Let's Play Two... and Two-Thirds

On this night in 1968, the Mets and Astros met in the Astrodome in what, after six hours, 24 innings, 14 pitchers and 158 total at-bats, turned out to be a nightmare of an evening for future Mets hero Al Weis.

A utility infielder playing in place of injured Buddy Harrelson, Weis started the game at short for the Mets and played all 24 innings. In the bottom frame of the 24th (always a tough inning), he let a bases-loaded grounder from the 'Stros Bob Aspromonte bounce through his legs, scoring Norm Miller from third, the game's first and only run. A walk-off error after a six-hour, 24 inning shutout - imagine. The bars were probably closed already and the '69 Series was a long ways away.

As the scoreboard up there attests, this was the longest scoreless contest in baseball history and as far as I can tell (without the help from Elias... God I miss those guys) the longest night game in the history of the bigs. Each squad got 11 hits, had 79 at-bats and committed one error. Hapless at the time, both sides nevertheless had their aces on the mound - Tom Terrific went 10 for the Mets (with only 3 K's oddly) and Don Wilson went nine for Houston. The once-promising Wade Blasingame pitched the last four innings for the 'Stros to earn his only win of the season, while long-forgotten reliever Les Rohr was saddled with the loss for the Mets (one of three losses in a 2-3, two-year career in the majors).

Here were the starting lineups:

NYM

Al Weis - SS
Ken Boswell - 2B
Tommie Agee - CF
Ron Swoboda - RF
Art Shamsky - LF
Ed Kranepool - 1B
Jerry Buchek - 3B
Jerry Grote - C
Tom Seaver - P



HOU

Ron Davis - CF
Norm Miller - RF
Jimmy Wynn - LF
Rusty Staub - 1B
Hal King - C
Bob Aspromonte - 3B
Julio Gotay - 2B
Hector Torres - SS
Don Wilson - P

Now admittedly the Mets did not start four of their regulars in this game for one reason or another - Harrelson, Cleon Jones, Ed Charles and Phil Linz (all four eventually made it into the game, even the injured Harrelson) - but that said, those are not pretty lineups. No wonder they couldn't score any runs. Sheesh. As much as I hate to say so, it is truly amazing to look at those starting nines and think that after battling it out with Houston for the basement of the National League in 1968 (a contest the 'Stros ignominiously won by a single loss), the Mets would go on to win the 1969 World Series.