In 1964, rookie Wes Parker was looking for his first big league hit. Parker wasn’t even supposed to start on that fateful May day, but Dodger center fielder Willie Davis was a late scratch due to a stomach flu. Ten minutes before game time, a Dodger coach instructed Parker to grab his glove and head to center field. The rookie felt totally unprepared.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” he asked the coach.
“Well Willie just told Walt (Alston, the manager),” came the reply.
“So I got my sun glasses and ran out to center field,” Parker told me in an interview at the SABR convention last week in Long Beach.
The opposing pitcher that day was Jim Bunning, the ace of the Philadelphia Phillies. Nevertheless, Parker lit him up.
“I got two doubles and a triple, drove in my first RBI, made a game-saving catch. And suddenly, I was a big league ballplayer. In one day, that’s how it happened.”
Wes Parker Holding Court at SABR Convention
Getting his first Major League hit was a thrill for Parker – but what about getting drilled by the opposing pitcher? It happened to two of Parker’s Dodger teammates in a heated game against the rival Giants in August 1965 – and quickly led to one of baseball’s most famous brawls.
Parker remembers the incident this way: “Sandy Koufax was pitching (for the Dodgers),” he told the crowd. Juan Marichal was on the mound for the Giants.
“Marichal had already hit two of our guys – I think it was Wills and Fairly,” Parker told the two dozen SABR members surrounding him.
“And at the end of the inning,” Parker continued, ” Roseboro goes to Koufax and says, ‘You got to throw at Mays or McCovey. You got to hit them.'”
“Sandy said, ‘Won’t do it,'” Parker explained.
“Sandy would not throw at anybody. He would not do it. Personal decision,” Parker said.
“So Roseboro said, ‘Okay I’ll take care of it.'”
Roseboro waited for Marichal to step into the batter’s box – the perfect moment to take revenge. Koufax delivered the pitch, Roseboro caught it and “leaned to the inside,” Parker stated.
“Marichal was a right handed hitter up at the plate. Roseboro threw the ball back – and ticked his ear. Marichal turned to him and said, ‘Did you do that on purpose?'”
Roseboro said, ‘Shut up and hit.'”
And with that, Marichal proceeded to hit Roseboro over the head three times with his bat – as both benches emptied in one of the fiercest fights in baseball history.
Parker told the SABR crowd that Marichal “should have been suspended for the entire year.” But that never happened and Parker explained why.
“Pennant race. Giants-Dodgers. So if you suspend Marichal for the season that ends the pennant race because he’s their best pitcher. The owners are happy, everybody’s making money, baseball’s doing great, we got a pennant race going, we’re packing the stadium.”
But Parker recalled that Marichal’s punishment was an 8 day suspension and a fine of approximately $1700.
“We read that as a joke, ” Parker explained. “Marichal took a bat and hit our catcher over the head three times in front of a million witnesses counting television. And that’s it? That’s all that happens?”
The incident probably never would have happened if Don Drysdale had been on the mound.
“If one of our guys got knocked down on the day he was pitching, ” Parker explained,
“then two of theirs would go down.”
If the Dodger were playing the Cincinnati Reds for example, Drysdale would go after “Pete Rose and Johnny Bench – it wouldn’t be Davey Concepion and Cesar Geronimo,” Parker stated. “You know they’re good players but not the best. So as a result, when Drysdale pitched – the other pitchers never threw at us. Their team would go to them and say, ‘Don’t throw at these guys.'”
It’s no wonder the Dodgers considered Drysdale to be their team leader in the clubhouse, along with Maury Wills, according to Parker.
Still, the players had tremendous respect for #32, Sandy Koufax, the first pitcher to throw 4 no-hitters – one of them a Perfect Game. And playing first base for the Dodgers during that Perfect Game was none other than Wes Parker.
What was Wes Parker thinking about on that perfect day? We’ll take you there – in my next blog.
