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Wrentham kids try to score longest baseball game record

E-mail|Link|Comments () June 7, 2009 03:16 PM

By Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

WRENTHAM -- At noon, the score was 290 to 272, so high that organizers had to tape a third digit to the scoreboard. It's the 78th inning of what, at 4:30 p.m., will be the longest baseball game ever played.

The 36-hour game was actually a series of hourlong matchups played back to back, without breaks and with the score and inning counts carrying over as new teams took the field. The game started at 8:01 yesterday morning (a minute behind schedule, said Jim Lucas, the T-ball coach who thought up the record attempt last summer). By 8:01 tonight, more than 800 Wrentham youth, ages 5 to 15, will have played in one of about 40 matchups. At the very end, everyone who played is invited to return to the field for the final moments.

"It's gonna be a very tough base-hit opportunity for the batter, what with 817 kids in the outfield," Lucas joked.

The event would beat the previous longest baseball game (32 hours, 29 minutes) in the Guinness Book of World Records, which was played by a St. Louis men’s senior league in 2007, Lucas said.

Tony D'Amico has four sons, all involved in the record attempt. His eyes bleary, a large Dunkin' Donuts coffee cup clutched in hand, he recounted the three matchups he's been to so far: the first at midnight, the next at 4 a.m., the third at 7 a.m.

"I went home, I slept for three-and-a-half hours, and now I'm back here," he said. "Thank God for this coffee."

While many set up tents in the outfield of an ajacent field at Sweatt Recreational Complex, few slept. Some of the most exciting matchups -- those of the Babe Ruth-level teams - were played under the lights early this morning.

"I chose not to sleep," said Terry McGovern, the league president. "But you know what? The kids, they invigorate me."

Michelle Berry brought an umbrella to shield herself from the sun as she watched her daughter, Olivia, 7, score a run for her team, the Ironbirds. She snapped photo after photo with her digital camera so Olivia can remember the game years from now.

"I don't think they're quite certain what it is they're doing, how big it all is," she said.