The Main Event
- July 21, 1945 – The Philadelphia A’s and Detroit Tigers play a record-setting 24-inning, 1-1 tie; Detroit’s Les Mueller pitches 19⅔ innings, still tied for the longest game in AL/Athletics history.
On a steamy Saturday afternoon at Shibe Park, the Philadelphia Athletics and Detroit Tigers played a game that outlasted the daylight itself. What began at 3:00 p.m. as a routine tilt between two second-division clubs turned into a 24-inning war of attrition, finally called on account of darkness at 7:48 p.m. with the score frozen at 1-1. Home plate umpire Bill Summers had no choice — American League rules at the time barred flipping on the lights for a game that started in daylight, even at a park like Shibe that had them installed.
The story of the day belonged to Tigers rookie Les Mueller, a 26-year-old sidearmer freshly discharged from the Army who was making just his ninth start of the season. Mueller worked an almost unthinkable 19⅔ innings, allowing only a single unearned run on 13 hits while striking out six. It remains the longest outing by any major league pitcher since 1930, and nothing has come remotely close since — the closest modern comparison, Vern Law‘s 18-inning start for Pittsburgh a decade later, still fell short. When Detroit manager Steve O’Neill finally lifted him for Dizzy Trout in the 20th, Mueller reportedly asked, “Gee, Steve, the game isn’t over, is it?”
His counterpart, Athletics ace Russ Christopher, matched him for 13 innings before handing off to 41-year-old knuckleballer Joe Berry, who tossed 11 shutout innings of his own. Between them, only two pitchers apiece worked the entire 24-inning affair — a workload that would be unthinkable under today’s bullpen usage. The Athletics scored their lone run in the fourth on a Buddy Rosar single, and neither team crossed the plate again across the game’s final 20 innings.
A’s History Repeating Itself
What makes this game especially fitting for Athletics history is that it wasn’t even the franchise’s longest game — it was tied for it. Thirty-nine years earlier, on September 1, 1906, a young A’s rookie named Jack Coombs pitched all 24 innings of a game against the Boston Americans (soon to be the Red Sox), beating them 4-1 while striking out 18 and scattering 15 hits. Coombs, fresh out of Colby College, had made his major league debut less than two months earlier. His opposite number, Boston’s Joe Harris, also went the distance — a full 24-inning complete game for each pitcher, still regarded as one of the great pitching feats in AL history. The 1945 game matched that 24-inning length but ended in a tie rather than a decision, giving Philadelphia’s American League franchise two entries at the very top of the innings-played ledger, separated by nearly four decades.
The Phillies’ Own Marathon History
Across town, the Phillies have their own catalog of long, grinding games, though none stretch quite as far as 24 innings. The franchise record belongs to a 21-inning, 2-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs on July 17, 1918, in which Phillies right-hander Watson went the distance opposite Chicago’s Lefty Tyler in a scoreless — and, remarkably, errorless — marathon broken only by a 13th-inning rally.
A year later, on April 30, 1919, Phillies pitcher Joe Oeschger authored one of the most grueling outings in franchise history, throwing all 20 innings of a wild 9-9 tie against Brooklyn, allowing 24 hits along the way. Oeschger had already thrown 14 complete innings of a scoreless tie in 1917, and the following year, pitching for the Boston Braves, he’d go on to throw all 26 innings of the longest game in major league history. He remains one of the most durable arms to ever wear a Phillies uniform.
In the modern era, the Phillies’ longest games have been shorter in innings but no less memorable. In 2011, utility infielder Wilson Valdez became an accidental folk hero by picking up the win in a 19-inning, 5-4 victory over Cincinnati that ran past 1 a.m. Two years later, in 2013, the Phillies were on the other end of a marathon, falling to Arizona 12-7 in an 18-inning, seven-hour affair that remains the longest game in Diamondbacks history and one of the longest by time in Phillies history. And for pure nine-inning length, the Phillies’ 17-5 rout of Pittsburgh on July 6, 2018 — a four-hour, thirty-minute slog — still stands as the longest nine-inning game in franchise history.
A Record Built to Last
Eighty-one years later, Mueller’s 19⅔ innings and the Coombs-Christopher-Berry marathon still anchor the top of the American League and Athletics record books. Between shrinking pitch counts, six-man bullpens, and modern injury-prevention philosophy, it’s safe to say no pitcher will ever again be asked to do what Les Mueller did on that sweltering afternoon in Philadelphia.
Philadelphia Baseball Events for July 21
- July 21, 1923 – The Phils score 12 runs in the sixth inning vs. the Cubs — a team record that stood 80 years.
- July 21, 1960 – Robin Roberts throws his third career one-hitter, 3-0 over the Giants.
- July 21, 1964 – Released Cal McLish who had been acquired prior to the 1962 season. Went 24-17 with a 3.68 ERA in his time in Philadelphia.
- July 21, 1973 – Ken Brett gives up Hank Aaron‘s 700th career HR; Phils win anyway, 8-4.
- July 21, 1980 – Steve Carlton‘s first of two Sports Illustrated covers that year.
- July 21, 1991 – Signed minor-league free agent Ricky Bottalico, would pitch seven seasons with the Phillies in two different stints.
- July 21, 1997 – Traded Darren Daulton to Florida for Billy McMillon, who hit .292 in 24 games with the ’97 Phillies.
- July 21, 2007 – Jack Russell Stadium, the spring training home of the Phillies from 1955-2003 was demolished.
- July 21, 2010 – Lost Nelson Figueroa – 6-6, 2.83 in two seasons with the Phillies – on waivers to Houston.
- July 21, 2012 – Tim McCarver receives the Ford Frick Award.
- July 21, 2013 – Shane Victorino gets his 1,000th career hit and becomes the first Hawaii-born player to reach that milestone.
- July 21, 2015 – Aaron Nola makes his MLB debut vs. Tampa Bay at the age of 22. He throws six innings, allows five hits, 1 earned run, 1 walk, and struck out six, but suffered the loss.
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Philadelphia Baseball Birthdays for July 21
- Wally Clement (born 1981) – An outfielder who played in 19 games for the 1908 and 1909 Phillies, batting just .208 with no home runs and one RBI.
- Johnny Evers (1881) – A Hall of Fame second baseman, who was part of the storied Tinkers to Evers to Chance infield of the Chicago Cubs, who are known for perfecting the art of the double-play. Played for the Phillies in 1917 and hit .224/.333/.279 with them.
- John Bateman (born 1940) – Played his final 82 MLB games with the Phillies in 1972 after being acquired from Montreal. Hit .230 in a 10-year career with Houston, Montreal, and Philadelphia.
- Geoff Jenkins (born 1974) – A member of the 2008 World Champion Phillies, Jenkins hit .246/.301/.392 with the Phillies that season prior to retiring.
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