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Bottom of the 33rd: Hope and Redemption in Baseball's Longest Game
Bottom of the 33rd: Hope and Redemption in Baseball's Longest Game
Bottom of the 33rd: Hope and Redemption in Baseball's Longest Game
Audiobook8 hours

Bottom of the 33rd: Hope and Redemption in Baseball's Longest Game

Written by Dan Barry

Narrated by Dan Barry

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

Bottom of the 33rd is chaw-chewing, sunflower-spitting, pine tar proof that too much baseball is never enough.” —Jane Leavy, author of The Last Boy and Sandy Koufax 

From Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Dan Barry comes the beautifully recounted story of the longest game in baseball history—a tale celebrating not only the robust intensity of baseball, but the aspirational ideal epitomized by the hard-fighting players of the minor leagues.

On April 18, 1981, a ball game sprang eternal. For eight hours, the night seemed to suspend a town and two teams between their collective pasts and futures, between their collective sorrows and joys—the shivering fans; their wives at home; the umpires; the batboys approaching manhood; the ejected manager, peering through a hole in the backstop; the sportswriters and broadcasters; and the players themselves—two destined for the Hall of Fame (Cal Ripken and Wade Boggs), the few to play only briefly or forgettably in the big leagues, and the many stuck in minor-league purgatory, duty bound and loyal forever to the game.

With Bottom of the 33rd, Barry delivers a lyrical meditation on small-town lives, minor-league dreams, and the elements of time and community that conspired one fateful night to produce a baseball game seemingly without end. An unforgettable portrait of ambition and endurance, Bottom of the 33rd is the rare sports book that changes the way we perceive America’s pastime—and America’s past.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperAudio
Release dateApr 12, 2011
ISBN9780062068262
Author

Dan Barry

Daniel T. Barry (M.D., Ph.D.) is a former NASA astronaut who was a crew member aboard the Space Shuttles Discovery and Endeavor. He logged more than 734 hours in space, including four spacewalks totaling 25 hours and 53 minutes. He holds a BS degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University; a master’s of engineering degree and a master of arts degree in electrical engineering/computer science from Princeton University; a doctorate in electrical engineering/computer science from Princeton University; and a doctorate in medicine from the University of Miami in 1982. Organizations to which he belongs include the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the American Association of Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AAEM), the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPMR), the Association of Academic Physiatrists (AAP), and the Association of Space Explorers. He holds five patents, has written 50 articles in scientific journals, and has served on two scientific journal editorial boards. Dr. Barry retired from NASA in April 2005 to start his own company, Denbar Robotics, where he currently builds robots. Dr. Barry currently lives in South Hadley, MA.

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Reviews for Bottom of the 33rd

Rating: 4.028735655172413 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'm not a big baseball fan, so parts of it didn't interest me.I did find it rather interesting, especially the personal story. I think a baseball fan would love this. Many parts are poetic.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I absolutely loved this book and hearing Dan read it was just the best. It's just a fabulous story, brilliantly told.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    “Longest game in baseball history Pawtucket 3 - Rochester 233 innings - 8:25April 18-19 June 23,1981”219 at bats. 60 strikeouts. Just an unbelievable marathon of a baseball game!The author goes into great detail about all of the events and people that are part of this historic game. Sometimes, it felt like a little too much detail, about too many people. For instance, for me, I grew very tired of Koza. Very tired...But there are pieces that were great! I loved that Aponte’s wife didn’t believe him and that he had to go back to the ballpark! Also loved the nutty Remmerswaal! And the batboy's mom coming to get his because it was now Sunday, EASTER Sunday no less, and her boy needed to be home! Many vignettes like these keep this book as a good read, especially for baseball fans like me!We also get a AAA look at future Hall of Famers Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken Jr.! What a treat! And on page 42, writing about Wade Boggs, “... whose father tied his ambidextrous son’s left hand behind his back to force him to throw with his right hand,...” - well, I used to joke to my then wife that I wanted to do the same thing, except tie her right hand behind, to our newborn daughter to make her a lefty for my beloved Oakland A's! (don't worry, she said no) The box score is reproduced herein, and there is a picture of the scorecard. Nice bonuses! There is a "Thirty Years Later" piece at the end, but, like a lot of the book, it's mostly about Koza, and I could've cared less. Sorry, but I just had too much of that guy in the rest of the book.Good read for baseball fans! Especially right now, with no games being played. 33 innings... dang, I kinda wish I had been at that one! :-)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was a fun snapshot of an impossible minor league game populated by stars of the 80s. Better than most baseball books is damning with faint praise, so instead let me say it's pacing was very good, and not so tied to its era that it bogged down in reminiscences.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'm going to read this first, then register it at bookcrossing.com, then give it to my young adult sons to read & then release. This is a Galley/Uncorrected Proof. It does not have the printed endpapers or the photos promised in the finished edition. :(

    It's quite good. Fine for non-sports fans as it's mostly about dreams, disapopointments, obsessions... and somewhat about friendships and anecdotes. Better for baseball fans who can follow the action better.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In 1981, I was 16 and following the Columbus Clippers, then the Triple-A farm team for the New York Yankees. The Clippers were part of the International League, of which the Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings were part, as well. I saw all these teams play several times a year, and saw several of the players (and managers) make it to the big leagues. If I remember right, the Columbus Clippers even ended up taking the Governor's Cup that year.

    In the beginning of the 1981 season, though, the teams from Pawtucket and Rochester played a game that ended up going 33(!) innings. I remember reading about it in the Columbus Dispatch, and I'm not sure I could have sat through a game that lasted over eight hours...

    The book was interesting, and it about so much more than simply this game for the record books. Each player was highlighted in some form or fashion, complete with background stories of how and where they grew up, and their trip(s) up to the Boston Red Sox or the Baltimore Orioles, if they made it at all. The attention to detail was incredible, and the game seemed to take a back seat to the players, the managers, and all of the supporting staff themselves.

    I'm not a huge baseball fan by any means, and usually don't watch many games until the season starts wrapping up and gets close to the playoffs. I would, however, recommend this book about the longest baseball game ever played to anyone interested in the history of the sport, and especially to anyone that wants to know how to write about an historical event (it's all about the people!).
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I have decidedly mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, Barry tells compelling stories about most of the people involved in this 33-inning game, as well as some fascinating stories about the Pawtucket Red Sox and its working-class nature of its home base. On the other hand, he follows some of the players' lives for years but gives others short shrift -- it especially feels like he would've written a book just about first baseman Dave Koza if he'd been allowed -- and he doesn't make the game itself that interesting (though in his defense a string of scoreless innings is hard to make compelling). Also, Barry periodically indulges in overly lyrical musings about time, duty, etc. that made me long for Roger Angell's eloquent, poetic yet down-to-earth style instead.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I have decidedly mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, Barry tells compelling stories about most of the people involved in this 33-inning game, as well as some fascinating stories about the Pawtucket Red Sox and its working-class nature of its home base. On the other hand, he follows some of the players' lives for years but gives others short shrift -- it especially feels like he would've written a book just about first baseman Dave Koza if he'd been allowed -- and he doesn't make the game itself that interesting (though in his defense a string of scoreless innings is hard to make compelling). Also, Barry periodically indulges in overly lyrical musings about time, duty, etc. that made me long for Roger Angell's eloquent, poetic yet down-to-earth style instead.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I've long been aware that Pawtucket's McCoy Stadium hosted the longest professional baseball game in history, a 33-inning affair between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings in 1981. I knew that the game featured two future Hall of Famers, Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken. Barry's book fills me on a lot that I didn't know. For example, the game was played well into Easter morning and the weather was so miserably cold that the players burned broken bats in barrels to keep warm. The game was allowed to play so long due to a misprint in the International League rule book that left out the paragraph about curfews. Thus a rather stubborn umpire continued the game until receiving word from the league president at 4:09 am. I also didn't know that when the game was completed in June of that year, it received international attention boosted by the fact that Major League baseball players were on strike at that time.Barry tells a compelling story of the game, building tension in the relentless procession of pitches, hits, and outs. He draws on recordings of the Red Wings' radio broadcast and interviews with players, managers, coaches, media, players' wives, umpires, spectators, and even the bat boy who were present for the game. If the book were about only the game it would fall apart quickly, but Barry weaves in the lives and careers of many of the participants before and after that game. It makes for a lively bit of sportswriting at it's best.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Who knew that a story about the Red Sox would be this interesting. To be 100% forthcoming, the story is about the Pawtucket Red Sox and not that team from Boston.

    This story is about a minor league (Triple A) baseball game played in April 1981 between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings that turned out to be the longest game ever played in professional baseball, stretching to 33 innings played over two days when the game was halted after the end of the 32nd inning on the original date played.

    Dan Barry has done a fantastic job in researching the details, the people and the back story of this historic baseball game. I can recommend this to anyone who loves the game of baseball...
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    An interesting book about an interesting 8+ hours. I picked up this book about Baseball's Longest Game for a couple of reasons. I like the Pawtucket Red Sox as much as their parent club. I recognized some of the players who played in the game. Boggs, Ripken Jr., Ojeda, Gedman and one of my favorite players who I never really got to see play, but boy do I have tons of his major league cards, Marty Barrett.I liked how the author wove the players' (and mangers and Ben Mondor, the Paw Sox's owner) stories throughout the narrative of the game.But, I will say that it sort of dragged on, just as the actual game must have. But, it was also an easy book to pick up and put down as I got time to read it, so that helped in the reading of it.It had a lot of good stories and it had a great behind the scenes look at the minor leagues, a topic I think is always interesting.Oh, and it's very much P'tucket, not PAW-tucket.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Baseball is my favorite sport, I am counting the days until it starts again. I’m not kidding, I have a countdown clock on my phone and every morning I look at it and get all excited about how many days until pitchers and catchers report for spring training. It therefore should not be surprising that when I was at the library and walking past the non-fiction section my eyes were drawn to the baseball books.On September 22, 2012 the Yankees played the A’s, that game lasted 14 innings, 5 hours and 43 minutes. The longest game for the Yankees since 2006. I was there for that game. I stayed for every inning, watched every pitch, every hit. The longest major league baseball game was 25 innings, but that isn’t the longest professional ball game every played, that honor goes to a minor league game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings. This record still stands: 33 innings, 8 hours 25 minutes.There is a rule that a new inning cannot start after midnight, however the rule book the home plate umpire had did not have that paragraph in it, so play continued until 4 in the morning when the president of the league finally returned a phone call to the ball park. Play was halted at the 32nd inning. The next time the Red Wings were in town the game resumed. It took 1 inning and 18 minutes to finish the game. Two names you might recognize in this book are Wade Boggs, Pawtucket Red Sox and Cal Ripken, Jr., Rochester Red Wings.This book is more than just an account of a baseball game, we learn about life in the minor leagues, what players and managers and reporters had to put up with. We learn some of the history of the players, how their lives progressed after, who went to the major leagues and so on. Well written and interesting.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Please note: This review contains what some might think of as spoilers.Excellent baseball book and wonderful book about people doing their best to make life work. "Bottom of the 33rd" is the story of the the longest game in minor (or major) league history between the Rochester Red Wings and the Pawtucket Red Sox top farm teams for the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Red Sox. Barry does an excellent job of following up on players: Those like Cal Ripkin, Jr. and Wade Boggs who had solid careers in the majors and those like Dave Koza who had the game winning hit which turned out to be the highlight of his career. He also follows up on the owner and kids who worked in the park.The ultimate irony is that the game only went on to after 4 in the morning before being suspended after 32 innining because someone cutting and pasting the International League rule book for that year left out the paragraph requiring that no inning start after 12:50 am.The Paw Sox won the game in a one inning resumption in front of a full ballpark.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    While ostensibly about the longest game in professional baseball history, this book is really about the heartbreak that haunts the minor leagues, where players make enormous personal and professional sacrifices for a chance to play in The Show. If you loved the movie Bull Durham, you will love this book. I inhaled it in a weekend; it was just that good.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Barry takes baseball's longest game between the Minor League AAA Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings as the starting point to reflect on the past, present and future of the participants, ball park and community. The game featured players both on their way up and down the ranks: some would play in future World Series (Cal Ripken, Jr., Bruce Hurst, Marty Barrett, Wade Boggs, etc.) and others would never make it to the majors for a cup of coffee. But Barry also features bat boys, club house attendants, announcers, attendees, wives, mayors, and more - all told with warm detail. There are some wonderful set pieces: A pitcher's wife furious and unbelieving when he arrives home in the early morning hours with the excuse that they were still playing the game. The Umpire's worried family calling local hospitals and the police when he doesn't come home. The inexplicable and unintentional omission from the International League Rulebook of the paragraph detailing curfews and calling of games. I have attended many a Pawtucket Red Sox game and knew well the basic outlines of this epic game, so was guaranteed to love this book. Baseball fans everywhere are sure to enjoy it. But even if you are a casual observer of the game, I recommend this. Barry looks beyond baseball to ambition, frustration, disappointment, marital devotion, boyhood yearning, irony, civic pride and careening emotions. We listened to the audiobook version on an 800 mile car trip, during which time it entertained multiple people of varying levels of baseball sophistication. The audiobook was charmingly narrated and contained snippets of the play-by-play by the Rochester radio announcer.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Bottom of the 33rd, is the story of the longest game in baseball's history, a game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings. I admit that I was predisposed to like the book. Once when I was responsible for coming up with some trivia questions I chose to make questions about this game. And, by page 5 I knew this was a book that I would have to own. This is a rare book. The writing is one of the best examples of baseball storytelling that I have had the pleasure to read. By the end you know the town, the players - who they were and what they went on to become, and what the game was really - a moment suspended in time that seemed to stretch to infinity, "the night seems to have said something about time itself: the deceptiveness of it; the dearness of it. Beseeched by the older ballplayers to slow down the clock, and begged by the younger players to hasten it, the night choose instead to stop time; to place it under a stadium's laboratory lights and pin it to the Pawtucket clay." This book is a grand slam home run.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In Bottom of the 33rd, Dan Barry uses the historic 33 inning long game from 1981 as a framework around which to explore Minor League Baseball. A consummate researcher, Barry seems to miss nothing. He writes of the AAA players in the game, some of whom even non baseball fans will have heard. He shares the stories of the managers, ball boys, umpires, clubhouse guys, fans, journalists, player wives and the stadium itself. If that were not enough, even the beer distributors get in on the story.And, of course, there’s the game: 32 innings over Saturday, April 18th, and on until 4am, Easter morning, with the final inning two months later. The game may have dragged on, seemingly endless, but the book never does. The heartache of Minor League ball is palpable; the stories are fascinating.It’s hard to say if this book will resonate with someone who doesn’t at least like baseball, but anyone who’s enjoyed nine innings (or more) should find it a pleasure to read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The best baseball book I've ever read!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Major League Baseball just opened up another season, so the perfect book to read this week is Dan Barry's Bottom of the 33rd- Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game.The game took place on April 18, 1981, Holy Saturday, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The Triple A League Pawtucket Red Sox hosted the Rochester Red Wings. The Sox had future superstar Wade Boggs on their team, the Red Wings had the incomparable Cal Ripken Jr. at third base.But Barry wisely does not put those superstars at the center of his story. What makes this narrative interesting are the not-so-famous people. The Pawtucket owner, Ben Mondor, a wealthy businessman who grew up poor in Pawtucket and made it big, took the team at its lowest point and restored it to its former glory.He prized loyalty above all, and when Budweiser refused to sell him beer because the former owners owed them money, he remembered that for a long time. Miller sold him beer, and even though Budweiser was the fan favorite, and Budweiser eventually begged him to buy their beer year after year, Mondor stuck with Miller because they were loyal to him.Mondor put together a small but hardworking front office team, and they turned the bankrupt team into a success by "keeping prices low, making the stadium safe and family-friendly and emphasizing that the Pawtucket players on the field were the Boston Red Sox of tomorrow."One of the most unforgettable characters is pitcher Win Remmerswaal. He is from the Netherlands, and "doesn't seem to accept basic social customs, such as adherence to the law or value of currency." His car license plate was a "piece of cardboard with a few meaningless numbers scribbled on it." At the end of one road trip, it was discovered that he was missing. He showed up several days later, explaining that he had never seen the nation's capital, so when they had a layover in Washington, he took a few days to sightsee. He is hilarious!Triple A baseball is the last step before the major league team, so there is an interesting dynamic on those teams. There are the young players destined for future glory, like Boggs and Ripken. There are 'old guys'- the 25 and 26 year-olds- who have kicked around for awhile, and this is their last shot at making the big team. Some of them get called up to play in September on the parent club, only to be sent back to Triple A next spring to try again.The agony of working to see your dream come true, knowing that there is a short time limit on it, is palpable in this book. First baseman Dave Koza has dragged his wife Ann from Florida to Pawtucket to Wyoming every year in pursuit of his dream. Ann finds some kind of factory work wherever they land, and she goes to every game. She is one of the 19 people who watched all 32 innings of the game, lasting until 4am on Easter morning when it was finally called. They are the heart of this marvelous book, and the end to their story is so moving.The longest game, which is finally finished two months later in Pawtucket, is told in detail, alternating with the stories of the people who participated in it. I grew up in Auburn, NY, which has a Single A baseball team, and this book really resonated with me. I know my entire family will want to read it.Barry gives the reader a close-up look at our national pasttime, and what that means for the cities where it is played. He tells the stories of the participants with honesty, humor, and heart. If you liked the movie, Bull Durham, this book is for you. It is a must-read for every baseball fan.