The 2002 MLB All-Star Game infamously ended in a tie when the American League and National League both ran out of pitchers.
That event had a good 15-year run as the strangest baseball tie in recent baseball history, but it has been usurped by a town ball game Wednesday night at Tink Larson Field in Waseca.
The non-league game between Waseca and St. Peter ended up as a 1-1 tie when the lone umpire working the game walked off the field in the 10th inning in apparent protest over the teams questioning his ball-strike calls.
That's what we can glean, at least, from the account of the game from Tink Larson — the 75-year-old Waseca manager and ballpark namesake (pictured in a Star Tribune file photo).
Larson declined to say who the umpire was, noting that "umpires take enough stuff" and that this particular man is a "decent umpire and a really nice guy."
Per Larson, who was reached by phone Thursday afternoon, the contest between Waseca and St. Peter was "a good game" and something of a pitcher's duel. He said there was a fair amount of grousing from both teams over ball-strike calls, but nothing out of the ordinary.
"There were no confrontations, nobody had charged out of the dugout," Larson said. "I heard their dugout chirp every once in a while, things like, 'you're kidding me' and 'call it both ways.' Usual stuff. The umpire never warned the dugouts with anything."
But in the 10th inning, Larson said, a St. Peter batter objected to a called strike.
