Juan Marichal

A high-kicking right hander with a blistering fastball and phenomenal control, Juan Marichal made his major league debut with the San Francisco Giants in July 1960 by hurling a legendary one-hit shutout against the Philadelphia Phillies. Marichal's unorthodox, catapult-style delivery and his arsenal of sliders, curves, screwballs, and change-ups left batters shaking their heads. As Pittsburgh Pirates great Roberto Clemente observed, "It doesn't matter what he throws; when he's got it, he beats you." One of the best pitchers in baseball throughout the 1960s, Marichal surpassed the twenty-game-victory mark six times between 1963 and 1969, and ended the decade with a total of 191 wins. It was not until 1972 that he experienced his first losing season. In 1983 Marichal became the first Latin American player inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame via the regular selection process.