The longest baseball game took 33 innings to win
29 comments
·October 15, 2025ahmedfromtunis
dmurray
> Is there any guide for us non-americans to help us gain enough grasp on the rules to, at least, understand the dynamics of the game?
If you've already read "no matter how many" and don't get it? Then no, you probably can't be helped.
It's not very different conceptually from cricket. One player throws the ball hard, another tries to hit it far away with a bat. If you hit it far enough, you get to run; if you run far enough before the other team throw the ball back, you might score some points. If you keep failing to hit the ball, you will (probabilistically) soon be out. If the other team catches the ball, you're out. If enough players are out, the teams swap sides and the other team gets to try hitting the ball.
The rest is details. You can find them in any of the videos or articles you've already failed to comprehend without this primer.
ta1243
The rules aren't important. What's important is, it's linear. Every time I throw this ball, a hundred different things can happen in a game. He might swing and miss, he might hit it. The point is, you never know. You try to anticipate, set a strategy for all the possibilities as best you can, but in the end it comes down to throwing one pitch after another and seeing what happens. With each new consequence, the game begins to take shape.
gwbas1c
When I used to go to McCoy stadium in the 1990s, their were signs all over the stadium commemorating the game. They even had the score printed on cups.
tclancy
Hung onto one of those cups for a decade or so. No idea where I got it as I was not at that game.
jaskerr
I still have a couple of those commemorative cups. They live in the cupboard, used only occasionally.
grahar64
The longest test cricket match lasted 11days and was called off because one team had to catch a boat home
xupybd
A test cricket match can last for up to five days and is the longest format of the game, with each team having two innings. Each day consists of about 90 overs and typically lasts for 6-7 hours, including lunch and tea breaks.
cbm-vic-20
The stadium where this game was played was recently torn down, as the team ownership and city could not come to an agreement regarding tax incentives, and the team moved away.
jaskerr
It was dumber than that. Governor Raimondo worked out a loan with the Fenway group that bought the franchise that would keep the team in Pawtucket. The speaker of the House wouldn’t let the bill come to a vote, so the deal died. (I don’t remember his name; I do remember he was from West Warwick.)
null
more_corn
After 33 innings can we really say that anyone really won?
supportengineer
The advertisers won.
fred_is_fred
Did you read the article? It was a AAA baseball game in 1981 with about 20 people left in the stands by the end.
adam_patarino
Imagine doing a beer an inning
brudgers
If you are doing that at a normal game, you've got a problem...it might be accepted behavior in your social circle, but you have problem.
nkrisc
That's quite a bit of alcohol to be drinking, but that alone does not make it a "problem". Ill-advised? Sure. But whether it's a "problem" depends on other factors - for example there's a big difference between drinking a can of <5% ABV beer and >9% ABV beer per inning. Drinking too much alcohol one time does not a problem make.
gwbas1c
"drinking a can of <5% ABV beer ... per inning" is binge drinking:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binge_drinking#Definitions
> the term has been described in academic research to mean consuming five or more standard drinks (male), or four or more drinks (female),[12] over a two-hour period.
> Drinking too much alcohol one time does not a problem make
When I was in college, a lot of people would define alcoholism in their heads so that they didn't call themselves alcoholics, when in fact they were exhibiting textbook alcoholism. (Not that I have a perfect past myself.)
Needless to say, "a beer an inning" isn't the kind of behavior that I will publicly glorify; nor will I try to handwave it away as "not a problem."
verdverm
Anyone who can drink a beer per inning is not doing it as a one time thing. If you drink infrequently, you won't be capable of doing this and remaining in a capacity becoming of public places with children around
ksherlock
That's the 9-9-9 challenge - 9 innings, 9 beers, 9 hotdogs.
tclancy
It's the hot dogs that weirds me out.
bluedino
9 beers is a lot but it's not THAT many.
- a drunk
arolihas
A lot of teetotalers here
No matter how many videos or articles I've read, I still can't wrap my head around the rules of baseball.
Is there any guide for us non-americans to help us gain enough grasp on the rules to, at least, understand the dynamics of the game?
Learning the basic of (american) football was much easier. I'm not writing any treaties any time soon, but at least I can follow the games and enjoy the "craftsmanship" of the players.