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what is the longest baseball game ever

The longest professional baseball game ever played was a 33‑inning marathon between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings in 1981, which took 8 hours and 25 minutes of game time and ended 3–2 for Pawtucket.

Core facts

  • The longest professional baseball game ever was a Triple‑A International League matchup: Pawtucket Red Sox vs. Rochester Red Wings.
  • It lasted 33 innings and 8 hours 25 minutes of playing time, spread over two different calendar dates.
  • The game began on the night of April 18, 1981 , in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and was suspended in the early morning hours before being finished on June 23, 1981.

How it unfolded

  • The teams played through a cold night at McCoy Stadium, with conditions so poor that the game was finally halted at about 4 a.m. by the league president.
  • The first 32 innings were all played in that initial overnight session; the tie‑breaking 33rd inning was completed more than two months later.
  • In the resumed inning, Pawtucket’s Dave Koza hit a walk‑off single to seal the 3–2 win, instantly ending one of baseball’s most surreal sagas.

MLB records vs. overall record

When people ask “what is the longest baseball game ever,” they sometimes mean Major League Baseball specifically, which has a different record.

  • Longest MLB game by innings: 26‑inning 1–1 tie between the Brooklyn Robins (Dodgers) and Boston Braves on May 1, 1920, called for darkness.
  • Longest MLB game by time: 25‑inning game between the Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers on May 8–9, 1984, lasting 8 hours 6 minutes.

Why this game is still talked about

  • The 33‑inning Pawtucket–Rochester epic is now part of baseball folklore, often simply called “The Longest Game.”
  • It is frequently revisited in articles, videos, and forum discussions, especially when current extra‑inning games start to feel long by comparison.

TL;DR: The absolute longest professional baseball game ever was Pawtucket vs. Rochester in 1981 (Triple‑A), 33 innings and 8:25 of play, with MLB’s own records sitting below that in both innings and total time.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.