These Baseball Games Were Even Longer Than Tuesday’s World Series Opener

Tuesday’s World Series matchup between the New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals may have felt like it took forever. But the game, which lasted 5 hours and 9 minutes played over 14 innings, doesn’t come close to cracking the list of the longest Major League Baseball games on record.

A matchup between the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago White Sox in May 1984 takes the crown as the longest game on record, lasting eight hours and six minutes over 25 innings, according to reports citing Elias Sports Bureau. The Brewers emerged victorious with a final score of 6 to 7.

Last night’s game would have needed to take more than 6 hours and 30 minutes to crack the top 10.

Tuesday’s Mets vs. Royals contest ranks much closer to the top of the list when only considering World Series games. Only two other such games have lasted as long in terms of innings, including one game where Babe Ruth pitched all 14 innings for the Red Sox. The other 14-inning game came in a 2005 matchup between the Chicago White Sox and the Houston Astros. That game, which lasted 5 hours and 41 minutes, also happens to be the longest World Series matchup in terms of game time. Tuesday’s game does have the distinction of being the longest World Series opener in MLB history.

All of these long MLB games are impressive, but the longest professional baseball game wasn’t a MLB game at all. The Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings, Triple-A affiliates of the Boston Red Sox and the Orioles, respectively, played a 33-inning game in 1981. In total, the contest lasted an unbelievable eight hours and 25 minutes.