How a Dutch Guy Participated in The Longest Baseball Game Ever

Every hardcore baseball fan may have heard of the longest game ever played. It was a game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings in 1981. The game lasted thirty-three innings. But did you know a Dutch guy participated in this game?

We’re talking about Win Remmerswaal. This kid was the first Dutch born and Dutch trained player that reached the Bigs.

As Win’s dad played football (soccer), he moved into that direction as well. But at the age of sixteen, Win started to play baseball and by the time he was eighteen, he debuted for the Dutch national team.

In 1974, Win decided to try his luck in the USA. Thanks to some connections a Dutch coach had, Win had a tryout with the Kansas City Royals, but somehow the Boston Red Sox signed him.

After he worked his way up in the farm system of the Red Sox, Win was called up in August 1979. The general manager of the Pawtucket Red Sox, Lou Schwechheimer, went to Remmerswaal’s apartment with an employee to tell him the good news. It was eight AM and they had bought him a ticket for the flight of 10 AM to Milwaukee where the Boston Red Sox would play against the Milwaukee Brewers. They knocked on his door but there was no answer. So it was decided to re-book the flight to the 12 AM, and they kept knocking without result.

Fortunately, his roommate, fellow player Julio Valdez, had just arrived and was able to open the apartment with the key. When they arrived in Remmerswaal’s bedroom, they saw two black socks sticking from under the sheet on the bed. When they asked “Is that you Win?” the answer came from under the sheet “Yes, it’s me”. Then they asked why he didn’t respond to the knocking on the door. The answer was typical for Remmerswaal: “Well, I already thought that it would be possible it was you and that it could very well be that I would be called up for the Major League. But I also thought that if they really wanted me, they would certainly want to let me sleep in.

Remmerswaal had a creative approach in the bullpen. His former colleague, Bruce Hurst, who played with him in Triple A and the Majors, remembered when Remmerswaal was waiting to be called up as reliever, he would have fellow pitchers sign game balls and trade them with the crowd in the stands for ice cream, peanuts or pizza.

This AAA game we are talking about started on April 18 and went on well after midnight. Since the rule book of the International League didn’t mention anything about a curfew, like other leagues had, the game dragged on. Win pitched 4.1 innings, already on Sunday, April 19. In that outing, he allowed one run on four hits and three walks, as he struck out three. Only some time after 3.00 AM, the president of the International League was reached by phone. He ordered the game to be stopped immediately after the final out of the current inning. So eventually at 4.07 AM, after the 32nd inning was played, the game was called. The game would be finished on June 23 as the PawSox won the game 3-2. By the time of this lengthy game, his MLB days were behind him already.

His MLB career was cut short due to shoulder problems. After his release by the Red Sox, Remmerswaal spent some years in Italy where he played professionally with Parma, Nettuno, and San Marino. After his active playing career, he returned to Dutch baseball one more time in 1989 as he accepted a job as manager of Amsterdam Pirates. That gig would last only one season.

In 2022, Remmerswaal passed away in a nursing home in his hometown The Hague.