Midwest League Profile

Juan Marichal

Juan Marichal's career in Organized Baseball began in the Midwest League. He starred for the Michigan City White Caps in 1958, winning 21 games while losing just 8. The 21 wins and his 1.87 ERA were league bests, while his 246 strikeouts were topped by Waterloo's Hal Kolstad, who had 250.

That terrific season won a slot on the All-Star team and the MWL Rookie of the Year award. Kokomo outfielder Gus Sanciminio was selected MVP on the basis of a 29 homer season.

1958 was a very good year for MWL strikeout pitchers. Besides Marichal's 246 and Kolstad's 250, John Hamilton of Keokuk had 225 and Harvey Branch of Paris had 213 (all of these are franchise records, as you might guess). Branch struck out 21 Clinton Pirates on September 2; that was a league record, but it would only last 11 months.

Other 1958 highlights include a Paris/Dubuque slugfest on May 18; Paris won 30-17. Dubuque avenged themselves on August 19 with a 25-3 win over Paris; they hit 9 homers that day, a league record. Dubuque had a 15 game winning streak, mostly in late May. Michigan City's Thomas Arruda threw three 1-hit games and three more 2-hitters, which is not bad for a team's second pitcher. No Keokuk pitcher balked in 1958.

Two games were pretty awful: Michigan City was the beneficiary of 12 Clinton errors on May 22. And Clinton's Tom Reigard threw 6 wild pitches against Kokomo on June 26. Must have been painful games to watch.

Waterloo won the second half and defeated first-half winner Michigan City in the playoff 3 games to 2, but Kokomo had the best overall won/lost record at 68-51.

Marichal was similarly dominant in the Eastern League the following season, going 18-13 with a 2.39 ERA and 208 strikeouts (league bests in all categories). He began his Hall of Fame career with San Francisco in the middle of the 1960 season.

Juan Marichal's major league career.

This profile originated as the October 30, 1998, Midwest League Tidbit on the Midwest League Mailing List.