The Fight of their Lives – How Juan Marichal and John Roseboro Turned Baseball's Ugliest Brawl into a Story of Forgiveness and Redemption

The Fight of their Lives
277 Pages
ISBN 9780762788477

One Sunday afternoon in August 1965, on a day when baseball’s most storied rivals, the Giants and Dodgers, vied for the pennant, the national pastime reflected the tensions in society and nearly sullied two men forever. Juan Marichal, a Dominican anxious about his family’s safety during the civil war back home, and John Roseboro, a black man living in South Central L.A. shaken by the Watts riots a week earlier, attacked one another in a moment immortalized by an iconic photo: Marichal’s bat poised to strike Roseboro’s head.

The violent moment–uncharacteristic of either man–linked the two forever and haunted both. Much like John Feinstein’s The Punch, [Title] examines the incident in its context and aftermath, only in this story the two men eventually reconcile and become friends, making theirs an unforgettable tale of forgiveness and redemption.

The book also explores American culture and the racial prejudices against blacks and Latinos both men faced and surmounted. As two of the better ballplayers of their generation, they realized they had more to unite them than keep them apart.

John Rosengren

About John Rosengren (Twin Cities, Minnesota Author)

John Rosengren

John Rosengren is the award-winning author of eight books, including Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes and Blades of Glory: The True Story of a Young Team Bred to Win. His articles have appeared in more than 100 publications, including the Atlanticl, Reader's Digest, Runner's World, Sports Illustrated and Utne Reader.

A member of the Society of American Baseball Research, he earned his master's degree in creative writing at Boston University, where he studied with Theo Epstein's dad.

Rosengren lives in Minneapolis with his wife and their two children.