Forget the double no-hitter between Hippo Vaughn and Fred Toney at Wrigley Field in Chicago on May 12, 1917.  Harvey Haddix’s lost perfect game in Milwaukee on May 26, 1959. And all those dead-ball and modern extra-inning marathons, too.

The best game ever pitched occurred on the night of July 2, 1963 at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park.  Giants right-handed ace Juan Marichal and Milwaukee Braves southpaw Warren Spahn combined to pitched 31 1/3 innings of baseball on a cool evening, each throwing more than 200 pitches before Willie Mays homered off Spahn with one out in the bottom of the 16th to win the game for the Giants, 1-0.

Marichal would not be taken out of the game after the customary nine innings. Even as the game moved into extra frames,  Giants manager Alvin Dark – a former teammate of  Spahn in both Boston and Milwaukee, continued to plead with Marichal to exit, knowing he needed the man with the blazing fastball and high leg kick every fourth day.  Marichal refused, pointing out after all that if that “old man” (Spahn was 42 years old) could stay out there, the 25-year-old ace could, too.  Willie McCovey had slugged a long drive in the bottom of the 10th inning that first base umpire Chris Pelekoudas called foul, though Giant players, fans and broadcasters saw it differently.

Juan Marichal (left) and Warren Spahn (right) both baffled batters with their leg kick. Photo courtesy of The Sports Cubicle. Cover photos for the book, The Greatest Game Ever Pitched.

Finally, Spahn – who surrendered Mays’s first of 660 home runs a dozen years before – threw one of his famed screwballs that did not zig or zag as usual.  Mays hit it square and the historical game ended.  The hit was the ninth Spahn surrendered that night. He walked only one batter. Marichal scattered eight hits and walked four but walked away with the win.

Not only was it the best-pitched game at least in the era from 1920 to the present but the two pitchers each had one of their best seasons in 1963. Marichal won 25 games and lost eight for a pennant contender. Spahn won 23 and lost seven for a mediocre Milwaukee club destined to move to Atlanta in 1966.  That’s 48 wins and 15 losses between  two Hall of Famers whom the present generation likely does not recognize or appreciate.  On that
July 2, 1963 night, they certainly were at their best.