Marichal beats Spahn in 16inning classic
It has been called the Greatest Game Ever Pitched, and it would be hard to argue against that assessment. At Candlestick Park on July 2, 1963, 42yearold Warren Spahn held the Giants scoreless for 151⁄3 innings — and took the loss. That’s because Juan Marichal, then 25, held the Braves scoreless for 16 innings, and Willie Mays’ homer in the 16th gave the Giants a 10 win.
The game lasted 4 hours and 10 minutes and ended in the wee hours of July 3. Spahn allowed nine hits and walked one against a lineup that featured four future Hall of Famers: Mays, Marichal, Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda. Marichal gave up eight hits and four walks against a lineup that featured three future Hall of Famers: Spahn, Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews.
Marichal, who struck out 10, threw 227 pitches. That’s two hundred twentyseven. In “24,” the book by The Chronicle’s John Shea and Mays, Marichal says, “I didn’t want to come out, and I understand Spahn didn’t want to come out, either . ... Willie said, ‘I’m going to win the game for you,’ and he did. I was so happy.”
Mays jolted a Spahn screwball, his 201st pitch, over the leftfield wall with one out in the 16th. “I didn’t know I’d hit a damn home run,” Mays says in the book. “I wasn’t trying to. I hit a home run, and Marichal’s the first guy out there to greet me.”
Way back in the fourth inning, Mays had kept Milwaukee off the board with his throw to the plate to cut down Norm Larker, who was trying to score on Del Crandall’s twoout single to center. Twelve innings later, Mays sent however many Giants fans were left from the announced crowd of 15,921 home happy. Spahn and Marichal surely left the park immensely tired — and proud.