The Braves Joe Oeschger battled Brooklyn’s Leon Cadore for 26 innings in the longest game in major league history, played to a 1-1 deadlock on May 1, 1920. Oeschger gave up only nine hits, walked four, and set a single-game ML record by pitching 21 consecutive scoreless innings. He was “a little tired” at the end, but said he benefited from the short seventh inning, when he retired the side on three pitches. It was not Oeschger’s first marathon performance against Brooklyn; on April 30, 1919, facing Burleigh Grimes, he had pitched the Phillies to a 20-inning, 9-9 tie. Oeschger lost a league-high 18 games for Philadelphia in 1918 and won a career-high 20 with Boston in 1921. He faltered the following year, going 6-21. Before his death in 1986, he was the last survivor of the 22 participants in the 1920 marathon game.
