Juan Marichal

Juan Antonio Marichal Sánchez was born on 20 October 1937 in Laguna Verde, a small farming village in the Dominican Republic, the youngest of four children of Francisco and Natividad Marichal. He left school in the 11th grade to play professionally, and the San Francisco Giants signed him as an international free agent in 1957. He won 20 games in the minor leagues in both 1958 and 1959.

Marichal made his major league debut on 19 July 1960, and became one of the dominant pitchers of the 1960s. Nicknamed the Dominican Dandy, he was known for his graceful delivery and pinpoint control. On 15 June 1963 he pitched a no-hitter, the first by a Latin American in the major leagues.

That year began a run in which he won 20 or more games six times between 1963 and 1969, and 25 or more three times. In 1968 he won 26 games, still a San Francisco-era record. He was a ten-time All-Star and the All-Star Game's most valuable player in 1965. Across a 16-year career with the Giants, the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers, he won 243 games and lost 142, with a 2.89 earned run average, 2,303 strikeouts and 52 shutouts.

His winning percentage of .631 is the best of any right-handed pitcher in the twentieth century. He never won the Cy Young Award, mainly because the Dodgers' Sandy Koufax won it several times in his best years. On 22 August 1965 Marichal had a fight with the Dodgers' catcher John Roseboro, swinging his bat at his head, for which he was suspended for eight days and fined $1,750. The incident delayed his Hall of Fame election, but Roseboro later campaigned for him to be elected, and Marichal became a pallbearer at Roseboro's funeral.

In 1983 Marichal was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the first Dominican to be inducted, to the great pride of his country and of Latin American players everywhere. The Giants retired his number 27. He has been married to Alma Rosa Carvajal since 1962, and they have six children.