No love was lost between the Giants and Dodgers during the heated pennant race of 1965. Marichal, facing Sandy Koufax at Candlestick Park, knocked down Maury Wills and Ron Fairly with brushback pitches before he came to the plate in the third inning. Koufax wouldn't retaliate, but his catcher, John Roseboro, would."When Marichal came up to bat, I tried a knockdown from behind the plate, throwing the ball close to his nose when I returned it to the pitcher," recalled Roseboro. "I expected Marichal to attack me in some way. If he had said anything to me, I had studied karate, and I was ready to annihilate him."
The karate didn't help. When another of Roseboro's throws came too close to Marichal's ear, Marichal clubbed Roseboro on the head with his bat, opening up a two-inch gash that would require 14 stitches and starting a bench-clearing brawl that lasted 14 minutes. Marichal was handed an eight-game suspension and fined $1,750, a huge sum in those days.
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