Uncommon
commons: In more than
30 years in sportscards publishing I have thrown hundreds of notes into files
about the players – usually non-star players – who made up the majority of the
baseball and football cards I collected as a kid. Today, I keep adding to those
files as I peruse microfilms of The Sporting News from the 1880s through
the 1960s. I found these tidbits brought some life to the player pictures on
those cards. I figure that if I enjoyed them, you might too.
One of the most
memorable on-field incidents occurred on Aug. 22, 1965, when S.F. Giants
pitcher Juan Marichal hit Dodgers catcher John Roseboro over the head with a
bat.
An iconic photo
that shows Sandy Koufax trying to intervene has insured that the ugly attack
has not been forgotten 50 years later.
Many baseball
fans and collectors are not aware that a similar incident occurred a year
later. That attack is little known because it took place in the Pacific Coast
League, rather than the majors.
In the May 28,
1966, issue of The Sporting News, Clancy
Loranger, Vancouver B.C. baseball writer, provided this account under the
headline, “Rosario Banned for Season / After Bat-Swinging Ruckus”.
Dewey Soriano, Pacific Coast League president, acted swiftly
and forcefully here following an ugly bat-swinging incident reminiscent of the
Juan Marichal-John Roseboro affair in the Vancouver-Seattle game May 11.
Seattle Angels catcher Merritt Ranew was taken to a hospital with head injuries
when Mountie outfielder Santiago Rosario conked him with a bat during a wild
riot that erupted in the fourth inning. Fewer than 24 hours after the
free-for-all which saw both benches emptying following a two hour forty minute
investigation during which more than 20 witnesses were interviewed, Soriano
delivered these rulings.
The 25-year old Rosario who was batting .257 for the
Mounties was suspended for the remainder of the PCL season including the
playoff and fined $250.
Vancouver outfielder Ricardo Joseph, who precipitated the
fracas by charging the mound after he’d been hit in the back by a pitch thrown
by pitcher Jim Coates and continued the feud in a hotel lobby the next day was
suspended for the four remaining games of the six-games series and fined $100.
Soriano made it clear that Joseph was suspended for visiting a downtown hotel
the morning after the riot, punching Coates in the mouth, loosening two of the
pitcher’s teeth. Mounties outfielder Tommy Reynolds was fined $100. After the first Joseph-Coates altercation
peace had been restored but Reynolds started a second phase of the battle at
Capialano Stadium by bunting, then veering off the base patch and charging
Coates, knocking him down.
Seattle’s Ranew, who is suffering considerable pain was
released from the hospital the day after the brawl and flown back to Seattle
also drew a $100 fine. Ranew had twice roared to Coates’ defense, socking
Joseph the first time. He was doing battle with Reynolds when Rosario, who had
been in the on-deck circle, rushed into the fray and felled him with the bat.
Manager Bob Lemon of the Angels also drew a $100 impost. Soriano said he fined
Lemon for quotes in the Vancouver and Seattle papers to the effect that if the
league doesn’t take care of Rosario, we will.
Coates, long-time Yankees pitcher who is accused by
Vancouver players of throwing at Negro and Latin-American players, wasn’t
fined. Soriano said that he couldn’t find that the pitcher had deliberately
thrown at the hitter after reading the reports of umpires Jerry Dale and George
Maloney and talking to the two umpires. Soriano did rule however that Coates
couldn’t pitch in any remaining games of the series. Coates added an extra fillip
to the wildest night in the 15-year history of the stadium by coming within one
strike of pitching a no-hitter against the Mounties. He had allowed only two Mounties
to reach base, had two outs and two strikes on Ted Kubiak in the 9th
inning when the Vancouver shortstop singed sharply to center. Ramon Webster
then homered but Coates emerged with a 3-2 victory.
In imposing what is thought to be the strongest sentence
ever assessed in an incident of this kind, Soriano stressed that Rosario had
the right to appeal to Phil Piton, National Association president, but also
said that there could be a review of Rosario’s case and the suspension could be
increased but no decreased depending on the ultimate condition of Ranew. Ranew
suffered a concussion and four-inch gash on his head. Doctors described him as
badly hurt and said he was shelved at least a month. Several others came up
with physical injuries in the free-for-all. Joseph was cut in the face and head
requiring four stitches. Lemon nursed a gashed left leg while his opposite
number, Manager Mickey Vernon of Vancouver also suffered a leg cut while trying
to break up the melee.
After the game Reynolds told reporters “a Seattle player
told me before the game to stay loose because Coates would be throwing at us.
Joseph told me he heard the same thing.” Neither Joseph nor Reynolds would
identify the Seattle players that issued the warning. Coates vigorously denied
the charge. Last year San Francisco’s Marichal was fined $1,750 and given a nine-day
suspension for striking the Dodgers’ Roseboro with his bat.
Rosario was
playing center field for Vancouver in that May 11 game. Attendance was announced
as 1,461. At the time, Seattle was in third place and Vancouver in sixth place
in the six-team PCL Western Division.
Ranew had
surgery in Seattle June 6 to remove a blood clot on the brain. He had been
hospitalized since May 11. He was released from Swedish Hospital in Seattle on
June 30, almost six weeks after being clubbed. Initially he was at liberty
during the day, but because he had no home in Seattle he spent nights at the
hospital for about another 10 days.
In its June 11,
1966, edition, TSN announced “Piton Nixes Rosario Appeal / Suspension for Full
Year”
The unbylined
article read,
The suspension of Santiago Rosario, Vancouver first baseman,
has been extended to one full year with the possibility that his expulsion from
the game might be made permanent. In a decision announced on May 27, President
Phil Piton of the National Association rejected Rosario’s appeal from the
penalties assessed by Dewey Soriano, the Pacific Coast League prexy, instead
ruled that no request for reinstatement will be considered until May 11, 1967,
one year from the date that Rosario hit Merritt Ranew of Seattle in the head
with a bat. Ranew’s condition at that time will determine whether Rosario can
be reinstated, Piton said “Soriano originally fined Rosario $250 and suspended
him for the remainder of the 1966 season. Pitson said Ranew’s condition led him
to increase the suspension for a full year.
The Seattle catcher is definitely through with baseball for
the season, and possibly all time, his physician reported. Meanwhile Rosario,
back home in Puerto Rico, asked the parent Kansas City A’s to pay his salary
for the season but he received a negative reply.
The suspension may keep him out of winter ball.
On June 4, Ranew was still suffering from a brain injury and
some facial paralysis. The final diagnosis of the extent of his injury was not
yet available. Surgery was scheduled to relieve a blood clot on the brain.
The stricken
catcher returned to his home at Albany, Ga., in late July. He maintained a quarter
horse and Appaloosa breeding facility there.
The 1966 season
was Ranew’s 10th in pro ball. He’d signed in 1957 with the Milwaukee
Braves. He made his major-league debut in 1962 with the expansion Houston Colt
.45s.
He was traded
to the Chicago Cubs in March 1963, then to the Braves in June, 1964. After
opening the 1965 season with AAA Seattle, he played most of the year with the
California Angels.
Ranew was a
light-hitting backup catcher in his major league days. In 215 games between
1962-65 he hit .248 with little power. His 1963 season with the Cubs proved to
be a batting aberration, as he hit .338.
The Angels sent
Ranew down to Seattle for 1966, where he suffered the near-fatal clubbing.
Ranew sat out
the remainder of the 1966 season. He returned to Seattle for 1967 and moved on
to Syracuse for 1968. He returned to the majors in May, 1969, catching,
pinch-hitting and playing a little left field for the Seattle Pilots.
He didn’t stick
with the team when it moved to Milwaukee for 1970, he split that season between
AAA Hawaii and Denver, then closed his pro career with Hawaii in 1971.
The bat-wielding
Santiago Rosario was in his 7th pro season in 1966, having been signed
as a first baseman and reserve outfielder in 1960 by the St. Louis Cardinals.
He climbed the Cards’ minor-league ladder for four years before being dealt to
the Kansas City Royals for 1964.
With the Royals
AA team at Birmingham in 1964, Rosario hit /273 with the 14 home runs. He
returned to Birmingham to open the 1965 season and was batting .314 when the A’s
called him up on June 23. He spent the remainder of the 1965 season at Kansas
City, but that was the extent of his big-league career. He hit .235 in his time
in the majors.
After serving
his suspension in 1967, he returned to Birmingham but managed only a .167 average.
He joined the Atlanta Braves organization, 1968-71, playing at AA Savannah and Shreveport
and AAA Richmond. He played 1973-76 in the Mexican League.
Because his
major-league career was less than a year long, Rosario never appeared on a Topps
card. Larry Fritsch remedied that by including Rosario in his 1983 One-Year
Winners card set. Rosario was also included among the postcards issued by Jim
Elder in 1968 and can be found in the 1972 Puerto Rico League sticker set.
Merritt Ranew
has a number of Topps cards to his credit, including 1962 (Houston), 1964
(Cubs) and 1966 (Angels). The 1966 card can be found in two variations, with
and without a sentence on back “Ranew was sold to Seattle (PCL) on October 28,
1965”.
Renew is
included in Venezuelan sets of 1962, 1964, 1966 and 1967, and 1966 O-Pee-Chee.
He’s pictured
with the Seattle Pilots in Renata Galasso’s 1983 collectors’ team-set issue. He’s
included in the 1989 U.S. Forest Service Smokey Bear team set of the 1962 Colts.
Ranew also has
a card in the 1967 Seattle Angels popcorn set, pictured at top.
