Batter Up

As sports stories go, the legendary rivalry between the Giants and Dodgers, is one of the best and most enduring. Yet it’s a rivalry that has had it’s had its dark and ugly moments.  One of the those moments came a couple of years ago as Giants fan Bryan Stow was attacked and beaten in the parking lot at Dodger Stadium. A sad incident that perhaps reflects the mean spiritedness of our times.

Another ugly incident happened back in 1965. It had a better outcome.  One where the rivals, Juan Marichal of the SF Giants and John Roseboro of the Dodgers, would turn to  violence. A violence that reflected the tensions of the time.  Yet it would also turn to forgiveness and redemption.

That’s the story that John Rosengren tell in The Fight of Their Lives: How Juan Marichal and John Roseboro Turned Baseball's Ugliest Brawl into a Story of Forgiveness and Redemption

My conversation with John Rosengren: