How long was your longest plate game?

[UMP25]

Upon chatting with a friend of mine the other night, we got to discussing long games, so I thought I'd simply ask how long was your longest plate game--in terms of both innings and hours.

I can start by saying mine was last year. I worked the NJCAA Regionals. We had 3-man crews, two games a day. In my second game of the day in question, I had the dish. My game ended up going 21 innings, 4 1/2 hours. It was then that I finally accepted reality: as much as I like the look of the Gerry Davis Plate Shoes, they're God-awful heavy!

My dogs were barking something fierce after that day!

[mattmets]

Only 11 innings, but I had a 9 inning game go 4:10 in 105 degree weather last year.

[johnnyg08]

this didn't apply to me...but my buddy worked a 26 inning amateur baseball game in Minnesota a couple years ago...

[Justme]

Originally Posted by UMP25

Upon chatting with a friend of mine the other night, we got to discussing long games, so I thought I'd simply ask how long was your longest plate game--in terms of both innings and hours.

I can start by saying mine was last year. I worked the NJCAA Regionals. We had 3-man crews, two games a day. In my second game of the day in question, I had the dish. My game ended up going 21 innings, 4 1/2 hours. It was then that I finally accepted reality: as much as I like the look of the Gerry Davis Plate Shoes, they're God-awful heavy!

My dogs were barking something fierce after that day!

4 1/2 hours.....that's a long game but not for a 21 inning game. I've had "ugly" 9-inning games go over 3 hours. My longest game was about 4 hours (without rain or other delays) as best I remember.

[shickenbottom]

This was a HS JV game. 3 hrs 10 min for 6 & 1/2 innings. Final score Home 23, visiting 14. Game was scheduled for two man, but ended up being one man, me on the dish. # of walks issued in the game was 3, # of strike outs was 5, # of errors - I lost count after the 1st inning.

The first inning was the doozie. Top of 1st goes three up / three down in 5 min, bottom of 1st goes 26 batters, 19 runs, bases loaded, and finally the 3rd out occurs - 55 min later.

Yes, there was a 10 run rule in effect after 4 & 1/2 or 5 innings, however, the home team let the visiting team score 11 runs over the next couple of innings, eliminating the 10 run rule at any point. Each team scores a few other runs later on to get to the final score.

Talk about a nightmare.

[bossman72]

Originally Posted by johnnyg08

this didn't apply to me...but my buddy worked a 26 inning amateur baseball game in Minnesota a couple years ago...

haha this HAD to have been a noon weekend game or else you wouldn't have got it in! (unless you had lights)

[lawump]

High School Varsity game (between 2 solid programs that regularly make the playoffs):

Started at 7 p.m. Ended at 11:35. 7 full innings. 24-18.

The wind was blowing up to 30 mph or so, straight out. Routine pop-ups sailed to the outfield. Routine fly balls were long gone. Had a lot of homeruns.

The worse part was that after the top of the first, it was 8-0 and I was sure we were in for a mercy rule game. (sigh).

Long, long night. Had to restrict one coach who argued that I didn't call an infield fly quickly enough. I tried to explain that I, as umpire, "am allowed to take the wind into consideration when determining if we have an infield fly, and that while I did call it a little later than normal because of that, I still called it well before your runner decided to run and get doubled off of third." (sigh).

Happy memories.

[jkumpire]

This doesn't exactly fit the situation, but:

I once had a legion DH (2-7's) on a Saturday afternoon when the temp was 90+ deg and 100% humidity, the DH started at 1 PM. We get to 1 P.M. and I have no partner, so they pull some guy out of the stands to umpire. The game goes 15 innings, and 3 1/2 hours. The guy from the stands bails out after 9, so they get a new guy. this is in the days before everyone had a cell phone, so nobody called.

After a break, still no partner, and the second volunteer left, so they found a third guy. The second game goes 9 innings, and one side had a kid who learned from the Nieko brothers how to throw the knuckleball (he was a distant relative or something). By the time I go to the 7th inning of the second game, I was calling the middle one of about 3 of the knucklers I saw every pitch.

I called my assigner after I got home and complained. he said my partner had called 2 hours before the DH and cancelled.

I also had a BR state tourament game go 4 1/2 hours several years ago. The game went 14 innings, and I was at 1B in a 4 man crew when a throw took the 1B right into the running lane as the BR is coming to the 1B bag. It was bang, bang, and a huge, huge collision. Both kids had concussions, one of them was out cold and had a grade 2 concussion, the other broke bones in his arm, which necessitated a 45 minute delay for an ambulance and paramedics. I was 18' from a train wreck, and I still get sick when I think about that play, there was nothing you can do and you knew something bad was going to happen when that throw went inside the lane. The tying run also scored on the play.

[lawump]

Originally Posted by jkumpire

I also had a BR state tourament game go 4 1/2 hours several years ago. The game went 14 innings, and I was at 1B in a 4 man crew when a throw took the 1B right into the running lane as the BR is coming to the 1B bag.

See, like I implied on another active thread on this board: Bad things come to those who umpire 14 inning games!

[budjones05]

My longest game was this summer. I had a Legion Tourment and I had the dish. I had a very good pitch who can locate his pitches good for a 15 year old. The other team I guess just learn how to play baseball because they could barely get the ball over the plate. When they walked, they balked. When they throw a good pitch, it was going over the fence. It was 21-0 after 1! The other coach puts in his 2nd team. Another hit fest. 35-0. Coach puts in his 4th team, 40-0. Now this coach is like me and he just tells his players to just bunt the ball. The other team couldn't field. The next 3 batters reach base on errors and they were jogging down the line. Next inning, I pretty much called anything that crossed the plate. The other team coach (who was losing) decides to question my strike zone. I ended up ejecting him for using those magic words. After the game, 4 hours later, the coach comes up to me and says, "Thanks for throwing me out, I wanted to hear the card's game."

[johnnyg08]

Originally Posted by bossman72

haha this HAD to have been a noon weekend game or else you wouldn't have got it in! (unless you had lights)

bossman...it was both...the game was about 8 hours long...started at 1 PM Central...at the start of the game there were about 30 people in attendance, by the end of the game there was well over 200 people there...that called for for concessions to make several more runs to get more beer...that game was one of the longest in Minnesota amateur baseball history.