Saturday marks the 50th anniversary of one of the craziest brawls in baseball history between two great rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants.
The date was Aug. 22, 1965. The Dodgers and the Giants were fighting for the pennant. As pitchers of the time often did, more so than today, Juan Marichal had knocked down two Dodgers, Maury Wills and Ron Fairly. When Marichal came to bat later, Dodgers catcher Ron Roseboro decided to try a reverse knockdown of sorts.
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With Marichal at bat, a Roseboro throw back to Sandy Koufax on the mound barely missed Marichal's head. Roseboro felt that would make Marichal retaliate. Roseboro, after all, was experienced in karate and felt he could easily handle Marichal.
After the next pitch, Roseboro sent the ball back to the mound by whizzing it inches from Marichal’s ear. Marichal immediately leveled the bat on Roseboro’s head, opening a wound that would require 14 stitches. The result was a 14-minute, bench-clearing brawl. Marichal was suspended eight games and fined $1,750, a tidy sum for that time.
Over the years, Marichal and Roseboro became close friends — so close that Marichal delivered the eulogy at Roseboro’s funeral in 2002.
Many believe that the incident kept Marichal out of the Hall of Fame for a number of years. Roseboro later went public saying there were no hard feelings and that you just let things go after a while. Marichal was voted into the Hall the next year after Roseboro’s comments in 1983.
Brad Davis, founder of the @DugoutLegends Twitter account, is a Sporting News contributor. Follow him @DugoutLegends.