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The “Wackiest Game “ Ever
July 4th and baseball go together like bees and honey. On July 4, 1985 a sellout crowd at Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium showed up for the game, but many were more excited about the fireworks display at the end of the game. If they only knew what they were in for. It was an amazing game with the two teams exchanging the lead for 18 innings and fans enduring two rain delays. The Mets went ahead 11-10 in the top of the 18th and were in a position to finish the debacle with two outs in the bottom of the inning and no Brave on base. With the bench now emptied, the Braves were forced to send up relief pitcher Rick Camp to hit for himself. The veteran Camp was statistically one of the worse batters in baseball, a career .062 hitter with no home runs. Met’s catcher Gary Carter waved the outfielders in to prevent a pop-up single. Instead, with an 0-2 count, Camp hit one over the right center field fence to tie the game. The Mets finally won the game, 12-11, in the 19th at 4:00 a.m. in the morning. The firework display went off as promised although less than 5,000 fans were still there. Police phones rang loud as the residents living close to the stadium were jolted out of bed when the sky lit up looking and sounding like a bomb attack. Braves announcer John Sterling called it ”the wackiest game in the history of baseball.