Why We Love Baseball: The Drama

Nothing Like A Good Fight

Individual and team rivalries are part of the sport. Many are well known such as Ty Cobb versus John McGraw in the early 1900s, or the Giant’s versus the Dodgers in the 1950s. Two stories involve pitcher fights versus opposing catchers. In 1965, the Giant’s Juan Marichal took on Dodger catcher John Roseboro with a baseball bat to the head. . Thirty five years later it wasYankee pitcher, Roger Clemens throwing a broken bat at Mets catcher, Mike Piazza.

Roseboro versus Marichal

In 1965, at the beginning of September the National League had four teams in contention for the pennant until the Dodgers and Giants took off. The Dodgers won 13 in a row, to hold off the Giants who won 14 in a row, to capture the title on the final weekend. The irony of the season is that the Giants might have forced a playoff if not for a late August contest between the two teams. The game which featured two 20 game winning pitchers, Sandy Koufax versus Juan Marichal, drew a packed crowd. In the third inning after Marichal had knocked down batters Maury Wills and Ron Fairly, Koufax threw inside and close at the batter, Marichal. During a heated argument at homeplate between Dodger catcher John Roseboro, a trained boxer, and Marichal, a stunned crowd watched as Marichal whacked Roseboro on the head with his bat. The dugouts emptied and chaos prevailed. During the melee, Willie Mays held back Marichal and the umpire tackled Roseboro from behind. Roseboro left the game and received 14 stitches in his head. Marichal received a nine day suspension and was denied the right to travel to LA for the final series against their West Coast rival. If the 22 game winner Marichal had pitched, he very likely would have won one game and forced a playoff for the pennant.

Roseboro sued Marichal and won $7,500. Many years later they were reunited at an old timers game and became friends. Ironically, Marichal was a pallbearer at Roseboro’s funeral in 2002.

Clemens versus Piazza

The Clemons/ Piazza standoff started in a July 8, 1965, interleague game. Piazza was one of the few who had little trouble batting against the heralded Clemons. Enough success, that reportedly Clemons announced to some of his teammates that he was going to knock Piazza down when he came to bat and did just that, but with devastating results as Piazza was removed from the game with a concussion. Piazza ignored Clemens attempts at an apology.

The next match up would happen in Game 2 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. In Piazza’s first at-bat he hit a dribbler down the first base line, which broke his bat. Clemens rushed off the mound towards the ball, which was drifting foul, and instead of picking up the ball, he picked up the piece of the detached bat and threw it towards Piazza, who was running down the first base line. Clemens claimed he initially thought the partial bat was the ball but after grabbing it, he threw it toward the on-deck circle and not at Piazza. Piazza made a move towards Clemens and the teams cleared both benches prepared to battle. The umpires restored order, but there were few believers of Clemens’s explanation, including Commissioner Selig, who fined Clemens $50,000.