Q&A on the News

Q: If a baseball game is delayed by rain and completed the next night, is the total game time considered 24 hours or just the actual playing time? Where and when was the longest played professional baseball game? — Kathy McDonough, Peachtree Corners

A: Any delay is not part of official game time; only action on the field is counted. For example, the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals recently played a game that was delayed an hour before it started and 4 hours and 32 minutes during the game, but the official game time was 2 hours, 27 minutes. In the longest game in professional baseball, the Pawtucket (R.I.) Red Sox and the Rochester (N.Y.) Red Wings played 32 continuous innings in a Triple-A game on April 18, 1981, before the game was suspended and finished on June 23. The game began at 8:25 p.m., after a 30-minute delay to repair a bank of lights, and the teams played until 4:09 a.m. — after 32 innings — and the score tied 2-2. When the game resumed June 23, the Red Sox scored the winning run in the 33rd inning, which lasted 18 minutes. The total game time was 8 hours, 25 minutes. Of note, the San Francisco Giants defeated the New York Mets 8-6 in a 23-inning game that lasted 7 hours, 23 minutes on May 31, 1964. It was the second game of a doubleheader, so the teams played 32 innings and were on the field for a total of 9 hours, 52 minutes that day.

Andy Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).