#405 John Roseboro - Los Angeles Dodgers

John Junior Roseboro
Los Angeles Dodgers
Catcher

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'11"  Weight:  190
Born:  May 13, 1933, Ashland, OH
Signed:  Signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent before 1952 season
Major League Teams:  Brooklyn Dodgers 1957; Los Angeles Dodgers 1958-1967; Minnesota Twins 1968-1969; Washington Senators 1970
Died:  August 16, 2002, Los Angeles, CA (age 69)

John Roseboro was a six-time All-Star, a two-time Gold Glove winner and winner of three World Series rings with the Dodgers in 1959, 1963 and 1965.  His 14-year career resulted in 1,206 hits and 9,291 putouts behind the plate, currently 20th on the all-time list.  But unfortunately, Roseboro is most commonly known as the catcher hit over the head with a bat by Giants' pitcher Juan Marichal (#50) during a brawl between the Dodgers and Giants in 1965.  He was promoted early to the starting catcher role in 1958 following Roy Campanella's paralyzing car accident.  Roseboro made his first All-Star team that year, batting .271 with 14 home run, and he'd reach career highs in home runs (18) and RBIs (59) in 1961.  He'd catch every inning (except one) in every Dodgers World Series appearance between 1959 and 1966, and he was behind the plate for two of Sandy Koufax's (#300) four no-hitters.

1982 - Roseboro and Marichal together at Dodger Stadium

When the Dodgers went into a rebuilding phase, Roseboro was dealt to the Twins following the 1967 season.  He'd make one last All-Star team with the Twins in 1969, and he'd see his last postseason action with the club as they lost to the Orioles in the ALCS.  Roseboro, now 37 years old, spent one last season in the majors with the Senators in 1970, serving in a back-up role for Ted Williams' last place team.  He'd coach with the Senators (1971) and Angels (1972-1974), and work in the Dodgers' system as a minor league catching instructor.  Roseboro would publicly forgive Marichal for the 1965 incident, personally appealing for the incident not to effect Marichal's induction into the Hall of Fame.  Marichal would serve as an honorary pallbearer at Roseboro's funeral services in 2002.

Building the Set
March 6, 2022 from The Philly Show (Sports Cards Plus - Cooper City, FL) - Card #569

This is the 85th of 102 cards acquired for our set from the Baseball Card Sports Memorabilia Show, affectionately known as The Philly Show, held in the basement of the Valley Forge Casino Resort in King of Prussia in early March.  We went nuts and left the show needing only 12 more cards to complete our 1965 Topps set, and I wrote about the show in detail over at The Phillies Room.  After our 51 card haul from Uncle Dick's, and with more card spending budget still in place, I set out to find another dealer with a binder of 1965 Topps cards with reasonable prices.  I had purchased cards from Sports Cards Plus before, finding the last few cards needed for our 1971 Topps set from this dealer back in December 2019.

Settling in, we found 37 cards needed for our set with an average price per card working out to around $6.  The lot, including this Roseboro card, consisted mostly of semi-stars and team cards.  After paying for this mini haul, we were officially 13 cards away from a complete set, with one more purchase coming to end the day.

The Card / Dodgers Team Set
There's a strange printing error on all versions of this card, with a dark bar across the top border instead of the orange bar found on all other Dodgers' cards.

Roseboro would wear #8 with the Dodgers for ten seasons, briefly also wearing #44 in 1959 and 1960.  On the back of the card, his team-leading 24 doubles from 1964 are highlighted.  Willie Davis (#435) came close to catching him with 23 doubles.  It's also noted how he beat up on the Mets and Colt .45s during the 1964 season.  Surprisingly, the Phillies gave him the most trouble as he batted just .170 (8 for 47) against the team that would implode during the final week and a half of the season.

1965 Season
Once again the every day catcher for the Dodgers, Roseboro appeared in 136 games, batting .233 with eight home runs and 57 RBIs.  On August 22nd, when Marichal came to bat with Roseboro behind the plate and Koufax pitching, Roseboro threw a pitch back to Koufax that came too close to Marichal's ear.  With both pitchers having hit batters, or come close to hitting batters earlier in the game, Marichal attacked Roseboro with his bat, leaving a bloody gash that would require 14 stitches.  Amazingly, Roseboro missed only three games and was back in action on August 25th.

1958 Topps #42

1963 Topps #487

1966 Topps #189

1970 Topps #655

1974 Topps #276

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1958 Topps #42
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (15):  1958-1970, 1973-1974
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2004 SP Legendary Cuts #62

115 - Roseboro non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 8/21/22.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

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