Archrivals urge civility among fans
The scene before Monday’s game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and host San Francisco Giants was one Juan Marichal and Johnny Roseboro never could have imagined.
On Aug. 22, 1965, after the Giants’ Marichal nearly beaned Maury Wills twice, Roseboro, the Dodgers’ catcher, returned a throw to his pitcher that glazed Marichal’s ear. After exchanging words, Marichal used his bat to whack Roseboro on the head a few times and left the catcher needing 14 stitches.
A benches-clearing brawl ensued.
The rivalry has bordered on hatred among fans.
The teams have decided the rift had gone too far because two Dodgers fans attacked Giants fan Bryan Stow, 42, and left him with possible brain damage after the teams’ March 31 opener in Los Angeles.
Giants and Dodgers left their respective benches before Monday’s game, but it wasn’t to fight. They met at the mound to implore fans the rivalry needed to stay on the field.
“There’s no room in this game for hatred and violence. It is about respect,” Dodgers infielder Jamey Carroll told the sellout Bay Area crowd, which applauded his remarks.
Stow, a paramedic from Santa Cruz, Calif., has been in critical condition in a medically induced coma at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center since the attack. No arrests have been made despite a $150,000 reward offered for information leading to the apprehension of the attackers.
A fundraiser for Stow was held Monday at Dodger Stadium.
“I just wanted to show that Dodger fans are not like the two nuts that did this horrible thing,” said Michael Martin, a Los Angeles native who stopped by to leave $100.
■ BIRD DIDN’T DUCK — Carl Edwards endeared himself to a NASCAR sponsor in Saturday night’s race at Texas Motor Speedway but might have run afoul of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
For the first 50 laps, the winner of the Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 6 was pleading for help with an upset stomach he later blamed on his mother’s cooking. His team taped Tums to a water bottle and handed it to him during a pit stop.
His well-being improved, but the same can’t be said for an unlucky bird that met the brunt of Edwards’ 190 mph race car.
“I didn’t see any feathers, but (crew chief Bob Osborne) said there were some on the front,” said Edwards, whose sponsor Aflac uses a duck for a mascot. “You know, being sponsored by a duck, that is not good to do.”
■ GO VEGGIE, OR MAYBE NOT — Some European countries have urged their athletes to stay away from ingesting meat in Mexico and China over concerns they could test positive for banned substances from eating drug-tainted meat.
A recent report from Germany’s anti-doping agency warned athletes that meat in Mexico was even more tainted with clenbuterol than in China. The banned fat-burning chemical is used to produce lean meat in pigs.
Vegetarians are safe — provided they don’t eat radioactive broccoli, spinach and cauliflower from Japan. Radiation is not on a banned list and isn’t believed to be performance enhancing, unless you are The Incredible Hulk.
COMPILED BY JEFF WOLF
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
