Radiotopia from PRX.

From PRX's Radiotopia, this is Radio Diaries.

I'm Joe Richmond.

Today in the show, we're bringing you a chapter from a new story we produced with ESPN's 30 for 30 podcast.

It's called The Longest Game.

Here's Radio Diaries producer Nellie Gillis.

Baseball is sometimes called the timeless game. Here's Radio Diary's producer Nellie Gillis. Baseball is sometimes called the timeless game. Unlike football or basketball or soccer,

there's no clock. The teams keep playing until there's a winner. So theoretically, the game

could go on and on forever. And four decades ago, one game came close. On April 18th, 1981, two teams played the

longest baseball game in history. Here's the story.

Red Wings Play-by-Play baseball.

This began as a game of absolutely no consequence.

Well, Bob Drew, along with Pete Torres here at McCoy Stadium in Partucket, Rhode Island.

Patucket, Rhode Island is a city of about 70,000 working class, blue collar.

My name is Dan Barry.

I'm a longtime journalist with the New York Times, and I wrote a book about this game.

Butucket was quite proud of its distinction as the AAA base for the Boston Red Sox.

And they had this stadium called McCoy Stadium.

It was kind of run down in those days and kind of beat up.

But they ran a clean shop.

They watched the drinking.

They watched the swearing.

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