Word: throws
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Actually, there is one pitch that Marichal prefers not to throw: his best one, the fastball. For one thing, it is too much like work. ("Has major-league fastball," read a plaintive note in the first scouting report the Giants received on Juan's pitching, "but wants to throw curves all the time.") For another, the fastball is essentially a strikeout pitch. Sandy Koufax may get his kicks out of setting strikeout records, but Marichal would rather save his arm. "It takes at least three pitches to strike a man out," he says matter-of-factly. "It only takes...
...Fast as He Feels. Just how fast Marichal's fastball travels when he does throw it is a subject of mild controversy. "Slower than Koufax's" is a common comment, but the truth is: as fast as he feels like throwing it. One National League hitter claims to have counted ten different speeds, and few batters have ever seen Marichal really cut loose. Cincinnati's John Edwards is one of the privileged few. After Marichal struck him out with the bases loaded last week, Giants Coach Charlie Fox noted that "Edwards obviously knew those fastballs were coming...
Every pitch Marichal throws today was already in his bag of tricks when he reported to San Francisco in July 1960. All but one (his screwball) were part of his repertory before he left the Dominican Republic in March 1958. In short, the Giants have not taught Juan a thing-except how to hide the ball in his glove during his windup. "I first saw Juan at the age of 19. And he looked like a ten-year pro even then," says Carl Hubbell, San Francisco's head scout and once a pretty fair pitcher himself. Giants Owner Horace...
...farm chores, tried to stop him from attending grownups' games for fear he would be hit by a foul ball. Luckily, Juan's older brother Gonzalo and his sister's husband, Prospero Villalona, were baseball nuts too. By the time he was nine, Juan could throw a curve (his lopsided, homemade baseballs wouldn't do anything else), and he quit school after the eleventh grade "because I was crazy about the game...
...Caps in the Class D Midwest League-where he led the league in innings pitched (245), victories (21;) and earned-run average (1.87). In 1959, he moved up to Springfield in the Class A Eastern League. There he invented his now famous high kick and taught himself how to throw a screwball-but otherwise it was the same story: No. 1 in innings pitched (271), No. 1 in victories (18), No. 1 in ERA (2.39), and No. 1 in strikeouts...