The 25-Inning Game
On September 11, 1974, the Cardinals and Mets played 25 innings at Shea Stadium. The game lasted 7 hours and 4 minutes and ended at 3:13 AM. The era of the all-night baseball game is over.
On September 11, 1974, the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets played a game that lasted 25 innings and 7 hours and 4 minutes at Shea Stadium. It was the longest night game by innings in National League history at the time.
The Mets led 3-1 going into the ninth. The Cardinals tied it. Both teams went scoreless through the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, and 24th innings. Bake McBride finally ended it with an RBI single in the top of the 25th. The Cardinals won 4-3 at 3:13 AM.
Both teams exhausted their rosters. The Mets used all of their catchers. By the late innings, position players were pitching and pitchers were playing the outfield. The Cardinals used pitcher Hank Webb as a pinch-runner. The Mets' Jerry Koosman, a starting pitcher, came in to pitch three innings of relief.
Of the 13,000 fans who showed up for the game, roughly 1,000 were still in the stadium when it ended. Those who stayed witnessed something that is increasingly impossible in modern baseball. The pitch clock, bullpen specialization, and roster management rules have made marathon games a near-extinct species. The last 25-inning game in the majors was in 1984. No game has gone past 19 innings since 2019. The era of the all-night baseball game is over. The Cardinals and Mets played one of the last great ones.