Cambridge, ON - - The game that wouldn’t end
From left, John Beechey, Bob Cunningham, Gerry Pullin, Don Wisson, Bob Kitzman, and Gary Hedges gather at the Lincoln Park ball diamond in Cambridge. - Peter Lee,Record staff
ORIGINAL STORY By Greg Mercer, Waterloo Region Record
Â
CAMBRIDGE — When he still hadn't come home by 1 a.m. that night, Bob Eccles' mother began to worry.
He'd left the house after supper that previous evening to pitch for the Galt Slees in a fastball game against the K-W Forwell Super Vs.
Hours after that game should have been over, Eccles was missing.
Instead, at that ungodly hour, Eccles was still on the mound at Lincoln Park, making history as the winner of a complete-game, 26-inning, five-hour marathon that was at the time the longest fastball game ever played in Canada.
That game, played 50 years ago this week, ended in a 1-0 score that was probably welcomed on both sides. It instantly became a part of local sporting legend, and made headlines across the country.
For the guys who played it, it was both an incredible pitcher's duel and gruelling contest that refused to end.
"At the end of the game, I think everybody was just relieved," said Don Wisson, 74, who scored the winning run after striking out nine times in a row.
"To us, it just started as an ordinary game, but it kept going on and on. There were people who left the game, and came back in their housecoats to watch."
Back in 1967, the now-defunct Galt Slees were a powerhouse in Ontario's fastball circuit and winners of four provincial championships between 1960 and 1965. They were younger than most of the teams they played in the InterCity Fastball League, and unlike other teams didn't have paid players.
Their home field, Lincoln Park, didn't have a gate so they couldn't charge admission, anyway. People just lined the field and donated money to help the team cover its costs.
On that infamous night in June the first basemen Wisson was the hero, but Eccles was the game's bespectacled star. He pitched a complete game, striking out 56 batters, allowing only six hits over 26 innings. The Slees were flawless behind, committing no errors.
The pitcher insists he was locked into the pitcher's duel he'd lost track of the number of batters he'd fanned.
"Both of us were so focused on the game that we really didn't think about it. Neither of us wanted to give in. I certainly didn't know how many strikeouts we were piling up until the next day in the paper," said Eccles, now 70.
Eccles, a burly right-hander with a windmill delivery, struck out 12 in a row at one stretch in the game. In nine separate innings, he fanned all three batters he faced. In the dugout, his manager worried his arm was going to fall off.
"I thought about taking him out umpteen times, but he's quite a competitor and I was torn. It was such a unique situation, and I didn't want to take it away from him," said Bob Cunningham, the Slees coach, who was celebrating his birthday that night.
"So I didn't make a change. But he was pretty damn tired when it was over."
Eccles had pitched 26 innings in one day before, during a tournament the previous year. But he'd never done it in one game, without a break. Still, he insisted the batters were getting more tired than he was.
His counterpart, a lanky hired gun out of Toronto named Wes Martin, was almost his match. He also pitched a complete game and struck out 48, but his teammates committed four errors. The last one, a throwing error by Kitchener's third baseman, put Wisson aboard and ultimately cost them the game.
It was the first time the Slees had seen Martin pitch, after signing a contract the day before.
Wisson, who hustled into second base on the errant throw, scored when light-hitting rookie catcher Pete Rung hammered a two-out single that bounced off Martin's glove and allowed the winning run to come home.
"I had a starting run at second, and once the pitcher deflected the ball into right field, I was able to score. Good thing, because I'm not a fast guy," Wisson said.
Cunningham, 79, says it's too bad the game had to end on an error — although who knows how long it would have lasted without that mistake.
"I kind of wonder where it would have went," he said. "If you had told me it was going to happen, I wouldn't have believed. Not with two pitchers both going the distance."
Eccles told reporters his arm felt fine after the game. Three nights later, he pitched again, striking out 20 in a complete-game shutout Guelph.
"I felt fine. A little dehydrated but that's all. When your mechanics are at a hundred per cent there is very little strain on your arm," he said. "That's why I laugh at all the focus on pitch count today. It's not the number of pitches but what goes into the pitches that counts."
Back in 1967, the pitchers' remarkable performance caught the attention of sports fans across the country.
"Two irresistible forces ran into a pair of immovable objects at Lincoln Park Tuesday night and it took five hours, 26 innings and 106 strikeouts before something finally gave," was how the Record's Fran Campbell described it.
"The big Slee right-hander felt he had control problems before the game but his overtime effort has given him renewed assurance," wrote the understated Marty Knack, sports editor of the Woodstock Sentinel Review, in 1967.
Eccles, who was inducted into the Cambridge Sports Hall of Fame earlier this year, said no one was more happy to have the game end than his worried mother, who was at home wondering where everybody was.
"I know my mother was relieved because it was one o'clock in the morning and my dad and brother were still not home yet," he said.
Twitter: @MercerRecord
Â
Â
