That Time the Mets and Braves Played the Craziest Baseball Game Ever

On July 4th 1985, the New York Mets played the Braves in Atlanta in a legitimately insane baseball game. The game had a little bit of everything, and a whole lot of “welp, never seen that before.” It lasted 19 innings and did not end until nearly 4:00 AM because of rain, which while not insane in and of itself, still adds to the mix. Rick Camp, a Braves pitcher who was batting .060 at the time, hit a game-tying home run in the 18th off an 0-2 pitch with two outs. And the Braves still lost 16-13. John Sterling, before he became a caricature of a baseball announcer, was calling the game on TBS making for possibly the most sublimely appropriate pairing of game to announcer. The Braves planned on putting on a fireworks show after the game and were apparently extremely committed to it. So, when the game finally did end—again, at 4 AM—Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium set them off.

”That was the greatest game ever played,” Howard Johnson told the New York Times. ”Ever.”

”I saw everything tonight,” Hernandez added. ”I saw things I’d never seen in my career before.”

Camp, despite his heroic late night achievement, wasn’t so thrilled after the game.

‘I couldn’t care less about the home run,” he said. ”That’s luck, pure luck. If we have to rely on me to hit a home run to win a game, we’re in bad shape.”

Let’s take a look at a rundown of the madness:

• Three Mets had 11 plate appearances, including Keith Hernandez, who hit for the cycle in what may be the most useless example of a useless baseball achievement. “Man Gets Four Different Hits In Nearly Three Games Worth of At Bats.”
• The Mets had 28 hits, three shy of the National League record set by the New York Giants in 1901, and five shy of the American League record set by Cleveland in 1932. The Braves managed to hang around for 19 innings with only 18 hits of their own.
• Not specific to this game, but the Braves had a person on the field dressed up like a Native American from a John Wayne movie, which is weird and unfortunate.
• Lenny Dykstra played, so cocaine was probably involved.
• Doc Gooden appeared for two and one third innings, so cocaine was probably involved.
• There were still people in the stadium at 3:30 in the morning for Rick Camp’s home run, so cocaine was probably involved.
• The Mets held a 7-4 lead in the eighth only to give up four runs and the lead in the bottom half of the inning. And the only reason they played 10 extra innings was because Hall of Fame closer Bruce Sutter blew the save in the ninth.
• Tom Gorman, who gave up the improbable home run to Camp, had himself a pretty wild season that year. He was the winning pitcher of this 19-inning game, the winning pitcher of an 18-inning game earlier in the season, and took the L on a 26-7 game against the Phillies.
• Camp’s home run was the second game-tying home run Gorman allowed in the game. The first was all the way back in the 13th inning when Terry Harper hit one off the foul pole, negating Howard Johnson’s two run shot in the Mets half.
• Seriously, this can’t be emphasized enough: a brutally bad hitting pitcher hit a game-tying home run, in the 18th inning, at 3:30 in the morning off an 0-2 pitch, with two outs. Snowballs have better odds in hell.
• Before Camp took a swing, the Mets made a big show of bringing the outfielders in.
• John Sterling, who was probably super stressed out about missing his soaps: “If he hits a home run to tie this game, this game will be certified as absolutely the nuttiest in the history of baseball.”
• Two pitches later: “And he hits to deep left, Heep goes back, it is…GONE! HOLY COW. OH MY GOODNESS. I DON’T BELIEVE IT. I DON’T BELIEVE IT. RICK CAMP. RICK CAMP. I. DON’T. BELIEVE IT.
• Mets manager Davey Johnson and Darryl Strawberry were both ejected by home plate umpire Terry Tata for arguing balls and strikes in the 17th inning.
• Tata, after the game: “There aren’t any bad calls at 3 a.m.”
• After the Mets scored five runs in the top of the 19th, the Braves rallied in their half of the inning so that Camp once again came up to bat as the tying run with two outs. Ron Darling struck him out and the Mets won 16-13.
• Fireworks at 4 AM. How many people in Atlanta woke up in the middle of the night worried we were under attack?

That a list as comprehensively bizarre and unthinkable as this one exists is one of baseball’s charms, and the lack of a game clock, or sudden death ending like other sports helps foster the chaos. So, theoretically this can happen at any time—it could happen today—but, of course, the reason events like these stick out in memory is because they don’t happen all the time. A career .074 hitter should never hit a game-tying home run at four in the morning. Which is why Camp only has one for his career.