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Mets starter Tom Seaver was long gone by the time the Astros finally beat New York, 1-0, in 24 innings. Getty Images

April 15 in sports history: It was way past bedtime for Astros, Mets

Last updated 4/14/20

Here's a look back at notable sports news on April 15 through the years.

1968: With no score in the 22nd inning of the Mets-Astros game, Houston owner Judge Roy Hofheinz was getting tired of it all. So he OK'd putting a message on the scoreboard at the Astrodome:

"The judge says he's ready to go to bed ... let's score a run."

In a marathon game that ultimately spanned two days, the Astros finally beat the Mets, 1-0, in 24 innings. Somewhat humorously, the longest scoreless game in MLB history ended when a grounder went through the legs of Mets shortstop Al Weis with the bases loaded.

Starting pitchers Don Wilson for the Astros and Tom Seaver for the Mets were long gone by the time the game ended, at 1:37 a.m., when Norm Miller crossed the plate for Houston. Time of game: 6 hours, 6 minutes. Fewer than 1,000 of the original crowd of about 20,000 remained at the end.

"This was a three-package-of-tobacco game, and I've got just one chew left," Astros coach-catcher Buddy Hancken said.

Wrote sports writer Fred Hartman: "They'll gauge baseball perseverance for months and years to come by what took place on April 15 and 16, 1968."

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1947: In one of the most momentous days in American civil rights movement and Major League Baseball history, Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers became the first African American to play in the big leagues. Robinson, who played first base in his debut, went 0-for-3 in the Dodgers' 5-3 win over the Boston Braves at Ebbets Field.

"I wasn't at all excited or scared," Robinson told reporters afterward. "I was as loose as could be." That season, he endured taunts and racial abuse from white players, but he played magnificently. Robinson batted .297, scored 125 runs, stole 29 bases and was named NL Rookie of the Year.

Fifty years after Robinson's debut, MLB permanently retired his No. 42.

1927: In a 6-3 win over the Philadelphia A's at Yankee Stadium, New York's Babe Ruth hit the first of his 60 homers that season.

"If the Babe continues to play the brand of ball he flashed yesterday, the other seven teams in the American League might just as well reconcile themselves to the fact right now that there is nothing left to fight for but the runner-up position," wrote the Brooklyn Times Union.

The report was spot-on: The 1927 Yankees (110-44), perhaps the greatest team in MLB history, won the American League pennant, finishing 19 games ahead of the A's. In the World Series, New York swept the Pirates, 4-0.

1958: In the first regular-season Major League Baseball game played in California, the San Francisco Giants beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-0. Both teams moved from New York, where they had played for decades.

"If they keep on playing the way they did yesterday," San Francisco sports columnist Prescott Sullivan wrote about the Giants, "the one-time residents of the Polo Grounds may not lose a game all season."

Many of the fans at Seals Stadium, the newspaper reported, considered the game between the National League rivals the "greatest moment in the history of western sports." A Dodgers fan said: "I was brought up on Long Island, but I think this is a great thing for San Francisco. It should have happened long before this."

The Giants (80-74) finished the season third in the eight-team National League; the Dodgers (71-83) finished seventh.

1979: At the Masters, 27-year-old Fuzzy Zoeller earned his only green jacket by winning a playoff on the second hole against Ed Sneed and Tom Watson. Whistling and joking with the gallery, Zoeller was a contrast to the grim-faced Sneed, who started the final round with a five-stroke lead over Watson and six over Zoeller.

"Zoeller confessed that he doesn't even have an agent, and the only commercials he has done are for a furniture store owned by a cousin in New Albany [Indiana]," wrote Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Jesse Outlar. "With his personality and golf game, Zoeller will need an agent very soon."

2000: After drafting Penn State defensive lineman Courtney Brown with the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft, the Browns were jacked.

"I think if you drew up a football player, particularly a defensive football player, and put all the ingredients in you were looking for," Browns owner Al Lerner said, "you'd end up with Courtney Brown."

Wrote The Associated Press: "The Brown surname is synonymous with Cleveland football greatness, and the Browns think the newest Brown can continue a legacy that includes team founder Paul Brown and Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown."

But like so many other 21st-century moves by this franchise — Johnny Manziel, anyone? — Brown flopped. The 6-foot-5, 285-pounder played five unspectacular seasons in Cleveland and was out of the league by 2005.

Coverage in the Boston Globe of the bombing attack at the Boston Marathon by two terrorists on April 15, 2013.

2013: The explosions of two pressure-cooker bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon killed three people and injured more than 200. The bombers were quickly identified as brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. In a massive manhunt, Tamerlan was killed when his brother ran over him in a car while making an escape attempt. Dzhokhar was apprehended, convicted and sentenced to death in 2015. He's currently on death row.

2019: The Los Angeles Clippers made an improbable comeback against the Golden State Warriors in Game 2 of the first round of the NBA playoffs. Down by 31 in the second half, the Clippers scored 44 points in one quarter and beat the Warriors, 135-131. L.A. went on to lose the series, 4-2.