Kerwin Danley Calls 19 Innings, Squats for 597 Pitches

HP Umpire Kerwin Danley worked a 2013-MLB record 19 innings of baseball Monday night and Tuesday morning, joining crewmates Vic Carapazza (1B), Gary Cederstrom (2B, crew chief) and Lance Barksdale (3B) for 6 hours and 32 minutes of deadlock before the Oakland Athletics walked off the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on a two-run home run by A's 1B Brandon Moss in the bottom of the 19th inning.

How many pitches did umpire Danley see in those 19 innings of work?

Danley calls the 19th inning.

For such a long contest, pitch counts were surprisingly balanced. With 156 total plate appearances, Danley saw 298 pitches from the eight Angels who took the mound and 299 from Oakland's eight hurlers for a sum of 597 total pitches or 'squats,' 372 of them for strikes (62.3%).

According to MLB, there were 716,257 total squats in 2012 by home plate umpires, or an average of 8,427 for full-timers. With 11,216 ups and downs, Gary Darling squatted the most, averaging 295 pitches per game.

On Monday night/Tuesday morning, Danley saw 597.

The 19-inning affair marks the longest game in Major League history since a 20-inning, 6:53 Mets-Cardinals game in St. Louis on April 17, 2010. That game's home plate umpire was CB Bucknor, who saw 652 pitches, 399 of them strikes (61.2%). Joining Bucknor were Doug Eddings (1B), Dana DeMuth (2B, crew chief) and Danley (3B).

Prior to that, it was a 22-inning Colorado-San Diego contest on April 17, 2008 (6:16), Alfonso Marquez presiding over 658 total pitches, 413 for strikes (62.8%). Marquez's crew consisted of Andy Fletcher (1B), Mike Reilly (2B, crew chief) and Bob Davidson (3B) In part due to that game, Marquez won the 2008 squats lead award with 11,254 pitches seen that season.

Though HP Umpire Barry McCormick's May 1, 1920 performance with 1B Umpire Bob Hart during the Brooklyn Robins' 26-inning, 1-1 tie vs. the Boston Braves featured 186 batters, pitch counts were not kept at that time, nor were they during Jim Evans' plate job for the 25-inning Chicago White Sox vs. Milwaukee Brewers game on May 8, 1984, which went 8 hours, 6 minutes after being suspended in inning 17.

Though Marquez and Bucknor's games are the longest on record with available pitch count data, the June 3, 1989 Dodgers-Astros tilt, featuring plate umpire Fred Brocklander with Bob Engel (1B), Paul Runge (2B) and Dutch Rennert (3B) on the bases, saw 643 pitches thrown. Interestingly, when the Dodgers beat the Expos in 22 innings later that season on August 23, 1989, Greg Bonin calling balls and strikes with Frank Pulli (1B), Mark Hirschbeck (2B) and Davidson (3B), the pitch count tracker was deactivated after inning #16.

Wrap: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim vs. Oakland Athletics, 4/29/13 through 4/30/13