Discussion of "Bottom of the 33rd"

[Lance]

Share your thoughts on Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game here.

[Brina]

I hope to read this when I’m in Florida later this month.

[Lance]

I read it when it was published in 2011 to mark the 30th anniversary of the game. Will re-read it for here and write a review as I didn't do so then.

[Lance]

Currently reading a different book - on the 1981 Columbus Clippers - and this game got mentioned for about two or three paragraphs. Mainly mentioned how cold it was that night - game went into the wee hours Easter morning.

[Joe]

As someone who attended and joyfully sat through all 18 innings of this year's World Series game 3, Bottom of the 33rd was a book I could get behind. This was my review at the time:

This book takes its time. Like the rhythm of a baseball game there are periods of action interspersed with periods of reflection. Barry takes an event - the longest professional baseball game ever played, and uses it as a jumping off point to tell the story of minor league baseball in the 1980's.

Barry writes about the players, but not just about their accomplishments in this game. He writes about their stories - their hopes and dreams, their lives after baseball, and their recollections of playing a 33 inning game (32 of which were played in bitter cold).

Barry also tells the story of the ancillary characters around this game. The Rochester general manager who was on the outs with the team and banished to the press box as the team's radio announcer, for example. Or the bat boys, whose mother came looking for them in the middle of the night because the game should have been over hours ago and she was worried they were in jail or at the hospital. Even the stadium itself has it's history spelled out for us.

In the end, the game almost becomes irrelevant. As a baseball fan, I find that often happens to me. The game is a vehicle for memories, storytelling, jokes, and good natured arguments. This book is the same.

[Harold]

Thanks Joe for the review. Good job, but I'll pass. i have read enough about life in the minors from many former players.

[Brina]

I’ve read part 1. It’s ok. Not the best book about the minors- I tend to prefer books about entire seasons or at least a whole World Series to ones about one game. But interesting enough that I’ll continue.

[Lance]

I started it last night. As it was the first book on minor league ball I remember reading and I wasn't reviewing books yet, I remember how much I loved this book. Now I see where it falls into typical patterns...but nonetheless I still think it's great so far. Mainly for the stories NOT involving players.

Hard to believe it's now been eight years since it was published...to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the game

[Lance]

Realized I forgot to post my review here when I wrote it a few days ago, so I will correct that now. I know some here have heard other minor league stories - I have, too - but I never tire of them. Especially when they are about other people, such as stadium employees or fans.

[Lance]

Review (5 Stars):

One of the beauties of baseball is that the game has no clock – there is no set time in which a game must be completed, such as 60 minutes for football and hockey or 48 minutes for professional basketball. It just requires that 9 innings be completed with one team ahead. If the teams are tied after those 9 innings, they keep playing innings until one team is ahead.


The only time that it took 24 additional innings to decide a game was on a chilly night in Rhode Island in April 1981. Because of a simple omission in the league rule book, a game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings that began at 7:30 on the Saturday before Easter didn’t stop until after 4 AM on Easter Sunday. And THEN the game wasn’t technically over – the two teams had played 32 innings before the International League president was finally contacted and he said to suspend the game. It was later concluded in the 33rd inning on June 23 on national television as it was the biggest baseball story of the day because the major league players were on strike.


This book by Dan Barry takes this game and weaves so many different stories about so many different people who were involved in the game in some manner. Of course, the major emphasis is on players who participated. The two most recognizable names were Hall of Famers Wade Boggs, who played third base for the Red Sox and Cal Ripken Jr., who also was at the hot corner for the Red Wings. While their contributions to the game didn’t affect the final outcome, their stories were minor compared to some of the other people.


People like Dave Koza, the Red Sox first baseman whose story is the major focus of Barry’s prose and the reader will get attached to him and his wife Ann, who sat in the cold stadium for the entire game, rooting for her husband to not only get that hit, but also to get that chance to play in the major leagues.


The history of the stadium is also discussed in this book as are the history of the town of Pawtucket, the follies of the team and its owners. One amusing story is the reason why Budweiser beer was not available at McCoy Stadium. So is the plight of a young clubhouse attendant. Determined to make the visiting Red Wings a decent meal at the end of the game, he had a chicken and pasta spread ready for them in the ninth inning (a big improvement over the usual fare for post-game meals in the minor leagues) only to have it ruined as the game kept going and going.


So many other people have stories to share – the Red Wings general manager-turned-radio broadcaster calling all of those innings and frequently wishing anyone listening back in Rochester a Happy Easter. The 9 year old boy who with his dad sat through every inning as the temperature kept dropping. And speaking of dropping temperatures, the umpires whose hands kept turning colder because there was only one pair of gloves to share were also prominent in the story. When they could not find the rule in the new version of the rule book that stated an inning could not start after 12:50 AM, their stubborn sticking to the “rules” was both admirable, confounding and ultimately historic.


This long review barely scratches the surface of all the wonderful stories shared in this mostly fast-paced book. Like the game itself when players were just trying to end it, it does start to drag near the conclusion, but this just added to the excellence in the writing as it plays along exactly as the game does. It is a wonderful addition to any baseball library and is recommended for all baseball fans.

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