A few days ago marked the 41st anniversary of what I personally consider to be the single craziest game in the history of Major League Baseball. On July 4th and 5th, 1985, the New York Mets beat the Atlanta Braves 16-13 in 19 innings. Here are some facts and figures that contribute to my argument towards the game’s absolute insanity.
The game didn’t actually start until just after 9 PM, local time, due to rain, pushed back from 7:30. This, on top of a second rain delay in the 3rd inning, contributed to the Fulton County Stadium outfield essentially being a sponge that night.
After Roger McDowell, the Mets’ second pitcher, made two outs in relief of Dwight Gooden after the 3rd resumed, he was pulled for a pinch-hitter and retired to the clubhouse, where he consumed seven cheeseburgers over the course of the rest of the game. (I just think this part is funny!)
There were 4 lead changes and 4 ties, including Dale Murphy’s bases-clearing double in the 8th to give Atlanta an 8-7 lead, which was then countered by Lenny Dykstra’s RBI single off future Hall-of-Fame closer Bruce Sutter in the top of the 9th to send the game to extras.
Mets star first baseman Keith Hernandez hit for the cycle: doubling and scoring in the 1st, hitting a two-run triple and scoring in the 4th, homering to lead off the 8th, and singling in the 12th. However, Hernandez’s feat was a footnote for what was still to come in the game.
Howard Johnson and Terry Harper traded two-out, two-run home runs in the 13th, keeping the game knotted at 10.
In the top of the 17th, with the game now past 3 in the morning, Mets manager Davey Johnson and slugging right fielder Darryl Strawberry were ejected for arguing balls and strikes.
The moment that elevated this game to sheer immortality: In the bottom of the 18th, with two outs, the Mets leading 11-10, and no one left to pinch-hit for the Braves, reliever Rick Camp had to bat for himself. At that point in his career, his cumulative batting average was .060 with no home runs. All he did was hit his first (and only) career home run to re-tie the game. As such, this game is most commonly referred to as the Rick Camp Game.
After the Mets battered Camp around for five runs in the top of the 19th, the Braves weren’t done just yet. Harper cracked a two-run single to make it 16-13 in the bottom of the inning before Ron Darling struck out Camp to end the game.
The finish time was 3:55 AM on July 5th, the latest finish to an MLB game at the time (a mark that stood until 1993). After that, the Braves still elected to set off fireworks after the game, which, unsurprisingly, alarmed the people of Atlanta.
The two teams combined for 29 runs (including 13 in extras!), 46 hits, and 5 errors in 6 hours and 10 minutes of play.
A total of 43 players were used in the game, including 14 pitchers (7 by each team).
17 players collected hits, led by Gary Carter for the Mets and Harper for the Braves, with 5 each.
Quite literally, I don’t think there will ever be another game in baseball’s annals like that, taking into consideration that even though the National League has no curfew (the American League’s is 1:00 AM), there are two other factors that likely prevent such a game from happening again. A: Having a gift runner in scoring position in extras greatly lessens the chance of games running that long (at least in the regular season), and B: With the advent of the universal DH, pitchers don’t have to bat for themselves anymore (unless your name is Shohei Ohtani), and as a result, unless by some miracle, we probably won’t get another Rick Camp moment from a hitting reliever in the foreseeable future.
So there’s my two cents on that. If possible, I’d love to hear about other crazy major league games that you know of.
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