It was a day to go down in the history books, as this was to be the longest double header in baseball history. The double header lasted a total of nine hours fifty two minutes.
The first game was a breeze, as the Giants behind Hall of Famer; Juan Marichal lasting just two hours & twenty nine minutes. The Giants beat the Mets & pitcher Al Jackson, 5-3 in nine innings. Night Cap:
Starting Lineups
| San Francisco Giants | New York Mets | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harvey Kuenn | LF | 1 | Rod Kanehl | 2B | |
| 2 | Jesus Alou | RF | 2 | Roy McMillan | SS | |
| 3 | Willie Mays | CF | 3 | Frank Thomas | LF | |
| 4 | Orlando Cepeda | 1B | 4 | Joe Christopher | RF | |
| 5 | Tom Haller | C | 5 | Ed Kranepool | 1B | |
| 6 | Chuck Hiller | 2B | 6 | Jim Hickman | CF | |
| 7 | Jim Ray Hart | 3B | 7 | Charley Smith | 3B | |
| 8 | Gil Garrido | SS | 8 | Chris Cannizzaro | C | |
| 9 | Bobby Bolin | P | 9 | Bill Wakefield | P |
Wakefield was removed by Mets skipper; Casey Stengel after just two innings. In the 3rd the Giants hit six singles & scored four more times off pitchers; Craig Anderson & Tom Sturdivant. Tom Haller, Chuck Hiller, Jim Ray Hart & Bob Bolin all delivered RBIs.
The Mets had scored a run on catcher Cris Cannizzaro's single in the 2nd & were down 6-1 in the 6th inning. Joe Christopher singled & up came a young twenty year old Ed Kranepool.
Kranepool was an original Met, the teams first bonus baby, home grown out of the Soundview section of the Bronx. The youngster had just arrived after being called up from the minors, where he just played in both games of a double header the day before. Kranepool was in for a long day, as he would play in both games of this doubleheader, all 32 innings. In this at bat he tripled, bringing in a run & then scored on Charlie Smith's base hit making it 6-3 Giants.
In the 7th; the Mets Joe Christopher hit a three run HR to tie the game, all of a sudden making this an exciting ball game. It was just the start.
The Giants would send three future Mets; Ken MacKenzie, Bob Shaw & Ron Herbel to the mound through the 11th inning. It was then Gaylord Perry, the future Hall of Famer came in to pitch an incredible ten innings of relief. He allowed no earned runs on seven hits with one walk & nine strike outs.After the first three Mets pitchers, Frank Lary pitched two scoreless innings. Then Larry Bearnarth threw seven shut out innings, allowing just three hits with four strike outs. Galen Cisco came on in the 15th inning, pitching another nine innings & would eventually take the loss.
Triple Play: In the 14th inning, Jesus Alou singled & Willie Mays walked. Orlando Cepeda hit a hard line drive up the middle, but Mets short stop; Roy McMillan snagged it, stepped on second to get Alou & threw to first to nail Mays for the triple play. The excitement continued.The game rolled along as one of the longest ever in baseball history, entering its 23d inning. With one out the Giants got a triple from Jim Davenport & an intentional walk to Craig Peterson.
The game is still not the longest for the Mets, they would play a 25 inning game on September 11th 1974 & a 24 inning game on April 15th 1968. The game ranks as the 8th longest game to play in baseball history.A total of 41 players were used in the game, with New York using 21 of them. Both teams used six pitchers each.
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| Umpire Ed Sudol |
Trivia: This game was the first extra inning contest at Shea Stadium which had just opened up in April 1964, two months earlier.
Trivia: New Jersey born Umpire Ed Sudol, was the home plate umpire for this game & strangely enough, was the home plate umpire for all three of the Mets longest games mentioned above.
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