Marichal, Juan Antonio

(born October 20, 1937, Laguna Verde, Dominican Republic) professional baseball player, the first Latin American to pitch a no-hitter (on June 15, 1963) in the major leagues. (&Seealso; Sidebar: Latin Americans in Major League Baseball.)

Marichal began playing baseball when he was six years old and soon after decided he would become a pitcher. While still a youngster, he developed the high leg kick that was to become his trademark. Marichal signed his first professional contract with the National League San Francisco Giants in 1957 and won 20 games in the minor leagues in both 1958 and 1959. He made his major league debut in 1960, and, during his next 10 years with the Giants, he had six seasons in which he won more than 20 games. Between 1963 and 1969 Marichal struck out more than 200 batters in six of seven seasons. After 14 years with San Francisco, Marichal finished his career with the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1974 and 1975. He compiled a career record of 243 victories, 142 losses, a winning percentage of .631, and an earned run average of 2.89. Along with Bob Gibson and Sandy Koufax, Marichal was one of the three dominant major league pitchers of the 1960s.

Many fans remember Marichal for a 1966 incident in which he hit Los Angeles Dodgers catcher John Roseboro on the head with a bat. Indeed, the fact that a pitcher could amass the kind of statistics that Marichal did without ever winning the Cy Young Award (given annually to the outstanding pitcher in each league) shows how the altercation shadowed him. Although the event tarnished his career, Roseboro (who admitted to having intentionally thrown at Marichal in the events that preceded Marichal's hitting him) actively campaigned for Marichal's inclusion in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. In 1983 Marichal became the first Dominican inducted into the baseball shrine. In the late 1990s he was named minister of sports in his native Dominican Republic.

Milton Jamail