Worst Part? Beer Sales Ended After 7th Inning

The Pawtucket Red Sox today will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the longest game in professional baseball history, an 8-hour, 33-inning marathon played over two nights two months apart, the Associated Press reported.

The game between Pawtucket and the Rochester Red Wings, the triple-A affiliates of the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles, began in Pawtucket, R.I., April 18, 1981.

The score was tied, 1-1, after nine innings and was still tied, 2-2, after 21. After 32 innings, the game was suspended, then was resumed June 23, when the Red Wings returned to town. At the time, the minor league record was 29 innings, set in 1966.

In the bottom of the 33rd, Dave Koza’s single to left drove in the winning run for Pawtucket, which will celebrate the game’s anniversary with a players’ luncheon in Providence and a ballpark ceremony tonight.

Bruce Hurst, the seventh pitcher used by Pawtucket, recalled striking out Cal Ripken Jr. around 4 a.m. Not long ago, he ran into Ripken on a golf course.

“We both looked at each other and said, ‘Remember that night?’ ” Hurst said. “Through it all, through his Hall of Fame career, through it all, that’s still the night we talk about.”

Trivia time: What is the record for innings played in a major league baseball game?

New ideas: Baseball owners and players agreed Tuesday that home-field advantage in the World Series this year would again go to the league that won the All-Star game, but not everyone is happy.

Elliott Harris, in the Chicago Sun-Times, offered alternatives to help determine home-field advantage, including:

* “The 2005 World Series managers -- the White Sox’s Ozzie Guillen and Houston’s Phil Garner -- squaring off in a game of rock, paper, scissors.

* “League with fewest positive drug tests.”

Witchcraft: First, an Amazonian witch doctor cast a spell on England, Ecuador’s opponent Saturday in a second-round World Cup match. Now, the South American players have been given a book by their coach that tells the story of a family motivated by the murder of their cow.

Ananova.com reported that Coach Luis Suarez inspires his Ecuadorean players before games by telling them: “It’s time to kill your cow.”

Steeler of a deal: Finding the “Ben Roethlisberger Replica Motorcycle Helmet” up for bid on EBay, Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times wrote: “The ad is accompanied by a picture of an empty box.”

Looking back: On this date in 1963, New York Mets outfielder Jimmy Piersall hit his 100th home run. Known for his well-publicized battle with bipolar disorder, Piersall followed up on an earlier promise and ran the bases backward, albeit in the correct order.

Trivia answer: Twenty-six innings on May 1, 1920, when the visiting Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves played to a 1-1 tie before darkness halted play.

And finally: On Shaquille O’Neal and the Miami Heat’s winning the NBA Finals, David Letterman said, “Kobe Bryant was so upset, he bought himself a diamond ring.”