6

When this game ended, it was six minutes past midnight. Sunday had turned into Monday. Only those who didn't have to go to work the next day, worked late, or didn't have children, remained. And you could physically count what was left out of the more than 5,000 who were there at 7 pm.

But, no, it wasn't over. This was just the first game of a double-header. There was still time left to play it, and it would be played. And when all was done, the Stars and Smokies had come within an inning of playing the most innings in a double-header in Double-A history. Not Southern League. Double-A.

It was the height of frustration for the both teams, but especially for the Stars and their fans. The opportunities to end this low-scoring game were many. Note both teams left a total of 34 runners on base. Knoxville pitchers walked 19 Huntsville batters, tying a club record, eight of them coming between the 9th and 12 innings, allowing the Stars to load the bases twice. They also gave up 15 hits. That's 34 baserunners and only 3 runs. There were a record seven sac bunts.

The Stars had one-out, bases-loaded opportunities in the 9th, 10th, and 18th innings and couldn't put it away. In the end, it took one swing, when several wouldn't do.

David Demonbreun, the Stars' general manager then, jokingly said he was disappointed that the first game didn't last longer. "I figured if we were going to play that long, we could have at least set some record.... What can't be lost in the craziness here is that this is an extremely important game, even though it's being played at an obnoxious hour."

With eight games remaining in the first half of the season, the Stars were just three games out. Normally a 12:50 am curfew would have suspended the double-header, but it was lifted because the end of this five-game homestand could be made up in the first half. It was Knoxville's last trip to Huntsville for this half.

After the K-Jays scored to take an early 2-0 lead, Ozzie Canseco, pinch-hitting for Jim Buccheri, belted a 1-out, 2-run single in the bottom of the 7th to tie this game, for what seemed like forever.

Stan Royer was 0-for-6 when he came up to the plate to lead off the bottom of the 19th inning against Darren Hall (3-5, 4.86 ERA in 28 relief appearances in 1990). His home run over the left-centerfield wall won the longest home game in innings in the Stars' 20-year history. It was only the 7th hit for the Stars in this game. When Royer crossed home plate, he was showered by his teammates as if, Scott Brosius later said, "we had won the World Series."

Knoxville loaded the bases in the 10th inning and had the go-ahead run on third with one out in the 14th. It was frustrating for them, as well. The K-Jays tried to squeeze Paul Rodgers home, but Shawn Jeter couldn't connect on the bunt. Pete Kuld gunned the ball to third, where Royer promptly applied the tag.

There was also plenty of room in this game for thrilling defensive plays. Nelson Simmons sprinted to the right field wall to snag a ball on the track, hit by Domingo Martinez in the 16th inning. And the K-Jays' Shawn Jeter made a brilliant diving grab in shallow right in the 14th to rob Darren Lewis of an extra-base hit.

Sitting in the lower deck that night, It seemed impossible the 2nd game of this scheduled double-header would get underway, but it did 18 minutes after midnight. Anyone masochistic enough to want another game as long as this was disappointed. and after four scoreless innings, your imagination started working, but Nelson Simmons' 2-run HR in the bottom of the 5th held up. The second game lasted just an hour and 42 minutes. Huntsville's Pat Wernig (3-1) and Nate Cromwell (4-7) were the pitchers of record.

It was 2:10 in the morning.

Both Stan Royer and Darren Hall would go on to have minor major league careers. Hall made it to the majors with the Blue Jays in 1994 after eight minor league seasons, half of them at Knoxville. He ended up with the Dodgers, played with them for two seasons, and was out of baseball when the White Sox cut him during spring training in 1999. Stan Royer was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals with Felix Jose and Daryl Green on August 29, near the end of the season for the Stars. After playing just 85 games over three seasons for St. Louis, he was waived and picked up by the Red Sox. He finished his career with them in 1994, playing just four games, going 1-for-9.

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