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Bob Hendley retired the New York Mets in order in the bottom of the 23rd inning to close out San Francisco's 8-6 victory in the second game of a doubleheader May 31, 1964, at New York's Shea Stadium.
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By Phil Ellenbecker
Bob Hendley is best known as the hard-luck pitcher who threw a one-hitter for the Chicago Cubs against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sept. 9, 1965. It was definitely the best performance of his seven-year major league career, in which he had a 48-52 record.
Unfortunately, Hendley's stellar outing went for naught, as that same night Sandy Koufax pitched his fourth no-hitter and first perfect game in a 1-0 L.A. victory.
Hendley was perfect May 31, 1964, not nearly as perfect in length of service as Koufax, but perfect enough to bring an end to a seemingly endless day and night of baseball at New York's newly opened Shea Stadium.
Hendley pitched a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts, allowing his San Francisco Giants to emerge with an 8-6 victory over the New York Mets, in a 23-inning odyssey that capped the sweep of a doubleheader that had started at 1:05 p.m. San Francisco won the first game 5-3. No word on how many were there in the 23rd inning of the second game, but 57,037 had shown up at the beginning of the opener for what would be the largest crowd in the major leagues this season.
The total playing time for the twin bill was 9 hours, 52 minutes; the record still stands.
The two teams were tied 6-6 at the end of nine innings in the nightcap, then fought to a standstill through 13 more innings before the Giants finally broke through in the top of the 23rd.
The Giants, who'd failed to capitalize on several opportunities in the opening innings of overtime, finally cashed in when Del Crandall, pinch hitting for pitcher Gaylord Perry, knocked a ground-rule double to right field off Galen Cisco to drive in Jim Davenport. Davenport had tripled to the right-field corner with two out. Crandall, picked up along with Hendley and Bob Shaw in a December trade after 13 years with the Braves, came up after Cap Peterson was intentionally walked.
San Francisco's two-out rally continued when Jesus Alou beat out a roller to second baseman Amado Samuel for a single, scoring Crandall. The Mets got out of the inning on Willie Mays' fielder's choice grounder.
Unfortunately, Hendley's stellar outing went for naught, as that same night Sandy Koufax pitched his fourth no-hitter and first perfect game in a 1-0 L.A. victory.
Hendley was perfect May 31, 1964, not nearly as perfect in length of service as Koufax, but perfect enough to bring an end to a seemingly endless day and night of baseball at New York's newly opened Shea Stadium.
Hendley pitched a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts, allowing his San Francisco Giants to emerge with an 8-6 victory over the New York Mets, in a 23-inning odyssey that capped the sweep of a doubleheader that had started at 1:05 p.m. San Francisco won the first game 5-3. No word on how many were there in the 23rd inning of the second game, but 57,037 had shown up at the beginning of the opener for what would be the largest crowd in the major leagues this season.
The total playing time for the twin bill was 9 hours, 52 minutes; the record still stands.
The two teams were tied 6-6 at the end of nine innings in the nightcap, then fought to a standstill through 13 more innings before the Giants finally broke through in the top of the 23rd.
The Giants, who'd failed to capitalize on several opportunities in the opening innings of overtime, finally cashed in when Del Crandall, pinch hitting for pitcher Gaylord Perry, knocked a ground-rule double to right field off Galen Cisco to drive in Jim Davenport. Davenport had tripled to the right-field corner with two out. Crandall, picked up along with Hendley and Bob Shaw in a December trade after 13 years with the Braves, came up after Cap Peterson was intentionally walked.
San Francisco's two-out rally continued when Jesus Alou beat out a roller to second baseman Amado Samuel for a single, scoring Crandall. The Mets got out of the inning on Willie Mays' fielder's choice grounder.
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| Willie Mays, considered by many to be the greatest center fielder of all time, spent |
That made the Giants legend 1-for-10 in a game that started for him with an RBI single three batters in. It was one of many ironies and twists and turns in the marathon that also saw Mays move to shortstop for the second and last time in his career. It also saws Mays as the victim at the tail end of a triple play, and he came just shy of making a homer-saving catch that could have prevented the game from going into extra innings. More on these developments to come.
Getting back to the bottom of the 23rd, the Mets couldn't make much of their last chance. After Hendley came on for Perry, he struck out Chris Cannizzaro and John Stephenson, who was batting for Cisco. Samuel flied out to Alou in right, and the teams could head to long-awaited showers after a game that lasted 7 hours, 23 minutes, becoming the longest ever, in terms of time, in the history of the major leagues.
When he recorded out No. 3 in the bottom half of the 23rd for out No. 138 of the game, it was the eighth putout in the game for Alou, who also had a key 13th-inning assist.
The Giants and Mets played 15 straight scoreless innings after the Mets had tied the game 6-6 in the seventh. But before the strand of goose eggs, there had been a fair share of offense, and the Giants appeared headed toward a comfortable victory with a 6-3 lead.
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| Joe Christopher slugged a three-run homer for the New York Mets to tie the San Francisco Giants at 6-6 in the seventh inning in the second game of a doubleheader May 31, 1964. The Giants emerged with an 8-6 victory 16 innings later. |
Joe Christopher made it a brand new ballgame, and eventually almost two more games on top of that, with a three-run homer with two out in the bottom of the seventh off Bobby Bolin. It came on a 3-0 pitch and cleared the center-field wall at 410 feet. It was the third homer in a year that Christopher had 16, 10 more than he had in any other season of his seven-year major league career.
Christopher got enough behind it to overcome the best efforts at a catch by perhaps the greatest defensive center fielder of all time.
"Mays leaped against the wall and, with his glove extended, grabbed at the ball as it was leaving the field," Alan Cohen wrote for the Society for American Baseball Research's Games Project. "He came to the ground with his glove high in the air, signifying for all to see that he had caught the ball.
"There was one thing wrong, however. There was no ball in the glove."
The Giants were 90 feet away from going ahead in the first extra inning when Tom Haller tripled with two out in the top of the 10th against Larry Bearnarth. After a walk to Chuck Hiller, Jesus' brother Matty Alou grounded out. Alou was pinch hitting for Jim Hart.
(A third Alou brother with the Giants, Felipe, had been traded to Milwaukee in the deal that netted Crandall, Shaw and Hendley).
San Francisco continued to threaten the next two innings but came away empty with runners at first and third and one out in the 11th, and at first and second with two out in the 12th. Orlando Cepeda led off the 12th with a double, but as he was trying to advance to third on a grounder, he was tagged out by shortstop Roy McMillan, who'd grabbed the ball behind Cepeda.
McMillan would be heard from again on defense two innings later, but in the meantime he tried to mount a two-out rally in the 13th when he singled to right after a single by Samuel. But Jesus Alou cut down Samuel trying to advance to third.
Again, the Giants were knocking on the door in the 14th when Jesus Alou singled and Mays walked. With some speed on the bases, Giants manager Alvin Dark called for a hit-and-run play with Cepeda at bat.
San Francisco continued to threaten the next two innings but came away empty with runners at first and third and one out in the 11th, and at first and second with two out in the 12th. Orlando Cepeda led off the 12th with a double, but as he was trying to advance to third on a grounder, he was tagged out by shortstop Roy McMillan, who'd grabbed the ball behind Cepeda.
McMillan would be heard from again on defense two innings later, but in the meantime he tried to mount a two-out rally in the 13th when he singled to right after a single by Samuel. But Jesus Alou cut down Samuel trying to advance to third.
Again, the Giants were knocking on the door in the 14th when Jesus Alou singled and Mays walked. With some speed on the bases, Giants manager Alvin Dark called for a hit-and-run play with Cepeda at bat.
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| New York Mets shortstop Roy McMillan turned a triple play in the 14th inning of the second game of a doubleheader with San Francisco on May 31, 1964. It was one of five triple plays McMillan was part of in his 16-year career. |
But the Mets brought an abrupt end to the inning when Cepeda lined out to McMillan, who then turned a triple play by tagging second to get Alou and relaying to Ed Kranepool at first base to catch the advancing Mays. McMillan had raced to cover second on the play and happened to be in the right spot to flag down Cepeda's shot up the middle.
It was the fourth of five triple plays McMillan was a part of in his 16-year career. The three-time Gold Glove winner started two of them, was the middle man on two and got the third out on his fifth.
So Cepeda was involved in two keys plays that resulted in five outs courtesy of the pesky McMillan.
Of McMillan's defensive wizardry in this game, Dark, himself a former standout shortstop, called it "one of the greatest pieces of shortstopping" he'd ever seen.
After the 14th the game settled into pitcher's duel between Perry, who'd entered in the 13th inning, and Cisco, who came on in the 15th.
The Giants got Haller to third but no farther in the 15th, and after that Cisco faced the minimum 18 batters in the 16th through 21st, retiring 13 straight at one point. He was helped in the 20th when Christopher caught Hiller's fly in right and doubled Haller off first for an inning-ending double play.
That meant Haller had to go out and catch another inning in a game in which he caught all 23. (Crandall caught the first game.)
After Jesus Alou got him out of the 13th, Perry allowed only two Mets to reach scoring position before he was hit for in the 23rd.
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| Gaylord Perry was the winning pitcher for San Francisco in the Giants' 8-6 win over the New York Mets in 23 innings on May 31, 1964. He threw 10 shutout innings. He revealed in his autobiography that this was the first game in which he threw his infamous spitter. |
Perry, in the third year of his 22-year Hall of Fame career and not yet a full-time starter, emerged as the winning pitcher and improved to 3-1. He pitched 10 shutout innings, allowing seven hits while striking out nine and walking one. His strikeouts were a year high and career high. (He eventually had 14 games of 12 or more Ks, led by a game of 15 in 1966.)
What made the outing even more notable and even historic for Perry was the new weapon he unveiled.
“They saw Gaylord Perry throw a spitter under pressure for the first, but hardly the last, time in his career," Perry said of the game in his autobiography, "Me and the Spitter."
With Perry's and Hendley's 11 Ks on top of those previously by Bolin, Shaw and Ron Herbel, the Giants totaled 22 strikeouts for the game, breaking the record for an extra-inning game set by the Phillies against the Pirates in a 14-inning win in 1958 and tied by Washington's Tom Cheney all by himself in a 16-inning complete game win in 1962.
Cisco, who had a relatively undistinguished seven-year career but later gained repute as a pitching coach, had eight shutout innings of his own before giving up the two deciding runs in the 23rd. He got the loss and fell to 2-5. His final line read nine innings, five hits, two runs both earned, two walks and five Ks.
The Giants began and ended with a bang.
Harvey Kuenn drew a walk from Bill Wakefield leading off the game and scored on Jesus Alou's double. Mays then made it 2-0 with a single that plated Alou. The Mets cut into the margin when Cannizzaro singled off Bolin to drive in Jim Hickman in the second.
San Francisco then erupted for four runs in the third to build a 6-1 advantage, capitalizing on moves by Mets manager Casey Stengel. "The Old Perfessor," in his third year with the Mets after getting fired by the New York Yankees, pinch hit for Wakefield after the Mets had scored in the second, on Wakefield's first turn up. Stengel, who'd led the Yankees to 10 pennants and seven World Series titles, then had pitcher Al Jackson pinch run for George Altman after he'd walked while batting for Wakefield.
Stengel replaced Jackson, who'd started and lost the first game, with Craig Anderson, who gave up singles to four of the five batters he faced. The last two hits, by Haller and Chuck Hiller, drove in Mays and Cepeda.
Stengel then called on Tom Sturdivant, who'd pitched for him in New York from 1955 to 1959. The singles dance continued with hits by Hart and Bolin plating Haller and Hiller for the 6-1 lead.
The Mets hit the comeback trail in the sixth when Kranepool tripled to drive in Frank Thomas, and Charley Smith singled in Kranepool to make it 6-3.
As an example of what a long day this was, Kranepool doubled and singled after his triple to make him 3-for-5 in the regulation nine innings. He finished the game 3-for-10.
Kranepool, a Bronx native, had just been called up to the Mets from their Buffalo farm team, beginning an 18-year career, all with Shea as his home stadium.
Weird player shuffling ensued after Dark had Willie McCovey hit for starting shortstop Gil Garrido in the eighth. McCovey struck out and was replaced in the field at shortstop by Jim Davenport. So future Hall of Famer McCovey, who'd sat out the first game, ended up seeing one plate appearance in 32 innings on the day.
(The Giants at this time struggled with finding room for both McCovey and Cepeda, himself a future Cooperstown enshrinee, as both were first basemen. For several years San Francisco would have one or the other play the outfield to get both their big bats in the lineup, but not on this day. McCovey's absence may be explained by the fact that this year he was battling "a painful and mysterious ailment to the sole of his left foot," as described in his SABR biography. He'd sat the Giants' game May 30, but was in the lineup the next time they played June 2, and May 29.)
Davenport, normally a third baseman, was back in his regular spot in the 10th when Mays moved from center to short. May went back to center and Davenport back to short in the 13th. (Mays played shortstop for one inning in a 1963 game in his only other action at that position. He had no chances in either of the games he played at shortstop.)
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| The Alou brothers, from left, Jesus, Matty and Felipe, when they were San Francisco Giants teammates in the early 1960s. Jesus Alou went 4-for-10, drove in an insurance run, made eight putouts in right field and had a key assist in an 8-6, 23-inning victory over the New York Mets on May 31, 1964. |
With all his activity in the field along with a strong showing at the plate, Jesus Alou might have deserved player of the game honors. He went 4-for-10 with two RBIs and a run scored. Haller also went 4-for-10, while Cepeda was 3-for-9.
Christopher had the top batting numbers in the game, going 4-for-10 with three RBIs and two runs for the Mets, who outhit the Giants 20-17. Smith went 4-for-9, Kranepool as noted 3-for-10. McMillan, Hickman and Thomas were each 2-for-10.
Included among all the comings and goings was the ejection of Dark for arguing a balls-and-strikes call in the 15th. Home-plate umpire Ed Sudol could be excused for being a little testy by this time. Someone had forgotten to bring food to the umpires’ quarters between games.
The Mets used 21 players in the game, the Giants 20.
What's my score?
According to a fan's recollection at ultimatemets.com, "The game lasted so long that it was still going on when the TV show 'What's My Line?' came on at 10:30. Host John Daly said on the air that he had been watching the game and talked about how incredible it was. Daly always had a few opening comments to start his show before bringing out his first guest. But his choice of words here turned out to be taboo."After Daly mentioned the Mets and Giants, those in the NYC viewing area switched channels to what John had been watching. Instead of tuning in to a panel of celebrities try to guess people's lines of work, the 'What's My Line' viewers became instant baseball fans. The innocent comments from the host himself dropped the ratings of his own show!"
Starving for a run
The umpires weren't the only ones going hungry in the latter stages of the second game."I was 14 at the time, and went to the game with my father," a fan reminisced at ultimatemets.com. "I remember that there was no food left and everyone was hungry. Instead of chanting "Let's Go Mets," we were chanting "Let's Go Home." I made my dad stay till the very end!"
Seventh-inning stre-t-c-h
Another fan recalled a Mets announcer saying about the 20th inning that boothmate Ralph Kiner had gone downstairs in the seventh inning to prepare for his "Kiner's Korner" postgame show, "and he's been waiting for the game to end ever since."In for the long call
To add to all the how about thats? from this game, how about this?: Sudol behind the plate, among the umpires going hungry in this game, was just getting warmed up.
Sudol was behind the plate for two more games in his 21-year career that went even longer, and like this one, they involved the Mets.
Sudol was calling balls and strikes April 15, 1968, when the Houston Astros beat New York 1-0 at the Astrodome in 24 innings. And he was there again when the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Mets 4-3 in 25 innings on Sept. 11, 1974.
After all three games, you can be sure, not only were the Mets beat, but so was Sudol.
Sources:
Play-by-play: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1964/B05312NYN1964.htm, https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN196405312.shtml and https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/may-31-1964-baseballs-longest-doubleheaderMore on the game: http://passion4baseball.blogspot.com/2011/05/day-willie-mays-played-shortstop.html
Fan recollections: http://ultimatemets.com/oppteams.php?ThisTeam=09&tabno=G
Audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqk1HtQ9mqQ
Additional background came from various sources on the Retrosheet and Society for American Baseball Research's Biography Project and Games Project websites, as well as baseballreference.com
Roy McMillan's triple plays
Date Team Opp. Batter Play Players6-27-52 Cincinnati Chicago Edwards 6U-3 McMillan, Adcock
8-30-53 Cincinnati Philadelphia Hamner 4-6-3 Bridges, McMillan, Kluszewski
6-11-57 Cincinnati Pittsburgh Pendelton 4-6-3 Temple, McMillan, Crowe
5-31-64 New York Mets San Francisco Cepeda 6U-3 McMillan, Kranepool
4-15-65 New York Mets Houston Wynn 9-2-6 Lewis, Cannizzaro, McMillan
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