Once upon a ballfield...

Once upon a time...there was a sixteen inning baseball game where all the pitches thrown and all the runs scored were produced by future Hall Of Famers.

Never upon a ballfield did that happen before or since.

In not quite those words, announcer Tim McCarver talked about that game during yesterday's World Series broadcast.

On July 2, 1963, Warren Spahn and Juan Marichal pitched fifteen shut-out innings in front of fifteen thousand fans at Candlestick Park.

San Francisco Giant manager, Alvin Dark wanted to take Marichal out of the game but the Dominican Dandy told him
"If that old man can stay in the game, so can I."

The Milwaukee Braves' Warren Spahn was forty-two years old at the time.

In the top of the sixteenth inning, Marichal gave up a base hit sandwiched between two flyouts and a groundout.
With one out in the bottom of the sixteenth, Warren Spahn might or might not have remembered that a dozen years prior, the next batter hit the first homerun of his career against him.

Willie Mays then hit the game-winning homerun. It was the only run scored in the game but sometimes one is all it takes.









Blogger's Notes
Four other Hall-Of-Famers were featured in this game. The hyperlink above connects to the box score of that fabled "pitcher's duel."
The Milwaukee Braves' 2nd Baseman–LEE MAYE–is the only player listed to have attended Jefferson High School and have a successful career as a doo-wop singer.

Tim McCarver, who inspired this post, may not be familiar with this particular song but I am certain that Tim McGraw is. The country singer's father, Tug McGraw, performed with "Arthur" Lee Maye in a band called Southern Lights.