Dominican Dandy

On July 2, 1963 the San Francisco Giants took the field in the top of the first inning at Candlestick Park and the Dominican Dandy, Juan Marichal, took the mound. Little did they know that this game would not end until July 3rd and not a single relief pitcher would step on the mound.

On Thursday, the KNBR radio station in San Fran interview Juan Marichal for his upcoming book about the greatest baseball game ever played. Before the interview Fitz and Brooks were pitching the upcoming segment and one statement seemed to resonate - Giants fans are lucky to have living history. Many of the Giant hall of famers are still around and are retelling their great baseball stories - Mays, McCovey, Cepeda, Marichal, Alou etc. A lot of other teams don't have this "living history" so it is important for baseball scholars to extract as much knowledge from these living legends.

Marichal spoke about that day as if he pitched the game yesterday. He was facing the great Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves that day. There may never be a pitching performance as great as there was that day for an individual or for both teams. Both starting pitchers stayed in the entire game and refused to allow relievers to relieve. Marichal said that in the ninth inning Alvin Dark came out to the mound to take him out and he said no way he's leaving now. Marichal said that in those days you never spoke back to the manager in the way that he did so he knew he was in trouble. Dark kept him in.

The logic that went through the Giants' pitcher's head was that he was a young 25 year old pitcher and there was now way that was going to let this old guy beat him - Spahn was 42 years old at the time. How many 42 year old pitchers can throw 16 innings of shutout ball? Almost 16 innings.

After the ninth inning Dark didn't approach him again until the 14th where Marichal agreed to come out. The thirteenth inning finished and Marichal could see the reliever coming in from the bullpen and he changed his mind. Marichal ran out to the mound before the reliever could even get there. He wasn't about to hand over the game to someone else, this was his game to win.

In the bottom of the 16th inning, Willie Mays walked over to Marichal in the dugout and told him that he was going to win the game for him. He did just that. Walk off solo home run off of Warren Spahn in the bottom of the 16th. In the interview Marichal said that he wandered why Mays didn't just say it in the 9th inning and save him a couple of innings but then again it would never be considered one of the greatest games ever played.

One of the greatest anecdotes about that day was that McCovey crushed a ball so hard that it landed in the parking lot at Candlestick and the hit was called foul. The ball actually was fair inside of the stadium but landed foul in the parking lot so the umpires incorrectly called it a foul ball. The game would have be a normal nine inning game but the baseball deities were scheming that day.

The conversation continued with the difference in the pitching styles between now and Marichal's era. He used to "brush" up the players with inside pitches to back them off the plate all the time. It was a different baseball era where that was a regular occurrence unlike now where the batters take it personally. Contemporary players are concerned about getting injured and hurting that multimillion dollar contracts. Marichal didn't care, he had to protect his own teammates.

My favorite line of the entire interview was when he was discussing why we was able to throw inside all the time. It was because he had Orlando Cepeda in the infield and he knew that he would be there right next to him if the opposing batter charged the mound. And no one would want mess with the Baby Bull. You mess with the Baby Bull, you get the horns.

Imagine a game played today that went to 16 innings and both starting pitchers never came out. You can't. One of the most unbelievable stats of that game was that home run king Hank Aaron went 0-6 with two strikeouts that game. Marichal said, "I was lucky that night."

Whether it was pure luck or talent, Marichal threw one of the greatest games in the history of baseball.

Don't mess with Marichal, he'll smash your head in with a baseball bat. Ask Johnnie Roseboro . . .