Book Review:The Fight of Their Lives(Marichal/Roseboro Brawl)

BLUEJAYWAY

As refered to in an earlier post here is my "review". The complete book title "The Fight of Their Lives: how Juan Marichal and John Roseboro turned baseball"s ugliest brawl into a story of forgiveness and redemption. For us "seniors" this was a most memorable incident in the annals of baseball. Where Juan Marichal brandished a bat about the skull of John Roseboro after a return thrown ball to the pitcher by Roseboro came too close to/brushed Juan's head who was at bat at the time. The book not only details the actual event, but also the events leading up to it as well as the post incident redemption/forgiveness period. What was of interest was how personal as well as world events came into play in both players lives that may have contributed to the stress level leading up to the incident. To me it was very interesting to be reminded of what was going on in the world at the time. For Roseboro it was a time of the Watts riots in Los Angeles. For Marichal it was the upheaval/Revolution of his country, Santo Domingo. Add to this the fierce rivalry of the Giants/Dodgers and it seemed to be a recipe for the incident. It also brought to the forefront of just how great of a pitcher Marichal was. His career was overshadowed by Koufax during his greatest years. I'm glad that the book did not belabor the actual fight, but spent a great deal on each players respective life before/after the incident. I think those who of you who are not familiar with the incident will get a great glimpse into old style baseball where pitchers habits are concerned (the Gibson/Drysdale brush back/hit batters days) and for the oldtimers a chance to relive a famous incident from one of baseballs golden eras. There is a fair amount of trivia from the era as well. Would recommend it to all baseball fans.

MisterBungle

John looked slightly puzzled by the whole affair...

...even before it happened.



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