The Mets Police

ATLANTA MARATHON

At 4:01 a.m. on July 5, 1985, the fireworks finally went off over Fulton County Stadium. The Mets and Braves had just played a game that featured two rain delays and six hours, 10 minutes of playing time. When Ron Darling struck out Rick Camp at 3:55, the Mets 16-13 victory was complete.

It was Fireworks Night, and even though only about 100 people were left in the stadium, the Braves decided to set them off. Atlanta residents, asleep for hours, panicked that the city was under attack.

It was a fitting finish to a bizarre night. The game had 19 innings, 29 runs, 43 players, 114 outs, 615 pitches, 45 hits, 23 walks, 22 strikeouts, five errors and 37 stranded base runners.

That was the most bizarre game I ever played in - bizarre and fascinating, depressing and great, thrilling and boring, Darling said last week. It was all of those things mixed in. It would have been a story but Rick Camp made it a big story.

The Mets had taken a lead in the top of the 18th inning, and they were ready to go home. Then Camp, a relief pitcher with a .060 career batting average, came to the plate. He hit a two-out, two-strike Tom Gorman pitch out of the ballpark for his only career home run to tie the game.

The Mets broke through in the 19th to put the game away and Darling closed it out. Keith Hernandez hit for the cycle in the game, and Gary Carter caught all 19 innings - 305 pitches.