Saturday, August 22, 2015

Fifty Yrs. Ago Today In
Candlestick Park

A day that will forever live in infamy.
Thug Juan Marichal (27) about to beat on Dodger catcher John Roseboro w/ a bat as Sandy Koufax tries to stop him.
Roseboro & Marichal eventually became friends. Let that be a lesson, young punks.
Marichal, who was suspended nine days and fined $1,750 for his attack, was contrite, and he and Roseboro later became friends. Years later, Marichal, who actually ended his career with the Dodgers, was denied admission to the Hall of Fame on the first two ballots. However, in part because Roseboro publicly stumped for him, he was voted in on the third try.

More poignantly, Marichal was also an honorary pallbearer and speaker at Roseboro's funeral in 2002. Gwen Knapp of the San Francisco Chronicle shared this exchange, which surely snuffed out any lingering ugliness:
According to an account written by [Fred] Claire, the emotional high point came when Marichal told the congregation: "I wish I could have had John Roseboro as my catcher."

Koufax spoke later and turned to Marichal to say, "You would have loved pitching to John Roseboro."
This is not a re-run.

1 comment:

mikey said...

Hey. He was PASSIONATE....