Tucumcari native remembers longest game

The longest game in professional baseball history has a Tucumcari connection.

His name is Mark Corey.

The marathon, which began 31 years ago today -- on April 18, 1981 -- lasted 33 innings.

Corey was 1-for-5 with a run scored before leaving the game with an injured hand.

It took more than eight hours and three days before the Pawtucket Red Sox beat the Rochester Red Wings, 3-2.

Corey, born in Tucumcari to a community native, was an early hero. His seventh-inning run gave Rochester a 1-0 lead.

But the Sox' Chico Walker scored on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth and not many hitters were proud of the box score that followed.

Corey, the Wings' starting designated hitter, had one of the better lines -- one hit in five at-bats and the run scored. He jammed a hand after that fifth at-bat and was removed from the game.

"I went back to the lockerroom and came out every once in a while to see what was going on," he remembered Tuesday in a telephone interview from his home in Evergreen, Colo.

"Everytime I looked up in the stands ... there were less and less people."

Baseball historians tell us the game began with 1,740 spectators. Just 19 remained at 4:07 a.m., after 32 innings.

Corey still remembers plenty of the details.

• The night was cold and players burned broken bats in barrels to keep warm.
• Since statistics from suspended games are not recorded until the game is completed, more than one player saw his batting average dip dramatically after June 23, when the suspended game was completed.
• Several players took to humming the theme song from the television show "Twilight Zone" early Sunday morning.

The 1981 season signaled the end of Corey's professional baseball career. He spent parts of 1979, '80 and '81 in the Major Leagues with the Baltimore Orioles, the parent club for Rochester.

While he's probably the most successful Tucumcari native to play in the big leagues, not many Tucumcari residents know about his success.

That's because he didn't stay in town long.

Emily Corey, Mark's mother, grew up in Tucumcari but moved away after getting married.

In the fall of 1955, Mark's father Charles was traveling a lot because of his job at United Airlines. So Emily came to Tucumcari to be with her parents, Myron and Katie Mae Mundell. Mark was born in the Tucumcari hospital on Nov. 3, 1955.

Emily and Mark stayed about a month before returning to their home in Aurora, Colo., where Mark graduated high school.

Mark Corey and his parents live in Evergreen, Colo., today. Mark works in operations for U.S. Airways out of the airport in Denver.

He loves to talk about the longest game.

The hardest part was going back to the hotel about 5 o'clock that Sunday morning and trying to sleep before returning for a day game that afternoon, he said.

"We didn't take BP (batting practice) that day," he laughed. "I wonder why."

A little about the game between the Rochester Red Wings and Pawtucket Red Sox:

• It lasted 33 innings, beginning on April 18, 1981, in Pawtuckett, R. I. The teams played more than 8 hours that night and the next Easter Sunday morning before umpires finally postponed it with the score tied 2-2.
• The game was completed on June 23, the next time Rochester was in Pawtuckett. The Red Sox won, 3-2.
• The resumed game ended one inning and 18 minutes after it started.
• Two future Hall of Famers played third base. Cal Ripken had two hits in 13 at-bats for Rochester. Wade Boggs had four hits and a run batted in with 12 at-bats for Pawtuckett.
• At least 17 players in the longest game spent time in the Major Leagues.