Camp's improbable homer extended an endless night

A quarter of a century later, Rick Camp says his one famous night was strenuous as well as strange. In the game against the Mets that lasted until 3:55 a.m., he warmed up in the Braves' bullpen seven times. He felt as if he had thrown a complete game before he ever appeared in it.

"I guess it got me loose," he said the other day, "for my hitting."

Few baseball players ever have been as weak at the plate as Camp, yet he is known for one swing of the bat, which didn't even win a game.

Despite all that has happened in his life - 56 wins and 57 saves in nine major-league seasons, a career as a political lobbyist, nearly two years in federal prison for a white-collar crime - Camp is remembered for hitting one of the unlikeliest and latest home runs in big-league history.

Many things have to happen for a game to go eight hours and 19 innings. Weird things, memorable things and two rain delays. And after all of it, a promised fireworks show began at 4:01 a.m. But ask anyone who was awake about what stands out from July 4-5, 1985, and they begin the same way.

"I remember Rick Camp hitting that home run," said Wally Backman, who had the last of the Mets' 28 hits in their 16-13 victory - and to be honest, he slipped in an adjective before "home run."

Camp was at a Braves alumni gathering last weekend and signed many autographs for people who overlooked the fact that he was the losing pitcher and allowed five runs in the 19th inning. They celebrated him as the one who brought an .060 lifetime average to the plate in the bottom of the 18th because the Braves had no one left to pinch hit for him. They regaled Camp as the one who faced a two-out, two-strike pitch from Tom Gorman at what seemed the perfunctory end of an 11-10 loss.

Braves fans still praise Camp for hitting his only career home run at that moment, happenstance more unexpected than 4 a.m. fireworks. "Terry Tata was the home-plate umpire and he had told me, 'Hit this one out and we'll play all night.' He met me halfway between third and home and said, 'You SOB, I was only kidding,' " Camp said on the phone from Georgia.

"I have no idea how it happened. It was just luck. It was a pitcher's dream. I tell people that Gorman got released that night.''

John Sterling was the Braves announcer working the TV side. He didn't yet have his Yankees signature home run call, "It is high, it is far, it is gone!" He doesn't remember what he said, but it must have been filled with utter shock.

"Like everyone else, I couldn't believe it," he said. "His reputation was that he was the worst-hitting pitcher. When I was working with Skip Caray one night, I said, 'You know, the great Russ Hodges said anyone is dangerous up there swinging a shaleleigh.' And Skip said, 'Obviously, he didn't see Rick Camp.' "

The former pitcher has come to appreciate the Camp followers. "I feel honored that people remember me and respect me," he said.

Now that he is starting his life over, he can use all the respect he can get. From 2005-07, he was in federal prison as one of five people caught in a scheme to steal more than $2 million from a mental health facility. Camp still says he was unwittingly caught up in a former state assemblyman's scheme, but he acknowledges he deserved to do the time.

"Everybody makes mistakes. That's part of life. I've got to be positive," he said from his job at the headquarters of Mom's Bakery, which, he proudly says, produces 4 million biscuits a day.

There never will be another day like July 4, 1985. "It was pretty crazy. When he hit that one out, I said, 'We're going to be playing all morning,' " said Howard Johnson, who gave the Mets leads by hitting a two-run homer in the 13th and scoring on Lenny Dykstra's sacrifice fly in the 18th.

"There were a lot of sidebars in that game," Johnson said. Keith Hernandez hit for the cycle. Gary Carter caught all 19 innings and had five hits. Dwight Gooden started but was lifted after the third-inning rain delay. Darryl Strawberry and manager Davey Johnson were ejected in the 17th for arguing a called strike.

Talk about fireworks. Then there was the real show at 4:01. "CNS was one of the major sponsors for the Braves. They paid 150 grand for those fireworks and they weren't going to waste that," Camp said. "I had a friend who worked in the office and he said the switchboard lit up. People thought their houses were being attacked."

The rumble that really echoed, though, came from the weak-hitting pitcher's bat.