Juan Marichal

Juan Antonio Marichal threw from three arm angles, hid the baseball behind his right knee at the apex of a leg kick that lifted his left cleat above his cap, and painted the corners of the strike zone with a precision that Hank Aaron said covered a two-inch space, in and out, up or down. Marichal won 243 games with a 2.89 ERA for the San Francisco Giants, completed 244 of his 457 starts, won six times with 20 or more victories in a single season, and accumulated 191 wins in the 1960s, more than any pitcher in the game. Carl Hubbell watched him and said, "This guy is a natural. He's got ideas about what he wants to do and does it." Branch Rickey said, "No pitcher has made such magnificent use of his God-given equipment." Marichal never won a Cy Young Award because every year he was great, somebody else did something historic. Sandy Koufax took the award in 1963, 1965, and 1966. Dean Chance won in 1964. Teammate Mike McCormick won in 1967. Bob Gibson posted a 1.12 ERA to win in 1968, and Tom Seaver won in 1969. The BBWAA elected Marichal to the Hall of Fame in 1983 on 83.7 percent of the ballot, making him the first Dominican and the first player born outside the United States elected by the BBWAA.

Laguna Verde

Marichal was born on October 20, 1937, in Laguna Verde, a village in the Monte Cristi Province of the Dominican Republic. His father Francisco died when Juan was three, and the family lived in a palm-bark shack without electricity near the Yaque del Norte River. His brother Gonzalo introduced him to baseball around age six, and the boys fashioned equipment from sewn golf balls, hardwood branches, and canvas tarps. Marichal's childhood playmates included Felipe, Matty, and Jesus Alou, who later became his Giants teammates. Marichal worked cutting sugarcane at 11 and left high school after the 11th grade, a decision he later regretted.

Marichal pitched for the Las Flores summer league team at 16, sponsored by the Bermudez Rum Company, and a 2-1 victory in Monte Cristi caught the attention of people who could not be refused. Rafael Trujillo, the Dominican dictator, ran the country's best athletes through his son Ramfis, who conscripted talented ballplayers into the Aviacion Militar Dominicana, the air force baseball team. Marichal wore the uniform and played the games but never saw a cockpit or served any military function. The Giants signed him for a $500 bonus before the 1958 season, and he tore through the minor leagues with a 21-8 record at Michigan City in 1958, an 18-13 record with eight shutouts at Springfield in 1959, and an 11-5 record at Tacoma in 1960. At Springfield, manager Andy Gilbert convinced him to add an overhand delivery to his sidearm motion, and the signature high kick was born.

The Kick

Marichal debuted on July 19, 1960, against the Philadelphia Phillies with a performance that announced his arrival. He retired the first 19 batters, surrendered a single to Clay Dalrymple in the eighth, and finished with a one-hit shutout, 12 strikeouts, and one walk. On June 15, 1963, he threw the first no-hitter in San Francisco Giants history, a 1-0 victory over the Houston Colt .45s in which he abandoned the high kick for the only time in his career. Two weeks later, on July 2, Marichal and 42-year-old Warren Spahn dueled for 16 innings at Candlestick Park until Willie Mays homered off Spahn in the bottom of the 16th to win 1-0. Marichal threw all 16 innings and allowed eight hits, all but one of them singles. Jim Kaplan called it "the greatest game ever pitched."

Marichal won 25 or more games in 1963, 1966, and 1968, becoming the first right-hander since Bob Feller to reach 25 wins three times. In 1966 he went 25-6 with a 2.23 ERA and completed 25 of his 36 starts. In 1968 he led the National League with 26 wins and 30 complete games. In 1969 he led the league with a 2.10 ERA. He threw five pitches (fastball, slider, changeup, curveball, screwball) from three distinct arm angles, and his control was so precise that he struck out 2,303 batters while walking only 709, a ratio of better than three to one. Bob Stevens wrote, "If you placed all the pitchers in the history of the game behind a transparent curtain, where only a silhouette was visible, Juan's motion would be the easiest to identify."

August 22

On August 22, 1965, during a tight pennant race at Candlestick Park with Koufax pitching for the Dodgers, catcher Johnny Roseboro's return throw to the mound either brushed Marichal's ear or passed close enough for him to feel the wind. Marichal raised his bat and struck Roseboro on the head, opening a gash that required 14 stitches. Marichal was ejected, fined $1,750 (the largest fine in National League history at the time), and suspended for eight games. The Giants lost the pennant by two games. The incident shadowed Marichal's career for years, and when BBWAA voters considered him for the Hall of Fame, some withheld their votes because of it.

Roseboro changed that. Years after the fight, Roseboro publicly forgave Marichal and personally lobbied BBWAA voters to elect him. The two men became close friends, attending old-timers' games and charity events together. Their families grew close as well. "Johnny's forgiving me was one of the best things that happened in my life," Marichal said. "I wish I could have had John Roseboro as my catcher." When Roseboro died on August 16, 2002, Marichal served as an honorary pallbearer.

Santo Domingo

Marichal finished his career with brief stints for the Boston Red Sox in 1974 and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1975 before retiring with a .631 winning percentage, 52 shutouts, and 10 All-Star selections. In eight All-Star appearances he went 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA and won the 1965 game's MVP award. The Giants retired his number 27 in 1975 and unveiled a statue in his honor at AT&T Park in 2005.

Marichal directed the Oakland Athletics' Dominican scouting program in the late 1980s and 1990s, producing players including 2002 AL MVP Miguel Tejada. He served as Minister of Sports and Physical Education in the Dominican Republic cabinet from 1996 to 2000 under President Leonel Fernandez. The Dominican Republic renamed Estadio Quisqueya in Santo Domingo after him in 2015, and a Juan Marichal Prize, given annually to the best Dominican player in the major leagues, was established in 2021. "Before I die, I will be happy if people say of me that I did something good for other people," Marichal said. "I want to be remembered more for helping people than for what I did in baseball."