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.

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 |
The second game started with the Mets Bill Wakefield going up against Bobby Bolin. Wakefield was hit for two runs in the 1st inning,. A leadoff walk to Harvey Kuenn led to an RBI double by Jesus Alou & then a base hit to Hall of Famer Willie Mays.
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.

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.

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.

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.
Pinch hitter Del Crandall doubled bringing in Davenport. Then Alou added an RBI single to make it 8-6. Bob Hendley closed out the bottom of the 23rd, retiring the Mets in order.
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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