The Pecan Park Eagle

4/15/1968: Astros runner Norm Miller sleepwalked home in the bottom of the 24th inning on a Mets muff in the field to give Houston a record 1-0 “longest night game in history” win over New York.

Once Upon a Time, the 1968 Houston Astros preferred to get all their sleepwalking done in one game rather than spread it out over the whole year like the 2013 Astros club has done.

The time and place was Monday, April 15, 1968 as the Houston Astros entertained the New York Mets in a night game at the Astrodome.

And what a night it would be. The Mets and Astros would post nothing but goose eggs for 21.5 innings before the homies finally pushed across the only crooked run number in the game, with a little help from a somnolent New York defense in the wee small hours of the next day. Here’s how the Associated Press wrote up that historic marathon:

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Astros Win Longest Night Game Ever, 1-0

Aspro’s Grounder, Weiss’ Error Ends in Astro Win

Win Keeps Astros on Top in NL

HOUSTON (AP) – The Judge was ready for bed, a coach had only one chew of tobacco left and the bats weighed more than the trees from which they were hewed.

It was at this critical point in the 24th inning that Houston’s Bob Aspromonte stroked one of Les Rohr’s pitches toward Al Weiss near second base and the New York Mets’ shortstop muffed to let in the only run in the Astros 1-0 win earlier today.

The error ended the longest night game in major league history and cut short by two innings of equalling the longest baseball game ever played.

Fired Aspro

“The bat felt like eight and a half pounds,” Aspromonte said. “That was the longest week I ever played I’ve just won three of five ball games for this club, do you realize that?”

The victory was the fifth in six games for the National League leaders since the season started last Wednesday.

About 3,000 persons of a game opening crowd of 24,219 was still around in the huge Astrodome when the finish came.

One of those was Judge Roy Hofheinz, president of the Astros.

When the home half of the 22nd inning started, the $2 million dollar scoreboard flashed: “The Judge says he’s ready to go to bed. …  Let’s score a run.”

Miller Singles.

Two innings later (24th) Norm Miller led off with a single and advance to second on a balk. Rohr, the eighth Mets pitcher, gave Jim Wynn and intentional pass. Rusty Staub was thrown out, the runners advancing. The John Bateman was intentionally walked to fill the bases.

At that point Aspromonte hit the grounder that Weiss bobbled.

“No it didn’t take a bad hop,” Weiss said. “I just blew it. It went right between my legs,”

The longest night game previously played was Washington’s 22 inning 6-5 victory over Chicago on June 12, 1967. The longest National League night game was played September 1, 1967 when San Francisco defeated Cincinnati 1-0 in 21 innings.

The Astros-Mets game also broke the record time consumed for a National League night game, requiring six hours and six minutes to complete.

3 Packages

“That was a three-package of tobacco game,” said Astros coach Buddy Hancken, “and I just got one chew left.”

Staub said: “After about the 17th inning, everything got funny.”

The longest game in innings ever played took seven hours and twenty-three minutes when the Giants beat the Mets 8-6 on May 31, 1967.

The 24-inning affair overshadowed two-hit pitching by the Mets’ Tom Seaver, who retired 22 in a row at one stretch in his 10-inning stint.

“My arm was still lively in the 10th, but there was no use in straining it,” Seaver said. “That’s the longest game I ever played in. I’m sorry we had to lose it.”

Don WIlson, first of five Astros pitchers scattered five singles before leaving in the ninth.

The eight New York pitchers fell one short of the record number ever used in a game.

Both teams got eleven hits. The victory went to Wade Blasingame.

~ The Port Arthur News, Tuesday, April 16, 1968, Page 14.

Baseball Almanac Box ScoresNew York Mets 0, Houston Astros 1
Game played on Monday, April 15, 1968 at Astrodome
New York Mets ab   r   h rbi Weis ss 9 0 1 0 Boswell 2b 10 0 1 0 Agee cf 10 0 0 0 Swoboda rf 10 0 0 0 Shamsky lf 4 0 2 0   Jones pr,lf 6 0 1 0 Kranepool 1b 8 0 2 0 Buchek 3b 2 0 0 0   Charles 3b 6 0 1 0 Grote c 7 0 2 0 Seaver p 3 0 1 0   Taylor p 0 0 0 0   Linz ph 1 0 0 0   Koonce p 0 0 0 0   Short p 0 0 0 0   Selma p 0 0 0 0   Bosch ph 1 0 0 0   Jackson p 0 0 0 0   Harrelson ph 1 0 0 0   Frisella p 1 0 0 0   Cardwell ph 0 0 0 0   Rohr p 0 0 0 0 Totals 79 0 11 0	Houston Astros ab   r   h rbi Davis cf 10 0 1 0 Miller rf 8 1 1 0 Wynn lf 8 0 1 0 Staub 1b 9 0 2 0 King c 9 0 1 0   Bateman ph 0 0 0 0 Aspromonte 3b 9 0 0 1 Gotay 2b 9 0 2 0 Torres ss 8 0 3 0 Wilson p 2 0 0 0   Thomas ph 1 0 0 0   Buzhardt p 0 0 0 0   Rader ph 1 0 0 0   Coombs p 0 0 0 0   Murrell ph 1 0 0 0   Ray p 2 0 0 0   Blasingame p 2 0 0 0 Totals 79 1 11 1
New York 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 0 11 1 Houston 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 – 1 11 1   New York Mets IP H R ER BB SO Seaver 10.0 2 0 0 0 3   Taylor 1.0 1 0 0 0 1   Koonce 0.1 1 0 0 0 0   Short 1.0 1 0 0 2 1   Selma 0.2 0 0 0 0 0   Jackson 3.0 1 0 0 0 4   Frisella 5.0 4 0 0 1 4   Rohr  L (0-1) 2.1 1 1 1 4 2 Totals 23.1 11 1 1 7 15   Houston Astros IP H R ER BB SO Wilson 9.0 5 0 0 3 5   Buzhardt 2.0 0 0 0 0 1   Coombs 2.0 3 0 0 0 2   Ray 7.0 2 0 0 1 11   Blasingame  W (1-0) 4.0 1 0 0 1 1 Totals 24.0 11 0 0 5 20 E–Weis (1), Wilson (1).  DP–New York 1, Houston 1.  2B–New York Charles (1,off Ray), Houston King (1,off Seaver).  SH–Buchek (1,off Wilson); Grote (1,off Ray); Kranepool (2,off Ray); Cardwell (1,off Blasingame); Miller (1,off Koonce).  IBB–Grote (2,by Wilson); Charles (1,by Ray); Wynn 2 (2,by Short,by Rohr); Aspromonte (3,by Rohr); Bateman (1,by Rohr).  Team LOB–16.  Team–16.  SB–Charles (2,2nd base off Ray/King); Jones (1,3rd base off Ray/King).  CS–Gotay (1,2nd base by Frisella/Grote); Miller (1,2nd base by Frisella/Grote).  WP–Seaver (1), Rohr (1), Wilson (2).  BK–Rohr (1).  IBB–Short (1,Wynn); Rohr 3 (3,Aspromonte,Wynn,Bateman); Wilson (1,Grote); Ray (1,Charles).  U-HP–Ed Sudol, 1B–Lee Weyer, 2B–Bill Williams, 3B–Tom Gorman.  T–6:06.  A–14,219.
Game played on Monday, April 15, 1968 at Astrodome
Baseball Almanac Box Score |

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Tags: 1968: Atros defeats Mets 1-0 in 24 innings

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