With snow on the ground on this April 18 and all sports, including baseball, at a standstill, what better time to commemorate the longest ballgame ever played?
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Our friends at @BostonSportsInf point out that 39 years ago today, on a frigid Easter Eve at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, R.I., the Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings made baseball history.
The opposing third basemen are future Hall of Famers Boggs (who goes 4-for-12 to nearly duplicate his career .328 average and Ripken (2-for-13). A bevy of other future major leaguers, including '80s Red Sox stalwarts Barrett, Hurst and Rich Gedman are also involved.
Boggs' clutch RBI double in the bottom of the 21st - at about 2 in the morning - ties it at 2. Future Red Sox manager Joe Morgan is ejected for arguing a call in the 22nd inning and phones his wife to explain why he's still at the ballpark.
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The epic contest is recounted in Dan Barry's book "Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game" and Steve Krasner's "The Longest Game" and in a short video feature done by MLB.com.
At 4:09 a.m., the game is suspended by the International League President Harold Cooper, who gets word that it had been continuing into the wee hours. The game is resumed more than two months later on June 23, the next time Rochester visits Pawtucket.
Then, like now, there's no Major League Baseball when the game is resumed. A players' strike has halted the season in the majors. So, the final inning, which takes 18 minutes, packs McCoy with nearly 6,000 fans and gains national attention for a baseball-starved public.
PawSox first baseman Dave Koza finally ends it with his fifth hit (in 14 at-bats), a bases-loaded bloop single over Ripken's head to score Barrett.
Pawtucket 3, Rochester 2 in 33. Time of the game: 8 hours, 25 minutes.