Remembering the Wackiest Braves Game Ever

On the evening of July 4, 1985, a crowd off 44,947 people showed up for the game between the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. The ten thousand or so that were left over for the post game fireworks show will never forget the wacky nineteen inning contest that they observed.

When combined with two rain delays, the epic game lasted six hours and ten minutes. The game didn’t start until after 9 p.m. because of a rain delay and probably should never have been played. The field was a morass with the notoriously poor drainage at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium.

With the Mets ahead 7-4 in the last of the 8th inning, the clock struck midnight. Dale Murphy led a four run inning that put the Braves ahead by one run.

Len Dykstra tied the game in the ninth with a home run. The game remained tied until the thirteenth when, at 2 a.m., Met Howard Johnson homered, giving New York a 10-8 lead. Then with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the 13th, Brave Terry Harper responded by driving a home run down the left field line, tying the game again.

The Mets went ahead in the eighteenth inning. In the bottom half of the inning, the Braves had to send relief pitcher Rick Camp to the plate to pitch hit. They had run out of position players. Camp, with a lifetime batting average of .062, stepped into the box. Mets catcher Gary Carter waved all his outfielders in so they could catch any short pop fly that the picther turned pinch hitter might hit. Camp amazed everyone by hitting his first career home run.

Ray Knight responded in the top of the 19th with a double that would prove to be the game winner. The game finally ended after six hours and ten minutes.

When the first fireworks shell exploded over the stadium at 4 a.m., 10,000 fans were left in the stands.

Category: ALL POSTS, Met 101/Weather History