The Mount Rushmore of baseball players from Alexandria might well be Juan Pierre, Russ Springer, Warren Morris and Terry Mathews, but there’s a former major league pitcher with a connection to Alexandria who had a Mt. Rushmore-type pitching performance 79 years ago. Almost to the day.

It was July 21, 1945, and Les Mueller, the uncle of Alexandria’s late, great “Mr. Baseball,” Jodie White, pitched 19 2/3 innings for the Detroit Tigers in a marathon 24-inning contest at Philadelphia’s Shibe Park. The day game, which started at 3 p.m., ended in a 1-1 tie and was called because of “darkness” even though it was just 8 p.m. on a steamy summer evening.

A story clipped from the Detroit Evening Times reported the “bespectacled” pitcher came within one-third of an inning reaching the team record for longest game by a Tigers pitcher. The Detroit record had been set by George Uhle, who worked 20 innings against the Chicago White Sox in 1929.

And here’s the kicker: the Chicago pitcher in that game, a future Baseball Hall of Famer,  was Louisiana Sports Hall of Famer Ted Lyons of Lake Charles, who pitched 21 innings in a 6-5 loss to the Tigers. As incredible as that seems to most of us now, it wasn’t unprecedented back then. Uhle and Lyons then became the 10th pair of pitchers in baseball history to throw at least 20 innings in a game and only the fourth since the live-ball era began in 1920.

Mueller, who pitched for the Class D Alexandria Aces of the Evangeline League in 1938, married Jodie White’s aunt, Peggy Brodnax of Alexandria, and helped the Tigers win the World Series in 1945. He split time in his retirement years between his native town of Belleville and the Alexandria area.

Back to Alexandria’s Mt. Rushmore of baseball, Pierre and Springer are well-known for their accomplishments and are in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. Morris is known across the land and even the globe for his game-winning, bottom-of-the-ninth home run to win the 1996 College World Series for LSU, and he was third in the National League Rookie-of-the-Year balloting in 1999 for the Pittsburgh Pirates. And Mathews, a product of Holy Savior Menard High School and UL-Monroe (formerly Northeast Louisiana University) compiled a career 22-21 MLB record with 300 strikeouts and a 4.25 ERA. He pitched for four different teams from 1991-99 and competed in the playoffs with the Baltimore Orioles in ’96 and ’97.

Although nobody from Alexandria is in the majors now, the roll call of those who have worked in the big leagues is impressive. Aside from those already mentioned, guys who are either natives of Alexandria or who have lived in Alexandria or central Louisiana and played in the big leagues include: pitcher Jim Willis (1953-54), pitcher Jesse “Red” Hickman (1965-66), pitcher Al “I.E.” Schroll (1958-61), pitcher Kevin McGehee (1993), infielder Pat Listach (1992-97) and pitcher Greg Smith (2008-10).

We can sort of cheat in claiming Baseball Hall of Famer Lee Smith since the seven-time All-Star from Bienville Parish has a central Louisiana connection through his collegiate experience at Northwestern State University as a basketball player. He was already a minor league baseballer, discovered pitching for Castor High School by legendary scout, coach and baseball ambassador Buck O’Neil.

According to the Baseball Almanac, major leaguers from this area who were born in Louisiana but didn’t spend a lot of time here include the likes of Norm Charlton, who had a reputable career from 1988-01, having been born at Fort Polk (currently Fort Johnson) and Alexandria natives and pitchers Jay Aldrich (1987-90) and Ken Tatum (1969-74).

Kind of amazing how many of those mentioned were pitchers.

Back to the marathon game Mueller is known for, umpire crew chief Bill Summers halted play 4 hours and 48 minutes after the start of the game as deep shadows engulfed the field. Although lights had been installed at Shibe Park in 1938, according to the rules of the day, no day game could be continued under the lights. Although the game ended as a 1-1 tie, the fans certainly got their money’s worth and true to baseball traditions, they rose and stretched at the 7th, 14th and 21st innings.