![]() "They can thank Mays that there wasn't a real riot out there," Dodgers outfielder Lou Johnson told the Los Angeles Times. Mays helped get the bleeding Roseboro under control and escorted him away from the fighting, even tending to his friend's wound. Roseboro continued after Marichal until getting stopped by Mays, a good friend despite their teams' rivalry. Roseboro was briefly knocked to the ground in the ensuing melee, while Marichal, who had continued swinging his bat, was tackled from behind by Crawford, the umpire. Mays kept things from getting worseĪn enraged Roseboro, who had boxing and martial arts training, went hard after Marichal. Getting clubbed by Marichal staggered Roseboro, but only temporarily. As in most baseball fights, some of those involved played peacekeeper and others threw punches. "I was afraid he was going to hit me with his mask, so I hit him with my bat," Marichal said in an apology issued the next day.īenches emptied, and chaos ensued. Expletives were exchanged and Roseboro stepped toward Marichal, who raised his bat and brought it down on Roseboro's head. Marichal, who said the throw actually clipped his ear, turned to confront Roseboro. On-deck hitter Tito Fuentes (26) entered the fray wielding his bat, but he didn't hit anybody with it. He moved behind Marichal to pick it up and whizzed the ball back to Koufax close to the batter's face (Roseboro admitted in his autobiography that it was no accident). Koufax's second pitch was a ball inside that Roseboro dropped. When Marichal led off the bottom of the third, he took the first pitch for a strike. Roseboro didn't want Koufax to get ejected - and Koufax didn't like throwing at hitters - but the catcher didn't want Marichal to get away with dusting his teammates. Roseboro buzzed Marichal's head with a ball ![]() Roseboro, who had training in boxing and martial arts, had a reputation for his toughness. That prompted home plate umpire Shag Crawford to issue a warning that the next close pitch would result in an ejection. Marichal responded in the top of third with an inside fastball that sent Ron Fairly sprawling. Koufax sent a return message in the bottom of the second, firing a fastball over Mays' head to the backstop. Wills led off the series finale with a bunt single, and when he came to the plate again in the second inning, Marichal knocked him down with a high-and-tight fastball. Trouble was brewing earlyĭodgers-Giants games were always intense, and emotions were high during the previous three games of the four-game series. The Dodgers wound up edging the Giants by two games for the pennant and went on to beat the Minnesota Twins in the World Series. The Braves collapsed down the stretch and finished in fifth place, 11 games out. San Francisco's win that day pulled them even with the Braves for second place, half a game behind the Dodgers. The Dodgers, Giants and Milwaukee Braves were in a heated battle for the NL lead at the time. It was an important matchup in the pennant race On the 50th anniversary of that incident, here are 10 things you should know about a game that left a permanent scar on the face of baseball: 1. Marichal's attack on Roseboro disrupted a pitchers' duel between future Hall of Famers Marichal and Koufax. In the bottom of the third inning, Marichal infamously clubbed Dodgers catcher John Roseboro over the head with a bat, an action never seen before or again on a major league field. The contest is still remembered for arguably the ugliest moment in MLB history. And not because the game featured four future Hall of Famers (the two aces along with the Giants' Willie Mays and Willie McCovey) and four members of the that year's NL All-Star team (Dodgers shortstop Maury Wills, Koufax, Mays and Marichal). It certainly was, but not because the San Francisco Giants beat the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers 4-3 or because of the pitching performances by Sandy Koufax and Juan Marichal.
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