Dozens of exhausted but smiling baseball players wrapped up a truly epic ball game that unofficially set a record in Edmonton Monday.
While it still needs to be certified by officials with Guinness World Records, the players appear to have set a record for the world’s longest baseball game while also swinging for the fences in an effort to try and help strike out cancer.
Once the game wrapped up around noon on Monday, the final score was a staggering 378 runs for Team Red and 269 runs for Team Black after 269 innings of ball.
The game started Friday and was organized by Brent Saik who started the world’s longest hockey game in 2003. It was held in memory of his father, Terry, who died of cancer.
IN PHOTOS: World’s Longest Hockey Game at Saiker’s Acres
The summer after the first hockey game, Saik’s first wife Susan also succumbed to cancer. Her death prompted the next hockey game in 2005 to be played in her name. The hockey game has since been held in 2008, 2011 and 2015.
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Saik said the epic baseball game saw a range of emotions play out on the field.
“It’s just a mess of laughing, crying and everything.”
READ MORE: IN PHOTOS: World’s longest baseball game attempt underway in Edmonton
Participants hoped to raise $250,000 for cancer research by playing the game, a number organizers said they surpassed.
“To raise a quarter-of-a-million bucks is unbelievable,” Saik said. “And when you do the math, that number is very close to the hockey game. We did this in 72 hours and hockey was 252.”
“This thing has saved lives and every one of these players know that and that’s why they come here.”
For more information on the game or to donate to the cause, visit the Alberta Cancer Foundation’s website.
If the record is certified, the 72-hour game will set a new benchmark for baseball games after the record was last set in Sauget, Illinois in 2015.
“We’re talking about world’s longest football game next,” Saik said with a laugh after the game Monday.
-with files from Caley Ramsay
Watch below: The record still needs to be certified but over the long weekend, a 72-hour baseball game set an unofficial record for how long it was played and also helped raise money to fight cancer. But despite the serious motivation behind the record attempt, the players made sure to get in a few laughs as well. Kevin Karius explains.
Watch below: The world’s longest baseball game got underway in Edmonton on Friday, raising funds for the Alberta Cancer Foundation. Global’s Kevin Karius took part and on Sept. 2, 2016, he was at the ballpark with founder Brent Saik.
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