August 22, 1965: Marichal-Koufax duel gets ugly at Candlestick Park

“For a moment, Watts had spilled over to the National Pastime.”1

The intensity of a rivalry that began decades earlier on the East Coast heated up once again as the Giants and Dodgers contested yet another National League pennant in 1965. Going into action on August 22, the Dodgers led the league and were being chased by the Braves and Giants. The Braves, in their last year in Milwaukee, were a half-game out of first place, and the Giants trailed by 1½ games, having lost two of the first three games in a four-game series with Los Angeles.

The finale was played during a year of turbulence. In Los Angeles, the Watts riots commenced on August 11 and continued for six days. Although baseball games were played during the disturbances, the impact of the rioting was undeniable, especially on Dodgers players such as John Roseboro, who lived near the unrest. A few thousand miles from California, civil war had broken out in the Dominican Republic, the home country of Giants pitcher Juan Marichal.

The first three games of the series provided a fair amount of excitement. The Thursday game went 15 innings, with the Dodgers prevailing, and in the Friday game tempers flared when Giants catcher Tom Haller was called for interference when his glove made contact with Maury Wills’ bat during a bunt attempt. Throughout the game, won by the Giants, the dugouts were alive with antagonism. Extra innings were again needed on Saturday as the Dodgers prevailed.

Sunday’s game featured two pitching aces. Marichal (19-9) was going for his third consecutive 20-win season. In his most recent start, he shut out the Mets on three hits at Shea Stadium, lowering his ERA to 1.73. Sandy Koufax (21-4) was having another spectacular season. In his most recent decision, he tossed a 10-inning shutout, his fourth of the season, to defeat Pittsburgh. In each of his past four decisions, all complete-game wins, he reached double digits in strikeouts. In anticipation of a great mound duel, a season-high crowd of 42,807 fans descended on the ballpark.

The Dodgers gained the early lead when Ron Fairly doubled home Wills, who on the first pitch of the game bunted his way aboard. Koufax proceeded to strike out the side in the bottom of the first. Los Angeles added to its lead in the second. Wes Parker doubled and came home on a single by Roseboro. Wills made the last out of the inning but not before being knocked down by Marichal.

Tempers were getting hot. To start the bottom of the second inning, Koufax threw a pitch high and tight to Willie Mays, the ball sailing over the head of the Giants star. After Mays and Jim Ray Hart were retired on fly balls, light-hitting Giants shortstop Cap Peterson homered to bring the Giants to within a run of the Dodgers.

The Dodgers went down in order in the third inning, but not without incident. Fairly, who had doubled in his first at-bat, received a 90-mph message from Marichal, as a fastball sent him to the ground. Marichal stepped to the plate to lead things off for the Giants in the bottom of the inning. He had been pitching close to the Dodgers batters and the decking of Wills and Fairly had been duly noted by the Dodgers. What was next on the agenda? Umpire Shag Crawford, hoping to defuse the situation, warned both sides that any further head-hunting would result in ejections.

“Why you do that, cono?!”–Juan Marichal to John Roseboro, August 22, 19652

The first pitch to Marichal was strike one. Koufax elected not to seriously retaliate although his second pitch was low and inside. Dodgers catcher Roseboro, in returning the pitch to Koufax, stepped behind Marichal and whizzed the ball past the Giants pitcher’s head. A shocked Marichal turned toward Roseboro and asked about the throw back to Koufax.

Marichal then struck Roseboro, still masked, on the forehead with his bat, opening a two-inch gash. Benches cleared and a brawl ensued. Koufax charged the plate to grab the bat from Marichal. Mays left the Giants bench and restrained Roseboro. After 14 minutes, things calmed down and two players had to leave the game. Umpire Crawford (who suffered a spike wound while trying to separate Marichal and Roseboro) ejected Marichal. A wounded Roseboro, who would have his forehead bandaged in the clubhouse, was led off the field by the Dodgers trainer and replaced by Jeff Torborg.

The Giants sent up Bob Schroder to replace Marichal, and he became Koufax’s fourth strikeout victim. After getting Tito Fuentes to fly out, Koufax had a loss of control, walking Jim Davenport and Willie McCovey. Mays stepped to the plate. He switched from peacemaker to major weapon and slammed his sixth home run in as many games over the left-field fence, giving the Giants a 4-2 lead. Koufax allowed only one hit over the balance of the game, but the damage had been done.

Ron Herbel came in to pitch for the Giants in the fourth inning and cruised through the Dodgers lineup for the next five innings, scattering three hits. The Dodgers mounted a threat in the ninth inning. With one out, Herbel hit Parker with a pitch, and Torborg singled, advancing Parker to third base. Manager Walter Alston sent up Wally Moon to pinch-hit for Koufax. Moon, though, did not get to bat. Giants manager Herman Franks signaled for a change, and left-hander Masanori Murakami came in from the bullpen. Right-handed hitter Don LeJohn was sent up to pinch-hit for Moon.

Murakami threw a double-play ball to LeJohn. The ball headed to Murakami, but second baseman Hal Lanier dropped the throw. All runners were safe and Parker scored LA’s third run. Murakami then retired Wills on a popup and struck out Jim Gilliam to end the game.

Koufax was tagged with the loss, bringing his record to 21-5. Although the usually poor-hitting Koufax had been removed for a pinch-hitter, his bat had been more potent than usual in 1965. He came into the game with a .205 average and had put together a modest five-game hitting streak in July. In seven games that month, he went 8-for-18 (.444). Herbel, on the other hand, was a notoriously bad hitter. His 0-for-2 performance on August 22 brought his average for the season down to .037. His one hit in 1965 came on May 21 at Houston. It was his first big-league hit, and it came in his 56th career at-bat.

Mays’s decisive homer was his 38th of the 1965 season and the 491st of his career. He went on to hit 52 home runs that year and received the second MVP award of his career. (Mays was noted as a five-tool player. He had a sixth tool and that was as a peacemaker.3 This game was not the only time when he calmed things down. Eight years later, during his final season, he played peacemaker when a fight erupted during a playoff series between the New York Mets and the Cincinnati Reds.)

After the game, the teams headed east, the Giants to Pittsburgh and the Dodgers to New York. It was in New York that Roseboro finally made it to the hospital; he received 14 stitches to close the wound. In Pittsburgh, Marichal learned of his fate.

The pitcher received an eight-game suspension (stretched to 10 due to a couple of makeup games) for his role in the brawl and was fined $1,750 by the National League. Most in the area outside of San Francisco thought that the punishment by league President Warren Giles was far too lenient. Marichal did not return to action until September 2. During the balance of the season, he went 3-4. The four losses were ultimately the difference between first and second place for the Giants.

The Giants and Dodgers battled down the stretch. San Francisco won 14 straight games between September 4 and September 16 to take a 4½-game lead over the Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds. Los Angeles won 13 of its last 14 games to win the pennant by two games over the Giants.

Koufax, less than three weeks after the August 22 game, pitched his masterpiece. On September 9 he threw a perfect game against the Chicago Cubs, winning 1-0. Down the stretch he was spectacular. He won his last four decisions (including three shutouts) and finished with a 26-8 record. He brought his ERA down from 2.18 on August 22 to 2.04 and went on to win twice in the World Series against the Twins. He won the Cy Young Award and finished second to Mays in the MVP balloting.

The Dodgers defeated the Twins in the World Series with Koufax winning the clincher.

Roseboro sued Marichal and was awarded $7,500 in February 1970. Years later, the two reconciled and became friends.

PHOTO CREDIT

John Roseboro, Trading Card Database.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources shown in the Notes, the author used Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, and the following:

Byrne, Emmons. “Spahn Faces Pittsburgh,” Oakland Tribune, August 23, 1965: 35, 37.

Finch, Frank. “Mays Breaks up the Fight–and the Ball Game, 4-3,” Los Angeles Times, August 23, 1965: III-1.

Frizzell, Pat. “Bat Riot Perils Pennant Hopes,” Oakland Tribune, August 23, 1965: 35, 37.

Kaplan, Jim. The Greatest Game Ever Pitched (Chicago: Triumph Books, 2011), 156-167.

Koppett, Leonard. “Marichal Hits Roseboro with Bat and Starts Brawl as Giants Top Dodgers,” New York Times, August 23, 1965: 24.

Leavy, Jane. Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy (New York: Harper-Collins, 2002), 179-180.

Lederer, George. “Fight Results in Big Duel,” Long Beach (California) Independent, August 23, 1965: C1-C2.

Marichal, Juan, with Lew Friedman. Juan Marichal (Minneapolis: MVP Books, 2017), 119-129.

Rathet, Mike (Associated Press). “Marichal Faces Suspension after Bitter Fight,” San Rafael (California) Daily Independent Journal, August 23, 1965: 13.

NOTES

1 James S. Hirsch, Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend (New York: Scribner, 2010), 438.

2 John Rosengren, The Fight of their Lives (Guilford, Connecticut: Lyons Press, 2014), 113.

3 Hirsch on page 439 mentions how Mays took a seat beside Roseboro in the dugout and did everything in his power to prevent the brawl from expanding.