The bat-swinging melee followed after the Dodgers had scored single runs in the first and second inning and Marichal had flattened Dodger shortstop Maury Wills when Marichal came to the plate. Koufax, now 21-5, whipped a called strike past him and then came high and inside on his next pitch. On Roseboro's return throw to Koufax the ball ticked Marichal's ear and Juan turned and appeared to say something to the catcher.
Manager Herman Franks said Juan told him he asked Roseboro, "Why did you do that?" and nothing more. In any event, the bad blood between these ancient rivals erupted and Johnny took a step toward Marichal, who hit the enraged Roseboro with his bat.
Koufax came down off the mound and Giant third base coach Charlie Fox dashed into the vortex of this violent cyclone, each trying to restrain his man as the crowd went out of its mind and the entire rosters of both teams spewed onto the field.
Plate umpire Shag Crawford, the bravest man on the field and caught in the middle of this violence, grabbed the now-berserk Marichal and hauled him to the ground as Dodgers furiously tried to get to Juan and Giants just as furiously tried to pull him away.
But before the Dominican righthander went down he lashed out at Roseboro with his bat and crashed it against the side of Johnny's head, opening a wound from which poured a flow of blood.
The one Giant who was not with his group was captain Willie Mays. He rushed over to the stricken Roseboro, perhaps his best friend in baseball, and tried to push him away. At one point Willie, now with his uniform spattered with the blood of his friend, placed his head gently on Roseboro's chest and cried, "Johnny, Johnny, I'm so sorry."
Marichal eventually was hauled to the lip of the Giant dugout, Mays still restraining the enraged Roseboro, and police came down out of the stands. Juan was thrown out of the game and Roseboro had to leave, a blood-soaked towel pressed against his bleeding head.
"The box score is the catechism of baseball, ready to surrender its truth to the knowing eye." - Author Stanley Cohen in The Man in the Crowd (1981)
Baseball Almanac Box ScoresLos Angeles Dodgers 3, San Francisco Giants 4 |
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Game played on Sunday, August 22, 1965 at Candlestick Park | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Game played on Sunday, August 22, 1965 at Candlestick Park | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know that Juan Marichal, the day after this game, told the media: "First of all, I want to apologize for hitting (Johnny) Roseboro with my bat. I am sorry I did that. But he was coming toward me, with his mask in his hand, and I was afraid he was going to hit me with his mask, so I swung my bat. If he had only said something, I would not have swung. I hit him once, and I am sorry." Read the rest of the Dominican Dandy's statement on Johnny Roseboro's page.
Marichal vs Roseboro | August 22, 1965 | MLB Advanced Media, LP
On the 50th anniversary of the brawl, MLB Tonight examined the incident, interviewed the participants, and played the video (above). Newspapers reported that Marichal was suspended for eight games and fined $1,750.
Marichal and Roseboro Fight | The Times Records | August 23, 1965 | Page 2-B
Author / historian John Rosengren wrote, "One Sunday afternoon in August 1965, on a day when baseball’s most storied rivals, the Giants and Dodgers, vied for the pennant, the national pastime reflected the tensions in society and nearly sullied two men forever. Juan Marichal, a Dominican anxious about his family’s safety during the civil war back home, and John Roseboro, a black man living in South Central L.A. shaken by the Watts riots a week earlier, attacked one another in a moment immortalized by an iconic photo: Marichal’s bat poised to strike Roseboro’s head. The violent moment–uncharacteristic of either man–linked the two forever and haunted both." Read more about it in his book, The Fight of Their Lives: How Juan Marichal And John Roseboro Turned Baseball's Ugliest Brawl Into A Story Of Forgiveness And Redemption:
Book Cover The Fight of Their Lives | John Rosengren | Lyons Press | February 2014