Roseboro Steals Home

Written by: Brandon Wahl on 29th March 2009

Roseboro Steals Home | read this item

Authors Note: Continuing in the Sunday historical installments, we turn our attention to Dodgers catcher, John Roseboro.

The 1962 Dodgers, in the midst of a September pennant race with the hated Giants, often made opposing pitchers and catchers look silly as super speeder Maury Wills ran wild on the entire National League. However, on September 4th, 1962 it was catcher John Roseboro that grabbed attention for his theft of home plate.

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(Roseboro steals home in the Dodgers 5-4 win over the Giants)

From Sid Ziff of the Los Angeles Times…

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Dodger catcher John Roseboro beat the Giants Tuesday night with the prettiest play in all baseball, the steal of home plate. It may have also been the most important steal of the season.

Roseboro gave a very lucid account of it on radio after the game. I talked to him about it later. He said he and Leo Durocher (then Dodgers’ coach) had decided it was worth a chance if the Giant pitcher, Billy Pierce, went into a windup.

Pierce, a veteran of 15 years in the majors, had been pitching from the stretch position, but the manager signaled to him from the bench to go into a windup with two outs.

“Leo told me to be ready to go if Pierce hesitates and takes his time,” recounted Roseboro. “I had just a normal lead but fortunately Pierce took an extra long time on the wind up.”

Seeing Roseboro barreling for the plate and the stunned Pierce trying to put the brake on his windup and get the ball to the catcher completed what I think was one of the classic baseball pictures I have ever seen.

“It kind of got to me too,” laughed Roseboro. “I kind of felt proud of these old bones. I never thought I could drag ‘em along that fast.”

Those old bones are all of 29. They belong to one of the smartest catchers in baseball. If Roseboro could only hit consistently he would go to the head of the class.

A career .249 hitter, Roseboro will forever be remembered by one of the ugliest fights in the history of baseball when he was clubbed twice over the head with a bat by Giants pitcher Juan Marichal. From Wikipedia…

Earlier in the game, [Giants pitcher Juan] Marichal had knocked down Dodgers Maury Wills and Ron Fairly with brush-back pitches. When Marichal came up to bat against Sandy Koufax in the third inning, Koufax wouldn’t retaliate, but his catcher, Roseboro, apparently wanted to. Roseboro returned Koufax’s pitches dangerously close to Marichal’s face.

Then, the future Hall-of-Famer hit Roseboro over the head with his bat twice, opening a two-inch gash that sent blood flowing down the catcher’s face that would require 14 stitches.

The Giants and the Dodgers, who nurture a heated rivalry with each other dating back to their days together in the New York market, and who were both strong contenders for the 1965 National League pennant, cleared their respective benches and began a 14-minute brawl on the field before Koufax, Giants captain Willie Mays and other peacemakers restored order.

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John Roseboro was a member of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers for 11 seasons, from 1957 – 1967. A 4-time All Star member, Roseboro worked the plate for three of the Dodgers World Series championships. For more on the Roseboro/ Marichal incident click here.

Matt Graham says:

March 30, 2009 at 12:58 am

Great story! A catcher stealing home…now I’ve heard it all.
Karlo says:

March 30, 2009 at 11:53 am

Thanks for the archive stuff. These blogs are fantastic!
Brandon Wahl says:

March 30, 2009 at 1:26 pm

You can thank my Dad, I pull all the newspaper clippings and pastel portraits from the scrapbook he kept as a child.