Fans attending the San Diego Padres’ April 17 contest against the Colorado Rockies at Petco Park got free baseball “” for 13 innings. The Padres lost 2″”1 to the Rockies in the 22-inning affair that ended at 1:21 a.m. the next morning.
“If they came to see baseball,” said Petco Park general manager Richard Andersen, “they got their money’s worth that night.”
The game was the longest in Major League Baseball since 1993 ” also a 22-inning affair in which the Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Indians 5″”4 ” and mark­ed the most innings in a game in Padres history. While this uncharted territory yielded a rare and exciting experience for fans, it also created unique challenges for various facets of normal game-day operations.
By the end of the game, only hundreds of the original 25,984 in attendance remained. Most had moved to the lower seating bowl of the ballpark.
“It was 1 a.m., and there’s people chanting, and I’m sure they’ve got work or school the next morning,” said Padres radio announcer Ted Leitner. “But they entertained me ” the fans entertained me rather than the other way around, because I thought they were the ones that made it a show more so than the game.”
Those fans sprinkled across the park after midnight created a festive atmosphere. Padres director of entertainment and production Erik Meyer said the in-game entertainment fed off this.
“The people that are there that are left are so into the game and so into the crowd shots that they end up being some of our best crowd shots,” Meyer said, “because they’re having so much fun dancing to the music we’re playing, or even being quite loud.”
One of the most memorable moments of the game was the 21st-inning stretch, the contest’s third rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
The announcer on the public address system tagged the final version, which followed stretches in the seventh and 14th innings, as ultra-rare.
“The 21st-inning stretch was definitely needed, because fans weren’t getting out of their seats and stretching their legs for the purpose of cheering for either team,” said Gen Salter, 21, who attended the game with co-workers.
Although alcohol sales stopped after the seventh inning, three concessions stands in the ballpark remained open for the entire game. This meant those left in the stands did not go hungry or without caffeine.
Some new bodies filled the left field upper reserved seats in the later innings ” the maintenance crew. The staff sat in their bright yellow uniforms waiting for the game to end, although their shifts had already started.
“That was a night where people that were here and on the clock got paid to wait,” Andersen said, “until it was time to do what they were supposed to do.”
Andersen said the complete cleaning process usually takes four hours. Including a minimum half-hour wait to clear the building, this means the crew did not clock out until around 6 a.m. Friday morning.
Fans that stayed for the entire game were still able use mass transit to get home on Friday morning. MTS media and communications specialist Luis Gonzalez said Blue Line services ran every 15 minutes until 1:54 a.m., orange line services ran regularly until 2:01 a.m. and the last special event line train from downtown to Santee left at 1:46 a.m. Each of those final departure times was two hours later than those on a regular evening.
As for the game itself, the Padres and Rockies remained scoreless through the first 13 innings. In the bottom of the 13th, the Friars lost what appeared to be their best chance to break the scoreless tie.
Left fielder Paul McAnulty led off with a double but was thrown out trying to advance to third base. Leitner said that out was the play he remembers most from the game.
Although he alternated with Andy Masur on XX Sports Radio’s broadcast, Leitner called 15 innings of the game, the most he had done since at 20-inning game in 1980. Despite that, Leitner’s voice was intact.
“It wasn’t sore,” he said. “It was just raspy from talking so much.”
In the top of the 14th, the scoreless tie was broken as Padres reliever Kevin Cameron issued a bases-loaded walk that scored Rockies centerfielder Willy Taveras. In the bottom half of the inning, the Padres responded in the form of an RBI single from catcher Josh Bard. Bard’s single tied the game 1-1 “” and it meant more baseball.
Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki finally helped the visitors break through, hitting a two-out RBI double in the top of the 22nd. Padres reliever Glendon Rusch struck out to end the game, 6 hours and 16 minutes after Jake Peavy threw the first pitch.
Twenty-two innings, 658 pitches, 161 at-bats and 30 stranded runners later, the game was over with one pitch. But the memories from this historic affair are something that those involved will not soon forget.