barry’s prose and the reader will get attached to him and his wife Ann, who sat in the cold stadium for the entire game, rooting for her husband to not only get that hit, but also to get that chance to play in the major leagues.
The history of the stadium is also discussed in this book as are the history of the town of Pawtucket, the follies of the team and its owners. One amusing story is the reason why Budweiser beer was not available at McCoy Stadium. So is the plight of a young clubhouse attendant. Determined to make the visiting Red Wings a decent meal at the end of the game, he had a chicken and pasta spread ready for them in the ninth inning (a big improvement over the usual fare for post-game meals in the minor leagues) only to have it ruined as the game kept going and going.
So many other people have stories to share – the Red Wings general manager-turned-radio broadcaster calling all of those innings and frequently wishing anyone listening back in Rochester a Happy Easter. The 9 year old boy who with his dad sat through every inning as the temperature kept dropping. And speaking of dropping temperatures, the umpires whose hands kept turning colder because there was only one pair of gloves to share were also prominent in the story. When they could not find the rule in the new version of the rule book that stated an inning could not start after 12:50 AM, their stubborn sticking to the “rules” was both admirable, confounding and ultimately historic.
This long review barely scratches the surface of all the wonderful stories shared in this mostly fast-paced book. Like the game itself when players were just trying to end it, it does start to drag near the conclusion, but this just added to the excellence in the writing as it plays along exactly as the game does. It is a wonderful addition to any baseball library and is recommended for all baseball fans.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
January 5, 2013
Baseball is my favorite sport, I am counting the days until it starts again. I’m not kidding, I have a countdown clock on my phone and every morning I look at it and get all excited about how many days until pitchers and catchers report for spring training. It therefore should not be surprising that when I was at the library and walking past the non-fiction section my eyes were drawn to the baseball books.
On September 22, 2012 the Yankees played the A’s, that game lasted 14 innings, 5 hours and 43 minutes. The longest game for the Yankees since 2006. I was there for that game. I stayed for every inning, watched every pitch, every hit. The longest major league baseball game was 25 innings, but that isn’t the longest professional ball game every played, that honor goes to a minor league game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings. This record still stands: 33 innings, 8 hours 25 minutes.
There is a rule that a new inning cannot start after midnight, however the rule book the home plate umpire had did not have that paragraph in it so play continued until 4 in the morning, when the president of the league finally returned a phone call to the ball park. Play was halted at the 32nd inning. The next time the Red Wings were in town the game resumed. It took 1 inning and 18 minutes to finish the game. Two names you might recognize in this book are Wade Boggs, Pawtucket Red Sox and Cal Ripken, Jr., Rochester Red Wings.
This book is more than just an account of a baseball game, we learn about life in the minor leagues, what players and managers and reporters had to put up with. We learn some of the history of the players, how their lives progressed after, who went to the major leagues and so on. Well written and interesting.
Rating: Liked it ♥♡
On September 22, 2012 the Yankees played the A’s, that game lasted 14 innings, 5 hours and 43 minutes. The longest game for the Yankees since 2006. I was there for that game. I stayed for every inning, watched every pitch, every hit. The longest major league baseball game was 25 innings, but that isn’t the longest professional ball game every played, that honor goes to a minor league game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings. This record still stands: 33 innings, 8 hours 25 minutes.
There is a rule that a new inning cannot start after midnight, however the rule book the home plate umpire had did not have that paragraph in it so play continued until 4 in the morning, when the president of the league finally returned a phone call to the ball park. Play was halted at the 32nd inning. The next time the Red Wings were in town the game resumed. It took 1 inning and 18 minutes to finish the game. Two names you might recognize in this book are Wade Boggs, Pawtucket Red Sox and Cal Ripken, Jr., Rochester Red Wings.
This book is more than just an account of a baseball game, we learn about life in the minor leagues, what players and managers and reporters had to put up with. We learn some of the history of the players, how their lives progressed after, who went to the major leagues and so on. Well written and interesting.
Rating: Liked it ♥♡
March 6, 2012
In the 30 years since Rochester's Red Wings and Pawtucket's Red Sox battled into the wee hours of a frigid Easter morning, the fascination with baseball's longest game hasn't waned. If anything, the marathon contest, which featured future Hall of Famers Cal Ripken and Wade Boggs, has ascended to legendary status, staking its claim among the sport's classic duels. What began as a routine Saturday night affair April 18, 1981, spilled into Sunday before eventually wrapping up two months later as a 3-2 Paw Sox win.
Pawtucket's McCoy Stadium was packed on June 23 for the game's almost anti-climactic conclusion, when the Red Sox needed only one inning to decide matters. The true witnesses to history, however, barely numbered in double digits. When the two weary clubs were mercifully shooed off the field at 4:09 Easter morning, just 19 fans remained in the grandstand.
Dan Barry wasn't among them. In fact, he was nowhere near Pawtucket for either the anonymous start or the spectacle of a conclusion, which drew media from as far away as England and Japan for a feel-good story in the early days of a strike that would shut down Major League Baseball for nearly two months. Which makes his gripping and lyrical retelling, Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game, all the more amazing, as he seems to have been everywhere all at once for the entire length of the game.
He's there in the visitor's bullpen, where Red Wings reliever Steve Luebber trades scuffed baseballs to youngsters in the early innings for wood to fuel the bonfire that warms a squadron of relievers. He's in the parking lot watching the stepson of the scoreboard operator drain the battery of a Ford Pinto as he falls blissfully asleep in the back seat long before the game is half over. He's under the stands, peering through a hole with Red Sox manager Joe Morgan for the last 10 innings after having been ejected for arguing a call in the top of the 22nd. And, of course, he's on the field, where he accounts for every plate appearance in the bedeviling affair.
The balls and strikes, base hits and fly balls are not what this story's about, however. Barry has gone both deeper and broader, rescuing the game's participants from a novelty of a box score, in which 219 at-bats were recorded. There's more to Rochester center fielder Dallas Williams than the 0-for-13 that followed him for the rest of his career. And as much as Jim Umbarger's 10 shutout innings of relief leap off the stat page, they reveal little about the man himself. Barry dug into every participant-on the field, in the front office, up in the press box, and down in the stands-to cull the true meaning of the sport.
He captures the spirit of minor league baseball in the days before the corporate ownership groups dotted the landscape with miniature versions of big league cathedrals. These were shoestring operations, run largely by fresh-faced kids just out of school. Or younger. The clubhouses in Pawtucket were managed by a pack of neighborhood youths, who pushed the team's uniforms to a coin-operated Laundromat each morning in stolen shopping carts in the late 1970s, before new owner Ben Mondor took over and installed on-premises washers and dryers.
While times have changed and minor league franchises are no longer run by the Little Rascals, today's generation of players can certainly relate to the mental grind their predecessors endured. Today's Triple-A rosters are populated with men just like Leubber, who in 1981 was fighting to return to the majors where he came within an out of a no-hitter for the Twins in 1976, and Dave Koza, the slugging first baseman who spent so long in Pawtucket he made it his long-time home after his career ended without a big league callup. For every Ripken there are a hundred more whose career will more closely resemble Bobby Bonner's brief big league stay.
Barry caught up with everyone he could find, crafting their recollections of that fateful night into a romance illustrating the game's often heart-breaking allure. It's not an entirely original concept. Within the past couple years alone works like Perfect, Lew Paper's retelling of Don Larson's World Series masterpiece, and Jim Kaplan's The Greatest Game Ever Pitched, about the legendary 16-inning Warren Spahn-Juan Marichal bout in 1963, have tried to apply a bigger-picture perspective to a single game. But where those books felt contrived at times, Bottom of the 33rd weaves the game seamlessly into the stories of the men who were there in 1981.
This International League classic is unlikely to ever be duplicated. The perfect storm that spawned it required a printing mishap, leaving the league's 12:50 a.m. curfew off the books; a hard-nosed, literalist interpretation of the rulebook by the head umpire; a league president who was so frequently hounded by inane phone calls that he didn't answer Pawtucket general manager Mike Tamburro's desperate plea for an end to the insanity; and a confounding wind knocking down a certain home-run blast off the bat of Sox outfielder Sam Bowen, which would have ended the game in the bottom of the 26th.
In today's world of cell phones and internet, even a rule book glitch wouldn't spin this far out of control. But a generation ago, it happened. Dan Barry has captured it-and so much more-in this essential book for minor league baseball lovers.
Pawtucket's McCoy Stadium was packed on June 23 for the game's almost anti-climactic conclusion, when the Red Sox needed only one inning to decide matters. The true witnesses to history, however, barely numbered in double digits. When the two weary clubs were mercifully shooed off the field at 4:09 Easter morning, just 19 fans remained in the grandstand.
Dan Barry wasn't among them. In fact, he was nowhere near Pawtucket for either the anonymous start or the spectacle of a conclusion, which drew media from as far away as England and Japan for a feel-good story in the early days of a strike that would shut down Major League Baseball for nearly two months. Which makes his gripping and lyrical retelling, Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game, all the more amazing, as he seems to have been everywhere all at once for the entire length of the game.
He's there in the visitor's bullpen, where Red Wings reliever Steve Luebber trades scuffed baseballs to youngsters in the early innings for wood to fuel the bonfire that warms a squadron of relievers. He's in the parking lot watching the stepson of the scoreboard operator drain the battery of a Ford Pinto as he falls blissfully asleep in the back seat long before the game is half over. He's under the stands, peering through a hole with Red Sox manager Joe Morgan for the last 10 innings after having been ejected for arguing a call in the top of the 22nd. And, of course, he's on the field, where he accounts for every plate appearance in the bedeviling affair.
The balls and strikes, base hits and fly balls are not what this story's about, however. Barry has gone both deeper and broader, rescuing the game's participants from a novelty of a box score, in which 219 at-bats were recorded. There's more to Rochester center fielder Dallas Williams than the 0-for-13 that followed him for the rest of his career. And as much as Jim Umbarger's 10 shutout innings of relief leap off the stat page, they reveal little about the man himself. Barry dug into every participant-on the field, in the front office, up in the press box, and down in the stands-to cull the true meaning of the sport.
He captures the spirit of minor league baseball in the days before the corporate ownership groups dotted the landscape with miniature versions of big league cathedrals. These were shoestring operations, run largely by fresh-faced kids just out of school. Or younger. The clubhouses in Pawtucket were managed by a pack of neighborhood youths, who pushed the team's uniforms to a coin-operated Laundromat each morning in stolen shopping carts in the late 1970s, before new owner Ben Mondor took over and installed on-premises washers and dryers.
While times have changed and minor league franchises are no longer run by the Little Rascals, today's generation of players can certainly relate to the mental grind their predecessors endured. Today's Triple-A rosters are populated with men just like Leubber, who in 1981 was fighting to return to the majors where he came within an out of a no-hitter for the Twins in 1976, and Dave Koza, the slugging first baseman who spent so long in Pawtucket he made it his long-time home after his career ended without a big league callup. For every Ripken there are a hundred more whose career will more closely resemble Bobby Bonner's brief big league stay.
Barry caught up with everyone he could find, crafting their recollections of that fateful night into a romance illustrating the game's often heart-breaking allure. It's not an entirely original concept. Within the past couple years alone works like Perfect, Lew Paper's retelling of Don Larson's World Series masterpiece, and Jim Kaplan's The Greatest Game Ever Pitched, about the legendary 16-inning Warren Spahn-Juan Marichal bout in 1963, have tried to apply a bigger-picture perspective to a single game. But where those books felt contrived at times, Bottom of the 33rd weaves the game seamlessly into the stories of the men who were there in 1981.
This International League classic is unlikely to ever be duplicated. The perfect storm that spawned it required a printing mishap, leaving the league's 12:50 a.m. curfew off the books; a hard-nosed, literalist interpretation of the rulebook by the head umpire; a league president who was so frequently hounded by inane phone calls that he didn't answer Pawtucket general manager Mike Tamburro's desperate plea for an end to the insanity; and a confounding wind knocking down a certain home-run blast off the bat of Sox outfielder Sam Bowen, which would have ended the game in the bottom of the 26th.
In today's world of cell phones and internet, even a rule book glitch wouldn't spin this far out of control. But a generation ago, it happened. Dan Barry has captured it-and so much more-in this essential book for minor league baseball lovers.
February 17, 2016
What a great read for those interested in baseball!!! I do love my baseball and I am my father's daughter in that respect. If you love sports or more specifically baseball in particular, run, don't wait to get this book and read it!
April 18, 2011
Major League Baseball just opened up another season, so the perfect book to read this week is Dan Barry's Bottom of the 33rd- Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game.
The game took place on April 18, 1981, Holy Saturday, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The Triple A League Pawtucket Red Sox hosted the Rochester Red Wings. The Sox had future superstar Wade Boggs on their team, the Red Wings had the incomparable Cal Ripken Jr. at third base.
But Barry wisely does not put those superstars at the center of his story. What makes this narrative interesting are the not-so-famous people. The Pawtucket owner, Ben Mondor, a wealthy businessman who grew up poor in Pawtucket and made it big, took the team at its lowest point and restored it to its former glory.
He prized loyalty above all, and when Budweiser refused to sell him beer because the former owners owed them money, he remembered that for a long time. Miller sold him beer, and even though Budweiser was the fan favorite, and Budweiser eventually begged him to buy their beer year after year, Mondor stuck with Miller because they were loyal to him.
Mondor put together a small but hardworking front office team, and they turned the bankrupt team into a success by "keeping prices low, making the stadium safe and family-friendly and emphasizing that the Pawtucket players on the field were the Boston Red Sox of tomorrow."
One of the most unforgettable characters is pitcher Win Remmerswaal. He is from the Netherlands, and "doesn't seem to accept basic social customs, such as adherence to the law or value of currency." His car license plate was a "piece of cardboard with a few meaningless numbers scribbled on it." At the end of one road trip, it was discovered that he was missing. He showed up several days later, explaining that he had never seen the nation's capital, so when they had a layover in Washington, he took a few days to sightsee. He is hilarious!
Triple A baseball is the last step before the major league team, so there is an interesting dynamic on those teams. There are the young players destined for future glory, like Boggs and Ripken. There are 'old guys'- the 25 and 26 year-olds- who have kicked around for awhile, and this is their last shot at making the big team. Some of them get called up to play in September on the parent club, only to be sent back to Triple A next spring to try again.
The agony of working to see your dream come true, knowing that there is a short time limit on it, is palpable in this book. First baseman Dave Koza has dragged his wife Ann from Florida to Pawtucket to Wyoming every year in pursuit of his dream. Ann finds some kind of factory work wherever they land, and she goes to every game. She is one of the 19 people who watched all 32 innings of the game, lasting until 4am on Easter morning when it was finally called. They are the heart of this marvelous book, and the end to their story is so moving.
The longest game, which is finally finished two months later in Pawtucket, is told in detail, alternating with the stories of the people who participated in it. I grew up in Auburn, NY, which has a Single A baseball team, and this book really resonated with me. I know my entire family will want to read it.
Barry gives the reader a close-up look at our national pasttime, and what that means for the cities where it is played. He tells the stories of the participants with honesty, humor, and heart. If you liked the movie, Bull Durham, this book is for you. It is a must-read for every baseball fan.
The game took place on April 18, 1981, Holy Saturday, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The Triple A League Pawtucket Red Sox hosted the Rochester Red Wings. The Sox had future superstar Wade Boggs on their team, the Red Wings had the incomparable Cal Ripken Jr. at third base.
But Barry wisely does not put those superstars at the center of his story. What makes this narrative interesting are the not-so-famous people. The Pawtucket owner, Ben Mondor, a wealthy businessman who grew up poor in Pawtucket and made it big, took the team at its lowest point and restored it to its former glory.
He prized loyalty above all, and when Budweiser refused to sell him beer because the former owners owed them money, he remembered that for a long time. Miller sold him beer, and even though Budweiser was the fan favorite, and Budweiser eventually begged him to buy their beer year after year, Mondor stuck with Miller because they were loyal to him.
Mondor put together a small but hardworking front office team, and they turned the bankrupt team into a success by "keeping prices low, making the stadium safe and family-friendly and emphasizing that the Pawtucket players on the field were the Boston Red Sox of tomorrow."
One of the most unforgettable characters is pitcher Win Remmerswaal. He is from the Netherlands, and "doesn't seem to accept basic social customs, such as adherence to the law or value of currency." His car license plate was a "piece of cardboard with a few meaningless numbers scribbled on it." At the end of one road trip, it was discovered that he was missing. He showed up several days later, explaining that he had never seen the nation's capital, so when they had a layover in Washington, he took a few days to sightsee. He is hilarious!
Triple A baseball is the last step before the major league team, so there is an interesting dynamic on those teams. There are the young players destined for future glory, like Boggs and Ripken. There are 'old guys'- the 25 and 26 year-olds- who have kicked around for awhile, and this is their last shot at making the big team. Some of them get called up to play in September on the parent club, only to be sent back to Triple A next spring to try again.
The agony of working to see your dream come true, knowing that there is a short time limit on it, is palpable in this book. First baseman Dave Koza has dragged his wife Ann from Florida to Pawtucket to Wyoming every year in pursuit of his dream. Ann finds some kind of factory work wherever they land, and she goes to every game. She is one of the 19 people who watched all 32 innings of the game, lasting until 4am on Easter morning when it was finally called. They are the heart of this marvelous book, and the end to their story is so moving.
The longest game, which is finally finished two months later in Pawtucket, is told in detail, alternating with the stories of the people who participated in it. I grew up in Auburn, NY, which has a Single A baseball team, and this book really resonated with me. I know my entire family will want to read it.
Barry gives the reader a close-up look at our national pasttime, and what that means for the cities where it is played. He tells the stories of the participants with honesty, humor, and heart. If you liked the movie, Bull Durham, this book is for you. It is a must-read for every baseball fan.
March 31, 2016
Ok, I admit that it's easy to romanticize baseball in the dead of winter,which is when I read this book. And it's more than touch ironic that I, who rarely watch games on tv now because they've become longer than most operas (and with less action, since the game is shriveling on endless strikeouts, walks and pitching changes), would find a book about the longest game in history so fascinating. But pass the Cracker Jacks, there it is. Barry is such a good writer that I couldn't wait to pick up this book every evening. Here's a stylish highlight:
“How short, now, the longest game seems. How ephemeral. On a night and early morning set aside for prayer, reflection, and everlasting joy, a baseball game insisted on the suspension of ordinary time. It gathered together a few dozen hopefuls in a poorly lit coliseum and refused them release for more than eight hours, providing them little comfort from the harsh elements beyond the heat generated by the burning of wood. It forced those watching the game to contemplate cosmic issues that transcend the successive crises of balls and strikes. The interdependence we all share. The inadequacy of statistics to measure one’s worth. The existence of God. The dominion of nature over humankind, reflected by the howl of the night’s wind, whoooosh, rising to muffle the profane howl of the Rochester center fielder.”
Now granted, digesting that much lyricism for an entire book would be like eating too many hot dogs drowning in mustard. But still, that's as good as anything the two benighted Roger's -- Kahn and Angell -- ever penned about life on the diamond. And Barry is just as good a storyteller as R1 and R2, as well, which is the real reason to read this book, because the story is not just about the game but about a rusty, snow-belt town, Pawtucket (or Puhtucket to locals)in midst of decades-long slump with nothing much to get excited about except a minor league team. It's not just about impending MLB stars like future Hall of Famers Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken Jr., who played on opposing teams, but about anonymous career minor leaguers who never made it to the Show; it's about failure despite hard work and perseverance that borders on both the perverse and the admirable. But it's also about success defined in myriad ways, like the local teenage clubhouse attendants who get an education in business ingenuity and organizational skills that would trump anything a Harvard MBA could produce. Barry does a great job of weaving in running profiles of everyone associated with the game, near and far -- players, managers, owners, announcers, vendors, reporters, club-house jockeys, mothers, spouses, politicians, cops -- with a stirring and entertaining inning by inning account of the game that I never found dull or repetitive.
I suppose the big question here is would non-fans enjoy this book? I think so. I am no longer a die-hard fan myself, though I still read the sports page every morning, and I've dropped plenty of other sports stories, fiction and non-fiction, because the writing was over-wrought or cliche-ridden. Barry does not suffer from either of those maladies. He conveys a sense of wonderment without lapsing into sentimentality. Though the game was exhausting for everyone involved, Barry's writing compels you to stick around until the end of this historic triple-header and a half.
“How short, now, the longest game seems. How ephemeral. On a night and early morning set aside for prayer, reflection, and everlasting joy, a baseball game insisted on the suspension of ordinary time. It gathered together a few dozen hopefuls in a poorly lit coliseum and refused them release for more than eight hours, providing them little comfort from the harsh elements beyond the heat generated by the burning of wood. It forced those watching the game to contemplate cosmic issues that transcend the successive crises of balls and strikes. The interdependence we all share. The inadequacy of statistics to measure one’s worth. The existence of God. The dominion of nature over humankind, reflected by the howl of the night’s wind, whoooosh, rising to muffle the profane howl of the Rochester center fielder.”
Now granted, digesting that much lyricism for an entire book would be like eating too many hot dogs drowning in mustard. But still, that's as good as anything the two benighted Roger's -- Kahn and Angell -- ever penned about life on the diamond. And Barry is just as good a storyteller as R1 and R2, as well, which is the real reason to read this book, because the story is not just about the game but about a rusty, snow-belt town, Pawtucket (or Puhtucket to locals)in midst of decades-long slump with nothing much to get excited about except a minor league team. It's not just about impending MLB stars like future Hall of Famers Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken Jr., who played on opposing teams, but about anonymous career minor leaguers who never made it to the Show; it's about failure despite hard work and perseverance that borders on both the perverse and the admirable. But it's also about success defined in myriad ways, like the local teenage clubhouse attendants who get an education in business ingenuity and organizational skills that would trump anything a Harvard MBA could produce. Barry does a great job of weaving in running profiles of everyone associated with the game, near and far -- players, managers, owners, announcers, vendors, reporters, club-house jockeys, mothers, spouses, politicians, cops -- with a stirring and entertaining inning by inning account of the game that I never found dull or repetitive.
I suppose the big question here is would non-fans enjoy this book? I think so. I am no longer a die-hard fan myself, though I still read the sports page every morning, and I've dropped plenty of other sports stories, fiction and non-fiction, because the writing was over-wrought or cliche-ridden. Barry does not suffer from either of those maladies. He conveys a sense of wonderment without lapsing into sentimentality. Though the game was exhausting for everyone involved, Barry's writing compels you to stick around until the end of this historic triple-header and a half.
January 21, 2015
In 1981, I was 16 and following the Columbus Clippers, then the Triple-A farm team for the New York Yankees. The Clippers were part of the International League, of which the Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings were part, as well. I saw all these teams play several times a year, and saw several of the players (and managers) make it to the big leagues. If I remember right, the Columbus Clippers even ended up taking the Governor's Cup that year.
In the beginning of the 1981 season, though, the teams from Pawtucket and Rochester played a game that ended up going 33(!) innings. I remember reading about it in the Columbus Dispatch, and I'm not sure I could have sat through a game that lasted over eight hours...
The book was interesting, and it about so much more than simply this game for the record books. Each player was highlighted in some form or fashion, complete with background stories of how and where they grew up, and their trip(s) up to the Boston Red Sox or the Baltimore Orioles, if they made it at all. The attention to detail was incredible, and the game seemed to take a back seat to the players, the managers, and all of the supporting staff themselves.
I'm not a huge baseball fan by any means, and usually don't watch many games until the season starts wrapping up and gets close to the playoffs. I would, however, recommend this book about the longest baseball game ever played to anyone interested in the history of the sport, and especially to anyone that wants to know how to write about an historical event (it's all about the people!).
In the beginning of the 1981 season, though, the teams from Pawtucket and Rochester played a game that ended up going 33(!) innings. I remember reading about it in the Columbus Dispatch, and I'm not sure I could have sat through a game that lasted over eight hours...
The book was interesting, and it about so much more than simply this game for the record books. Each player was highlighted in some form or fashion, complete with background stories of how and where they grew up, and their trip(s) up to the Boston Red Sox or the Baltimore Orioles, if they made it at all. The attention to detail was incredible, and the game seemed to take a back seat to the players, the managers, and all of the supporting staff themselves.
I'm not a huge baseball fan by any means, and usually don't watch many games until the season starts wrapping up and gets close to the playoffs. I would, however, recommend this book about the longest baseball game ever played to anyone interested in the history of the sport, and especially to anyone that wants to know how to write about an historical event (it's all about the people!).
April 17, 2011
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. Thanx!
It sounds like an interesting premise and it is, but the execution...
It is all about the longest game in organized baseball history. But the game itself was not that interesting. Only a few runs scored. There are some future Hall of Famers in the game, but they didn't play an integral part.
Since there isn't that much of the game to write about (maybe 10% is about the actual game) it has to rely on the people and their backstories. It was obviously written knowing this is what the book would be about, not the game itself. But do we really want to know the backstory of the batboy, the owner, the coaches, the broadcaster, every player, their wives, the chairman of the league and (I am not kidding) the fans? I'm sorry, but their stories are what this book is built on and they simply aren't THAT interesting.
You could take this slice of life of virtually any setting and expand upon it like this, but the bottom line is 'Is it interesting'? Your opinion may differ, but in this case I'd have to say no.
It sounds like an interesting premise and it is, but the execution...
It is all about the longest game in organized baseball history. But the game itself was not that interesting. Only a few runs scored. There are some future Hall of Famers in the game, but they didn't play an integral part.
Since there isn't that much of the game to write about (maybe 10% is about the actual game) it has to rely on the people and their backstories. It was obviously written knowing this is what the book would be about, not the game itself. But do we really want to know the backstory of the batboy, the owner, the coaches, the broadcaster, every player, their wives, the chairman of the league and (I am not kidding) the fans? I'm sorry, but their stories are what this book is built on and they simply aren't THAT interesting.
You could take this slice of life of virtually any setting and expand upon it like this, but the bottom line is 'Is it interesting'? Your opinion may differ, but in this case I'd have to say no.
February 22, 2012
A very, very enjoyable book. The allegory is perhaps too thick--it's a book about redemption, and the game in question takes place from Holy Saturday to Easter Sunday and lasts 33 innings, 33 being the age of Christ--but it seems, in its own odd way, charming. The best sportswriting is always about being a bit too sentimental, a bit too melodramatic; it almost has to be. After all, what we're talking about is essentially a children's game, and we're using this game to illustrate and find out about things that are a part of greater experience of being a human being. This would suggest that it'd have to be a bit over-written. And it is. But, again, that's a part of the genre--and Barry wonderfully overwrites with the best of them.
The thing I love most about Barry's approach to the book is how he treats the game itself: Barry doesn't spend time trying to explain exactly what happened. We often lose our place in the game--what inning are we in, exactly? And that's more than okay; in fact, it's very good. For Barry's approach is to use this game as a canvas on which he can paint the lives of human beings, the life of a city, the life of a ballpark itself. At times, the book almost feels like a poor man's The Naked and the Dead, with moments of the action punctuated by moments of life, by anecdotes of individual parts of the game, player and spectator and city and ballpark, much in the same way Mailer interrupts war to tell the stories of the soldiers in his magnificent novel.
But to the parts themselves: There's a young Wade Boggs and Cal Ripkin, Jr. There's the city of Pawtucket, and its strange ballpark, and its larger-than-life politicians. There's the wife convinced her husband's cheating on her, not playing baseball at this god-forsaken hour. There's the father and son who make a pact never to leave early on the night of this game. And then there's Dave Koza, a man who should be remembered as one of the great minor legends of the game, like Ralph Branca or Moonlight Graham. Koza's the hero, and a wonderfully American hero he is.
That, then, is ultimately the end of this book. It's a truism to talk about baseball and America; but cliché has some truth in it, no matter. If you meet a foreigner who wants to understand America, give them the Constitution, the Declaration, the Federalist Papers, Washington's farewell address, Jefferson's letters, Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack, Douglass' Autobiography, Lincoln and Kennedy's inaugural speeches, and Patton's speech to the Third Army. And then, after all that, explain baseball to them, take them to a game, and during the seventh-inning stretch, give them this book. This is America in a nutshell. And what a beautiful thing it is.
The thing I love most about Barry's approach to the book is how he treats the game itself: Barry doesn't spend time trying to explain exactly what happened. We often lose our place in the game--what inning are we in, exactly? And that's more than okay; in fact, it's very good. For Barry's approach is to use this game as a canvas on which he can paint the lives of human beings, the life of a city, the life of a ballpark itself. At times, the book almost feels like a poor man's The Naked and the Dead, with moments of the action punctuated by moments of life, by anecdotes of individual parts of the game, player and spectator and city and ballpark, much in the same way Mailer interrupts war to tell the stories of the soldiers in his magnificent novel.
But to the parts themselves: There's a young Wade Boggs and Cal Ripkin, Jr. There's the city of Pawtucket, and its strange ballpark, and its larger-than-life politicians. There's the wife convinced her husband's cheating on her, not playing baseball at this god-forsaken hour. There's the father and son who make a pact never to leave early on the night of this game. And then there's Dave Koza, a man who should be remembered as one of the great minor legends of the game, like Ralph Branca or Moonlight Graham. Koza's the hero, and a wonderfully American hero he is.
That, then, is ultimately the end of this book. It's a truism to talk about baseball and America; but cliché has some truth in it, no matter. If you meet a foreigner who wants to understand America, give them the Constitution, the Declaration, the Federalist Papers, Washington's farewell address, Jefferson's letters, Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack, Douglass' Autobiography, Lincoln and Kennedy's inaugural speeches, and Patton's speech to the Third Army. And then, after all that, explain baseball to them, take them to a game, and during the seventh-inning stretch, give them this book. This is America in a nutshell. And what a beautiful thing it is.
December 3, 2011
There's an old joke about baseball that goes something like this: "Baseball can technically last forever, and some times it seems like it does." This book is about that joke. It's filled with fascinating anecdotes that made me laugh and feel sadness. But for lovers of baseball, as I am, it was a terrific book to read. It was like baseball sex; heck, it was baseball pornography, and I loved every page of it.
June 24, 2020
Wonderful look at baseball as metaphor for life. Sometimes we engage in activities well past the point of reason or relative importance because, well, that is the human condition. Also a bittersweet look at minor league players' trials and tribulations, high expectations, and hopes fulfilled and dashed.
Highly recommend even to non-baseball fans.
Highly recommend even to non-baseball fans.
February 13, 2014
On April 18th, 1981, the Rochester Red Wings and Pawtucket Red Sox began what would become the longest game ever played in professional baseball. In a 33 inning epic contest featuring two future Hall of Famers, and many more has-beens, each side would refuse to yield, finishing the game, Dan Barry argues, because they were "duty bound" and "loyal" to it.
It was for similar reasons that I finished this book.
Dan Barry uses the game to tell the fascinating stories of a select few men and boys who are forever bound to each other through this one small moment of baseball history. As the life story of each player unfolds, we feel the emotion of their triumphs and frustrations. From the players and umpires on the field, to the youthful batboys in each dugout, and extending even to the dozen or so fans who bravely watch the game into the wee hours of Easter Sunday, Barry's impressive research leaves no detail behind.
Unfortunately, the wealth of information and facts seems more piled together than organized. While the book is divided up by innings (1-9, 10-21, 22-32, 33) there is little discernible order within that structure. As a new players comes to bat, Barry forces us to leave the game for several pages so he can tell us all about this man, only to drop us right back into the game once we've forgotten where we were.
Overall, I found the stories thrilling and well told, but the poor organization of all those details created a confusing read - an impression cemented by the fact that several stories are told more than once. It's sad, really, that such a potentially great book could be undone by a confusing and poor structure, but that is exactly what happens here.
Like a strapping power hitter who can't figure out the curveball, Bottom of the 33rd has all the potential in the world, but will never make it out of AAA.
It was for similar reasons that I finished this book.
Dan Barry uses the game to tell the fascinating stories of a select few men and boys who are forever bound to each other through this one small moment of baseball history. As the life story of each player unfolds, we feel the emotion of their triumphs and frustrations. From the players and umpires on the field, to the youthful batboys in each dugout, and extending even to the dozen or so fans who bravely watch the game into the wee hours of Easter Sunday, Barry's impressive research leaves no detail behind.
Unfortunately, the wealth of information and facts seems more piled together than organized. While the book is divided up by innings (1-9, 10-21, 22-32, 33) there is little discernible order within that structure. As a new players comes to bat, Barry forces us to leave the game for several pages so he can tell us all about this man, only to drop us right back into the game once we've forgotten where we were.
Overall, I found the stories thrilling and well told, but the poor organization of all those details created a confusing read - an impression cemented by the fact that several stories are told more than once. It's sad, really, that such a potentially great book could be undone by a confusing and poor structure, but that is exactly what happens here.
Like a strapping power hitter who can't figure out the curveball, Bottom of the 33rd has all the potential in the world, but will never make it out of AAA.
April 18, 2011
Outstanding book. It is an unrivaled moment in baseball history, the longest game ever played, by an author who captured the essence of the event, the game, the place, and everyone involved in this unique moment in time. Great books transform you into the scene and involves you in such a way that makes you feel like you are there. The author adeptly weaves in the back stories of the people involved in the game - everybody including the spectators, players for both teams, their families, the bat boy, radio announcers, statisticians, et al - with the telling of the story of the game that is seamless and almost effortless in its flow. If you have ever been to a baseball game or watched a baseball game whether it is little league or major league, you know in your heart these are precisely the emotions and conversations and experiences that go on every day. Page turner start to finish. Kind of like the game itself, reading it was like being suspended in time and while I didn't want it to end it does, of course, and getting there was entirely glorious.
I won this book on a goodreads giveaway. It was the game winning grand slam on my scorecard, and now I am putting it rotation for my friends to enjoy.
I won this book on a goodreads giveaway. It was the game winning grand slam on my scorecard, and now I am putting it rotation for my friends to enjoy.
April 20, 2011
Many news reporters love to write about baseball, it has a lot of spaces which they can fill with some creativity. Not something you can do with news stories. Barry lives up to the challenge. He's first a great reporter and next has the story telling abilities to pull this off.
It’s hard for me to describe this book, my fault, not Barry's. The book takes people who have the longest game in the history of professional baseball in common and weaves their stories together. It's a daunting assignment, the people are disparate; failing ballplayers, players on the way to the Hall of Fame, a local guy who forages for ticket stubs, a local kid who's worked his way up to be the clubhouse manager, wives, kids, owners, umpires and on. That's a lot of people to put into 350 pages let alone in context. The story succeeds in telling the stories over 30 years. Its more a story about the characters not the game. And it works.
A brilliant book.
A great baseball book, an amazing story.
It’s hard for me to describe this book, my fault, not Barry's. The book takes people who have the longest game in the history of professional baseball in common and weaves their stories together. It's a daunting assignment, the people are disparate; failing ballplayers, players on the way to the Hall of Fame, a local guy who forages for ticket stubs, a local kid who's worked his way up to be the clubhouse manager, wives, kids, owners, umpires and on. That's a lot of people to put into 350 pages let alone in context. The story succeeds in telling the stories over 30 years. Its more a story about the characters not the game. And it works.
A brilliant book.
A great baseball book, an amazing story.
May 24, 2013
A great book about one very, very, long game. I am hesitant to put anything about the story within as it has many twists, turns, and an ending I wasn't quite expecting. In the end this book will make any person reflect and you will be happy that you read the story. If you like baseball or sports in general then you will find that this story will make you laugh outloud along the way. Oddly enough I feel to be a better person because I read this story. The characters are many, the event worthy of a special tribute at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
Enjoy the book - I sure did!
Enjoy the book - I sure did!
July 30, 2014
This rambling history covers more about the players, staff and spectators of the longest game in baseball history than about the game itself. Each of the stories is interesting, though some needed a smidge more. For me, this was a three star book that never slowed rounding second and slid into third just under the tag - safe. Because I'm a Sox fan and have been to a game at McCoy, add half a star and sacrifice the runner home.
November 16, 2022
I tell ya’ Bob, this book was a nailbiter! This book was an intense, fast-paced journey—a play by play and a deeper look at the longest baseball game in history. I love baseball; it’s one of the most beautiful sports and there’s nothing quite like going to a ballgame. This book took me there, to that cold and frosty Easter morning, feeling the wind against my face and ache of my bones in my frigid bleacher seat as I watched the agonizing back and forth of this seemingly never-ending game. I turned each page with bated breath, hoping one team would finally score, and everyone could go home and get some rest. But this book did even more than just recreate the atmosphere and tension of this game for me. It also provided a personal albeit brief exploration into the lives of each of the players, coaches, and even some of the spectators. By the time this book ended I felt as though I had experienced a snapshot of a pivotal moment in time for so many real, living people who went on to do a number of different things in their lives. Wade Boggs is obviously one of the biggest names in this minor league game, but I was also fascinated by people like Cal Ripken Jr. and Bob Ojeda. The constant tension between the Rochester Red Wings and the Pawtucket Red Socks was thrilling and Barry gave even and equal attention to both teams and their coaches, even giving a look into the people behind the game, who made the game and even the stadium where history took place possible. From start to finish, this book was incredible and if you love baseball, I absolutely recommend it.
May 20, 2017
Combination of audio version on the road and e-version of this book. It recalls the longest game in professional baseball history. The game happen the Saturday before Easter and was finally suspended Easter morning around 4:00am. It picked up a couple months later, and after 33 innings there was finally a winner. There were plenty of interesting characters in this game from Hall of Famers Cal Ripken, Jr and Wade Boggs to players who never got the call like Dave Koza who got the winning hit. The announcers, owners, managers, and even bat boys get side stories.
Dan Berry, the author, does a great job breaking from the action in the game to talk about all the people involved in the game. He finds a number of interesting stories in a wide variety of places that makes this story a very interesting read. Overall any baseball fan should enjoy this book.
Dan Berry, the author, does a great job breaking from the action in the game to talk about all the people involved in the game. He finds a number of interesting stories in a wide variety of places that makes this story a very interesting read. Overall any baseball fan should enjoy this book.
May 18, 2018
The story of the longest game in baseball’s history – 33 innings – because of an editorial fluke. But for the players who would never make it big in the major leagues, it was their consolation ticket to the hall of fame. This is the story of a mystical night that transcended baseball and entered the realm of philosophy. A poem about time, gifted to the world through a game. The experience of reading certainly felt like sitting through 33 innings, but, whether the author’s artistic intent or not, this provided camaraderie with the freezing few who toughed it out in the stands those many years ago. At times, the plethora of characters and quick subject changes were difficult to field. Overall, a melancholy and wistful account of souls who loved a game, confined to the randomness of their circumstances, trying to make it as their abilities, commitment, and vision were thrown into stark relief on this most unlikely of nights. It was a glimpse into the strength and frailty of humans with hope.
April 23, 2020
Great book, particularly if you're a baseball fan, and even if you're not. The author apparently is, as this story is steeped in historical baseball lore that only a total devotee could have the persistence to dig up. What I really liked about it was that Dan Barry not only wrote the book, he narrated it too (it was an audiobook from Hoopla). So with his knowledge of the subject matter, he was able to give just the right inflection and emphasis at the exact right times. Plus, as it is an expansive story of a Boston AAA baseball farm team's record-setting - in length and number of innings - 1981 game, Barry, having a Boston/New England accent (I know - there are lots of variations in the region) was able to make it all seem sincerely true-to-life, as it actually was.
I thoroughly enjoyed this.
I thoroughly enjoyed this.
March 8, 2018
An excellent book about the longest game in baseball history, a minor-league (International League--Triple-A) between the Rochester Red Wings, the Baltimore Orioles' affiliate featuring future Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr.; and the Pawtucket (RI) Red Sox, featuring future Hall of Famer Wade Boggs. The author uses the game's 33 innings--32 played over 8 hours and seven minutes on April 18-19, 1981 and the final inning played in 18 minutes on June 23, 1981 during the major-league baseball strike--to sketch a history of Pawtucket, the ballpark, the players, and the staff. For a baseball fan, a wonderful history of a bygone era.
October 10, 2021
A book about one historic game could be fascinating on its own but the writing is evocative, engaging and heartfelt.
August 23, 2017
How does one write a baseball book about the longest game in professional baseball history without making it boring? How does one make a book about said game without alienating non-baseball fans? This is how: by weaving poignant, touching stories of literally nearly everyone involved in the game. Here is the tale of the clubhouse kid who started as a pre-teen hustling players' laundry down the street to his career as a local police officer. Here is the tale of the unique, self-made wealthy owner who values loyalty and elevates a downtrodden town's downtrodden ballpark and team to notoriety in the world of AAA baseball. Here is the tale of the first baseman and his path from prodigiously talented school age athlete in Wyoming to respected minor league hopeful in Rhode Island to beloved father and grandfather in recovery. This isn't truly a story about a game (and if it were it would be awful); it's one of the best examples of how every one of us has a story, oft untold and frequently fascinating. It's a tale of passion for the game, interpersonal relationships, perseverance, small towns, and-yes-big dreams. Totally worth a read.
June 18, 2024
Listening to the audiobook was key.
February 11, 2016
April 18-19, 1981 - The longest game ever played; played almost all night long; played in the cold April of New England while many were finishing Saturday Passover or getting ready for Easter Sunday.
There are familiar names like Boggs and Ripken. There are names that can be mistaken such as Joe Morgan. There are a host of unknowns that never made it.
Barry gives us the background to the baseball field, the players and (for me as interesting) the support team including everyone from the ball boy to the statistician.
In terms of big names, the game in question features Cal Ripken against Wade Boggs (both future members of the MLB Hall of Fame).
Boggs is also a member of the “most superstitious” hall of fame. According to several sources, he ate chicken before every game, woke up at the same time every day, took exactly 117 ground balls in pre-game practice, took batting practice at 5:17 pm, and ran sprints at 7:17 pm, to increase his chances of "going 7-for-7". His route to and from his position in the field beat a path to the home dugout. He drew the Hebrew word "Chai", meaning "life", in the batter’s box before each at-bat, though he is not Jewish. He asked Fenway Park public address announcer not to say his uniform number when he introduced him because Boggs once broke out of a slump on a day when this guy forgot to announce his number.
Cal Ripkin, Jr. was as dedicated to becoming one of the best. His long hours of batting practice were accepted as something he got from his father, at that time third base coach for the Baltimore Orioles. He was known as “the man of a thousand batting stances,” never settling on one that he would use for very long. It took him a number of years to make it to the “big show,” which makes his consecutive game record all the more impressive.
Baseball is a game of study and reflection. So, maybe the longest game on record is the platform for leisurely reflection on the game called, “America’s pastime.”
You realize from the title that the game goes 33 innings. What Barry does, is to make you feel what it means to play or watch 33 innings. Arguably, the duration is toughest on a catcher. The catcher has to squat almost immobile in the cold wind, except to fire the ball back to the pitcher. Pawtucket’s starting catcher was pulled after 9 innings. After twenty something innings the Rochester coach has been asking his starting catcher, Dave Huppert (a good field, no hit journeyman) if he is “tired and in need of a break. But will the exhausted and hungry Huppert ever acknowledge to his manager that yeah, he’s kind of beat and wouldn’t mind coming out of the game?
“Never
“Because who knows? At some point this season, or next, one last spot may need to be filled on the major-league team’s roster. Or maybe, God forbid, Rick Dempsey gets injured, and the choice for a replacement comes down to Huppert and some other minor leaguer. Let’s say they’re both catchers, with good hands and weak bats. It’s a toss-up, the powers that be are looking for reasons to pick one over the other, and someone says, ‘Remember when Huppert asked out of a game that time?’ No need for anyone to say quitter, or loser. The silence would say it for them, as the power that be move on to the next order of business…”
Barry’s enthusiasm for the side stories of this game is infectious. We learn about the stadium, the new owner, the old owners, the politics of Pawtucket, the “mob” and “business club” influences. We are taken on excursions through many personal stories whose only viable link is that those people were, in some capacity, in that ballpark on that night.
Maybe Barry’s book is only for the true baseball fan. But for those, it is a reading pleasure.
In the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle the next morning, the game story began, "Not since the time they had to shoot the drunken camel at the city zoo has there been this much excitement in Pawtucket.” And that’s the way it was.
There are familiar names like Boggs and Ripken. There are names that can be mistaken such as Joe Morgan. There are a host of unknowns that never made it.
Barry gives us the background to the baseball field, the players and (for me as interesting) the support team including everyone from the ball boy to the statistician.
In terms of big names, the game in question features Cal Ripken against Wade Boggs (both future members of the MLB Hall of Fame).
Boggs is also a member of the “most superstitious” hall of fame. According to several sources, he ate chicken before every game, woke up at the same time every day, took exactly 117 ground balls in pre-game practice, took batting practice at 5:17 pm, and ran sprints at 7:17 pm, to increase his chances of "going 7-for-7". His route to and from his position in the field beat a path to the home dugout. He drew the Hebrew word "Chai", meaning "life", in the batter’s box before each at-bat, though he is not Jewish. He asked Fenway Park public address announcer not to say his uniform number when he introduced him because Boggs once broke out of a slump on a day when this guy forgot to announce his number.
Cal Ripkin, Jr. was as dedicated to becoming one of the best. His long hours of batting practice were accepted as something he got from his father, at that time third base coach for the Baltimore Orioles. He was known as “the man of a thousand batting stances,” never settling on one that he would use for very long. It took him a number of years to make it to the “big show,” which makes his consecutive game record all the more impressive.
Baseball is a game of study and reflection. So, maybe the longest game on record is the platform for leisurely reflection on the game called, “America’s pastime.”
You realize from the title that the game goes 33 innings. What Barry does, is to make you feel what it means to play or watch 33 innings. Arguably, the duration is toughest on a catcher. The catcher has to squat almost immobile in the cold wind, except to fire the ball back to the pitcher. Pawtucket’s starting catcher was pulled after 9 innings. After twenty something innings the Rochester coach has been asking his starting catcher, Dave Huppert (a good field, no hit journeyman) if he is “tired and in need of a break. But will the exhausted and hungry Huppert ever acknowledge to his manager that yeah, he’s kind of beat and wouldn’t mind coming out of the game?
“Never
“Because who knows? At some point this season, or next, one last spot may need to be filled on the major-league team’s roster. Or maybe, God forbid, Rick Dempsey gets injured, and the choice for a replacement comes down to Huppert and some other minor leaguer. Let’s say they’re both catchers, with good hands and weak bats. It’s a toss-up, the powers that be are looking for reasons to pick one over the other, and someone says, ‘Remember when Huppert asked out of a game that time?’ No need for anyone to say quitter, or loser. The silence would say it for them, as the power that be move on to the next order of business…”
Barry’s enthusiasm for the side stories of this game is infectious. We learn about the stadium, the new owner, the old owners, the politics of Pawtucket, the “mob” and “business club” influences. We are taken on excursions through many personal stories whose only viable link is that those people were, in some capacity, in that ballpark on that night.
Maybe Barry’s book is only for the true baseball fan. But for those, it is a reading pleasure.
In the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle the next morning, the game story began, "Not since the time they had to shoot the drunken camel at the city zoo has there been this much excitement in Pawtucket.” And that’s the way it was.
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