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

[Durham]

I had a very long one on Sat. The two teams used a combined 11 pitchers in an extra inning time fest. I'll share the game time soon, I just want to see what others have had to endure.

[pingswinger]

I had a barn burner that had two rain delays and final score was 24-21. 7 innings took us 4 hours 11 mins.

[RPatrino]

14 innings (7 inning game), 5+ hours. It was a state final game, 4 man crew, I was U3. This was a double elimination game, and I was slated to do the dish in the "if needed" game. Well, the 'if needed' game was needed. SO tack on another 2 hours and 7 innings to an already rather LONG day!!!!

[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.

[mcrowder]

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.

So .. you'll never work a tourney or playoff game?

My worst (although not the longest) was the first game of the morning, 1:15 time limit game that went 2:40 - even with ITB, no one could score. I can't even guess how many innings it went --- 17 or 18 I would guess. 1-0 game. Got far behind on my field, but also on other fields because of it. The trickle down had us adding some 7-8 games to Sunday.

Longest was just over 4 hours - typical 7-inning no-pitch walkathon high school game with no time limit.

[Rich]

I worked a 14-inning plate last year (or maybe 2005) that finished in 4:15. Adult 9-inning wood bat game.

I got hit hard on the plate shoe in the fourth inning and it hurt the rest of the game. Game ended on a walkoff 3-run HR in the bottom of the 14th.

[Justme]

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.

1:45??? I wouldn't have even bothered to post that.

As best I can remember my longest game was just under 4 hours (no rain delay, extra innings) of boring Adult League baseball. My longest HS game was 3:20 (due to rain delay) for 7-innings -- last season.

[briancurtin]

13 innings on the plate -- a touch over 4 hours.

luckily it was a nice sunny day with a decent breeze, towards the end of september i believe. students gave up after 2 hours or so since i dont think anyone saw the last half of the game, which was unusual.

[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.

[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.