how good was juan marichal?

for my money marichal and koufax two of the best ever.

Both great pitchers. My Dad, brother and I were at Candlestick in 1962 (or 63, I cannot remember) a night game though,,, when Milwaukee Braves Warren Spahn and Juan Marichal locked horns for 16 innings, before Willie Mays hit a solo home run to give the Giants a 1-0 win. That game Ill never forget. We got blankets out of the station wagon and layed on the concrete to nap around the 15th inning.

Juan Marichal took ZERO shit off anyone. You may remember the time he was batting, and Koufax was pitching. Johnny Roseboro was the Dodgers catcher. Roseboro kept zinging the ball close to Marichals head in the batters box, and finally Marichal had enough of it, and got in his face. Roseboro ( a stout son of a bitch himself) leaned in, and Juan took the bat and bopped him in the melon, cutting him and causing a trip to the hospital for stitches.

Later on, I heard they became good friends, and both apologized. Two players with class. Not like that ass Jack "Assassin" Tatum POS.

Marichal was no virgin though. He had excellent control, and aimed for many a batters head, if he thought they were leaning in over HIS plate a bit too far..

i remember as a little kid driving in the car and had the dodger giant game on with vin scully calling marichal hitting roseboro over the head with the bat.

Last of the old school pitchers (well maybe Gibson was last)
I'll always remember Marichal as a K artist.

billhill999 said:

Last of the old school pitchers (well maybe Gibson was last)
I'll always remember Marichal as a K artist.

Click to expand...

You know Bill, he did strike out a lot of batters. And a lot of his success wasnt so much from overpowering raw speed, (though Im sure he could bring it in the mid-90's)............but rather his ability to change speeds and had such good control at all speeds. His stats show he struck out 3.25 for every one he walked. Something Gibson, Ryan, Carlton, Drysdale, Koufax, Clemens and even the legendary Walter Johnson did not (none of them exceeded 3.0 whiffs per walk ratio.

I mean a 2.89 era over 3,507 innings. For Christ sake!! And the guy could help himself at the plate too. He was a good one. For sure

Marichal was great during a long career - Sandy Koufax during a four year stretch in the early to mid 60's was the best ever going 97-27 with an ERA of under 2.00 and averaged 300 stirkeouts per year. He went 25-5, 19-5, 26-8, 27-9. Won 3 Cy Young's - two World Series MVP Awards, won 5 straight ERA crowns, had a 0.95 ERA in 4 different World Series and pitched a perfect game in 1965. I doubt highly if any pitcher in the entire history of the game ever put together four spectacular years equal to Koufax's.



wil..