thependulumswings

Baseball should be in full swing by now.  As you know, it’s not.  And, it’s might be a while before it is.  So, in its absence, inspired by a Super 70’s Sports tweet, we went digging and found box score gold.

It also took a while to complete a regular-season ballgame on July 2nd, 1963 when the San Francisco Giants hosted the Milwaukee Braves (they moved to Atlanta in 1966) at Candlestick Park.  All told the game lasted 4 hours and 10 minutes.   That’s not crazy long by today’s standards, but it was back then.

What took so long?  It was a 16 inning game.  Why didn’t it take longer?  It didn’t take longer because there were zero pitching changes and likely very few trips to the mound.  Additionally, our guess is that very few batters stepped out of the box for very long either.

Loser Warren Spahn’s record dropped to a still sterling 11-4 when his screwball offering was accepted by Willie Mays in the bottom of the 16th.  Mays hit it over the left field fence for a walk-off 1-0 victory.  It was starter Spahn’s 201st pitch!  It also was his 42nd year on earth!

The winning pitcher was Juan Marichal (13-3).  Marichal threw 227 pitches!  Somewhere right now Tommy John’s left elbow is deep in a bucket of ice.

Fifty-nine times a Brewer stepped to the plate.  Eight got hits, four walked, and one reached on an error.  None scored.

Feared hitters Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews from Milwaukee and Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Felipe Alou, and Orlando Cepeda from San Fran went a combined 4-31 before Mays ended it.

San Fran manager Alvin Dark called it “the greatest game he ever saw pitched.”

“I said to myself three times, ‘This will be my last inning’,” a weary Juan Marichal said quietly. “Each time I went out there again.”

Who needs relief pitchers anyway?

If you’re a baseball geek, or if you remember getting your baseball news in the next day’s paper, the boxscore is below.

Take a look.  You’ve got plenty of time on your hands these days.