The 1932 Philadelphia Athletics were the three-time defending American League champions, winners of the 1929 and 1930 World Series, and were owned and managed by Connie Mack.

Successful players expected to be paid well, and Mack had lost a considerable amount of money in the 1929 stock market crash.

The Athletics had played a single Sunday home game in 1926 to test the law, but it had been upheld by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

[10] It was not unusual for teams on such one-day road trips to give some players the day off, in part to economize on train tickets, and Mack took only two pitchers with him to Cleveland, Lew Krausse and Eddie Rommel.

[19] Brown got off to a shaky start, giving up two runs due to three Athletics hits and his own throwing error.

[14] In the top of the third, Brown gave up a solo home run to sluggerJimmie Foxx, his 31st of the season, to tie the score.

In the bottom of the inning, however, Cleveland converted three hits, two walks, and a wild pitch from Rommel, into three runs to take the lead 6–5.

Mule Haas led off the top of the sixth with a double, and came around to score on a single by Al Simmons, cutting the Indians lead to 7–6.

[21] In the top of the seventh, Dib Williams tripled with two out, and was brought home by a single by Rommel, cutting Cleveland's lead to 8–7.

Simmons then singled and Foxx hit a two-run home run, his second of the game, to make the score 13–7 Athletics.

[24] Two more runs followed on a single by Dick Porter before Rommel could strike out Burnett to end the inning, but Cleveland now led 14–13.

Ferrell struck out and Porter hit a sacrifice fly to right field, sending Kamm to third base.

[21] Outside League Park on Lexington Avenue, streetcars sat empty, waiting to transport the crowd home, but the fans remained in their seats in the ballpark.

In the bottom half of the inning, Burnett got his seventh hit, a double, tying the major league record set by Wilbert Robinson in 1891.

This brought Foxx to the plate; he hit his third home run of the game, his 33rd of the season, giving Philadelphia a 17–15 lead.

[21] Foxx singled, and Eric McNair hit a drive into center field which took an unexpected bounce over Vosmik's head.

In the bottom of the inning, Rommel struck out two batters and retired the side in order, ending the game.

[19] Foxx's sixteen total bases tied a Major League record that was surpassed by Gil Hodges of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1950.

[30] Rommel set Major League records by allowing 29 hits in a game, and for the most runs given up by a winning pitcher (fourteen).

[10][32] Rommel set what is still (as of 2025[update]) the American League record for longest relief appearance with seventeen innings.

[19] He did not beat the Major League record of 181⁄3 innings for a relief appearance, set by Zip Zabel of the Chicago Cubs in 1915.

[19] The two teams tied an American League record with 35 combined runs scored;[33] this was surpassed in 1950 when the Boston Red Sox defeated the Athletics, 22–14, at Fenway Park.

[35] The July 10, 1932 game is the only one in Major League history to have five players get five or more base hits each: Burnett, Averill, Morgan, Simmons and Foxx.

"[11] The North American Newspaper Alliance reported that "for eighteen innings, two never-say-die, if somewhat groggy and erratic, ball teams, had refused to quit".

[37] Sam Otis, sports editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, wrote that McNair's hit "took a pesky hop into the setting rays of Old Sol to give the Philadelphia Athletics an eighteen-inning triumph over a never-say-die band of Indians in the most dramatic diamond struggle in Cleveland history".

"[39] Mack also stated that Foxx "hit three extremely long home runs, all into Cleveland's far-off left field bleachers".

[42] Ferrell, the losing pitcher on July 10, finished the season with a record of 23–13, the fourth straight year he had won twenty or more games.

[44] Foxx continued his challenge of Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs in a season, but hampered by a wrist injury sustained in late July, fell two short.

He was released by the Athletics at season's end, and, when he could not find work as a player, was hired by Mack as a coach.

In 1933, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed legislation allowing local voters to approve Sunday baseball, and Philadelphia's electorate did so that November.