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Juan Antonio Marichal
San Francisco Giants
Pitcher
Born: October 20, 1937, Laguna Verde, Dominican Republic
Signed: Signed by the New York Giants as an amateur free agent before 1957 season
Major League Teams: San Francisco Giants 1960-1973; Boston Red Sox 1974; Los Angeles Dodgers 1975
Hall of Fame Induction: 1983
Juan Marichal won more games than any other Major League pitcher in the 1960s, dominating the league with a high leg kick and pinpoint control. A mainstay in the Giants' pitching rotation, Marichal was a 20-game winner in six seasons, and a 25-game winner in three seasons. He threw a no-hitter against the Colt .45s on June 15, 1963, and a few weeks later on July 2nd he matched up against the Braves and Warren Spahn (#205), pitching a complete game, 16-inning shutout. He topped the league with shutouts in 1965 with 10 and had the best ERA in the league at 2.10 in 1969. Marichal never won a Cy Young Award and was frequently overshadowed by his contemporaries Sandy Koufax (#300) and Bob Gibson (#320).
Reaching the postseason only twice (in 1962 and 1971), Marichal used the All-Star Game as his national stage. In eight All-Star games, Marichal went 2-0 pitching 18 innings while striking out 12 and pitching to an ERA of 0.50. He won All-Star Game MVP honors in 1965, pitching three shutout innings. Marichal's many pitching accomplishments are somewhat overshadowed by an incident that took place on August 22, 1965. At bat against Koufax and the rival Dodgers, Marichal incited a 14-minute brawl that started when he hit Dodgers' catcher John Roseboro (#405) over the head with his bat. Roseboro and Marichal would reconcile in later years, making public appearances together.
Marichal's career numbers are staggering - 243-142, 2.89 ERA, 244 complete games and 52 shutouts, and 2,303 strikeouts. The Giants' retired Marichal's #27 in 1975 and he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1983, his third year on the ballot. He became the first Dominican born player enshrined in the Hall, paving the way for his fellow countrymen Pedro Martinez in 2015 and Vladimir Guerrero in 2018.
July 20, 2020 from Scottsdale, AZ - Card #135
I continued to be fairly active with my eBay purchases in July, as we prepared for the abbreviated 60-game baseball season to start. Having been somewhat haphazard in my eBay hunts up until this point, I decided to focus and specifically try to complete the first series of our 1965 Topps set. I added 10 cards to our set from the first series (cards #1 through #88) from Scottsdale Baseball Cards, and the envelope with our new cards arrived on July 20th. As of this writing, we need 39 of the 88 cards from the first series so we're more than half-way there. The priciest card still needed is the A.L. Home Run Leaders card (#5) featuring Mickey Mantle.
This Marichal card entered our collection for $15, the most expensive card purchased from Scottsdale Baseball Cards, but at what I felt was a fair price.
The Card / Giants Team Set
This is yet another iconic Giants card from this set, as I can remember seeing this card behind glass cases for as long as I've attended baseball card shows. On the back, Topps features Marichal's no-hitter thrown in 1963 and highlights his league-leading 22 complete games from 1964.
Topps reprinted this card as part of its 2010 Topps Cards Your Mom Threw Out insert set. Marichal is in the harder to find 1965 Topps Transfers insert set, but he's not in the 1965 Topps Embossed insert set.
1965 Season
Following the Roseboro Incident, Marichal was suspended for eight games, fined a then record amount of $1,750 and was forbidden from traveling to Los Angeles for the final series of the season. When the season was over, the Giants had finished in second place behind the Dodgers, with Marichal leading the team with 22 wins. His 22-13 record came with a low ERA of 2.13, along with 24 complete games and 240 strikeouts. His 10 shutouts led the league.
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First Mainstream Card: 1961 Topps #417
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (15): 1961-1974, 2001
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2020 Topps Now Turn Back the Clock #77
993 - Marichal non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 7/30/20.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
National Baseball Hall of Fame
SABR
The Trading Card Database
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