Rick Camp pitched for the Atlanta Braves for nine seasons. Except for one game in 1985 — a game that came to be known as “The Rick Camp Game” — he had a pretty unremarkable career.
On July 4, 1985, Rick came in to pitch the last three innings in a game against the New York Mets. Those innings were the 17th, 18th and 19th. The game, which began at 7:05 on July 4th lasted until five minutes before four in the morning on July 5. The game had run so long that the Braves were forced to let Rick bat, as they had run out of position players to pinch-hit. Up to this point, Rick had posted a season batting average of a miserable .060. In the 18th inning, with an 0-2 count, Rick hit a home run off of Mets pitcher Tom Gorman to tie the game up. He stayed in the game to pitch, giving up five runs in the 19th inning. In the bottom of the 19th, the Braves could only manage two more runs and they lost 16-13. Rick was saddled with the loss. At 3.55 AM, the grounds crew at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium set off the holiday fireworks display, as promised. Unaware of the festivities at the stadium, local residents in the surrounding neighborhood flooded 911 Emergency Services with phone calls of panic and complaint. Rick Camp retired from baseball at the end of the ’85 season having hit just one home run in his career — but it was a memorable one.
Twenty years after his retirement, Rick was involved in a plot to steal more than two million dollars from the Community Mental Health Center in Augusta, Georgia. The conspirators, including a Georgia State Representative, all received federal prison sentences. Rick served three years for his part in the crime.
Rick passed away in 2013 at the age of 59.