What is the longest game you have ever worked? Time and/or innings!

[LomUmp]

Hey all,

Men's adult league, slaughter rule after 7 innings...never made 6....3hrs 25mins...score 31-8 after 4 1/2 innings.

LomUmp

[Durham]

Well I had a 16 inning plate job in MiLB that ended 2-1 that took 3:35 in Lexington, KY, but I had an 11 or 12 inning game on Sat that took 4:41. It ended 7-5 San Jose State over Santa Clara. The worst part was after the game my crew was meeting up with the Stanford/Cal crew that was 35 min down the road at Stanford. We met 3 blocks from the stadium that I worked at and they had the pizza and beer on the table waiting for us. That made me feel like 2 cents, LOL.

[canadaump6]

Originally Posted by uxley11

1 hour 45 minutes. of course I dont work high school. That is the maximum I will everwork a game because at 1:45 I have been told to shut the game down.

The games I do usually have 1 hour 45 minute time limits, or 2 hour time limits, but we are never told to shut the game right down after that time. Rather no new inning may start after the time limit.

[canadaump6]

I had a championship game in which we got five innings done before the rain whiped the game out. We played the sixth inning the next week. One of the coaches was wondering why we didn't get to play the seventh, and it was due to a time limit rule .

[Dave Hensley]

I remember a 15-16 yearold summer league playoff game that started at 7 and went 14 or maybe 15 innings and took us past the 11pm city park curfew. Coaches had to bribe the guy from the city who was there to turn off the lights. Game finished somewhere between 4 and 4 1/2 hours.

[scarolinablue]

Had a Pony League game a couple of years ago that was still tied after the 10th inning (something like 12-12) and 3 hours. The lights, thankfully, were on a timer that automatically turned them off at 10:30 pm. My BU knew the combination to the timer box, but we weren't about to tell the other teams that.

[ptmac]

The longest game? 13 year old game to deterimine which team would represent the province at Canadian Nationals. Game started at 8:30, called by darkeness at 10:59 when lights went out mid 12th inning, resumed next morning at 8:30 and went to 17 innings, finishing at 11:15 am. Final score 7-6. No time limit due to need to play to a winner......All for $25 Canadian (approx $2 USD). A great game, and felt priviledged to be a part of it.

[TxUmp]

I worked a 17 inning game that was tied 2-2 after 7. Each team scored a run in the 9th innning. Each team scored 2 runs in the 13th (?) inning. Finally Shane Lechler (now the Pro Bowl punter for the Oakland Raiders) ended it with a home run in the 17th inning at 1:40 AM.

But the real kicker is that this was the 2nd game of a JV/Varsity doubleheader. We walked on the field at 4:00 PM and finally left at a quarter till two in the morning.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by ptmac

The longest game? 13 year old game to deterimine

Well, that's got me beat. I've never had a game last 13 years.

[PeteBooth]

I was umpiring a Sr. league LL game 4 hours and 45 minutes in the heat.

On the last play of the game, I called a runner out at third base which would have been the potential tying run.

the coach took a couple of steps out of the dugout to talk to me and with sweat pouring all over me I said:

"Skip do not even waste your time" and headed for my car.

Generally speaking stay away from umpiring LL Jr. and even Sr. division games as most of the players are "leftovers" who didn't make the travel or HS teams. The FEE isn't worth it. Terrible baseball if you can even call it baseball.

The mens leagues are next in line. They were getting so bad we were going to refuse to service them unless they put in time limits. In addition to the mercy rule the mens leagues have time limits. 9 innings is a 3 hr time limit and 7 innings is a 2.5 hr time limit. otherwise you could be there all day.

Pete Booth

[Welpe]

Originally Posted by PeteBooth

Generally speaking stay away from umpiring LL Jr. and even Sr. division games as most of the players are "leftovers" who didn't make the travel or HS teams. The FEE isn't worth it. Terrible baseball if you can even call it baseball.

I'm sorry to hear that. The Jr/Sr LL teams where I used to work were pretty good. I have no idea how they are now as I left the area for college 5 years ago.

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by Welpe

I'm sorry to hear that. The Jr/Sr LL teams where I used to work were pretty good. I have no idea how they are now as I left the area for college 5 years ago.

I have found that the quality of Jr/Sr LL baseball varies from area to area. For instance, here in San Diego it is just awful baseball, except for (gonna give a shout out here) Eastlake Jr/Sr, where it is similar to JV, and occasionally Varsity quality.

What I have found is that where there is a PONY baseball program in the same area as a Jr/Sr league, the better players tend to play Pony/Colt rather than Jr/Sr. The leftovers who weren't good enough to play in PONY baseball then opt for Jr/Sr.

In the case of Eastlake, there is no PONY baseball in the immediate area (Chula Vista is the nearest city to Eastlake with PONY baseball), so the talent pool is much larger because of this.

[Welpe]

Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve

What I have found is that where there is a PONY baseball program in the same area as a Jr/Sr league, the better players tend to play Pony/Colt rather than Jr/Sr. The leftovers who weren't good enough to play in PONY baseball then opt for Jr/Sr.

Interesting. I haven't seen much in the way of PONY teams when I was working up in the SF Bay Area. I usually only ran into them at USSSA tournaments. They seemed to be about the caliber as the better local Little League teams.

As a whole PONY doesn't seem to be too popular there.

Whoops....looks like we hijacked this a bit.

[DG]

It is my observation that the best players go to the best run programs where the best competition exists. They don't care if it's Pony or LL or Babe Ruth or whatever.

Portland Beavers vs Salt Lake Bees, 3 hrs, 36 mins.

Went right from that game to do a NAIA game that lasted 3 hrs 15 mins.

It was a LONG day!!!