Last Updated: June 17th, 2026 by Michael Schatz
On a cool San Francisco night in July 1963, fans at Candlestick Park witnessed arguably the greatest display of pitching the game has ever seen. It was Hall of Famer vs. Hall of Famer. The youngster taking on the vet. It was Juan Marichal and Warren Spahn.
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These two greats had already met five times before that epic night in 1963, with Marichal besting Spahn in four out of those five games. Marichal was so good when facing Spahn that he never allowed more than two runs in any of those matchups. Needless to say, he took his game to another level when going head-to-head with the Southpaw.
Heading into that sixth matchup, the 25-year-old Marichal was 12-3 with a 2.38 ERA. Spahn, meanwhile, was 11-3 with a 3.12 ERA – not bad for a 42-year-old. Marichal had thrown a no-hitter just four starts prior, while Spahn had no-hit this same Giants team in 1961. So let’s just say you might’ve wanted to take the under on DraftKings.
Marichal delivered the first pitch to Braves’ leadoff hitter Lee Maye a little after 8 p.m. What took place over the next four hours was a masterclass in pitching.
Both Marichal and Spahn threw 15 scoreless innings. And it’s not like these lineups were weak. The Braves featured two guys named Hank Aaron and Eddie Matthews, while the Giants had their superstar trio of Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Orlando Cepeda. The fact that Marichal and Spahn kept these two lineups silent for that long is nothing short of amazing.
Who was going to blink first? Would either of them make a mistake or was this game going to last until someone’s arm fell off? Marichal sure as heck wanted to finish it. After his manager Alvin Dark tried to take him out, Marichal gestured to Spahn and said, “He’s 42 and I’m 25, and you can’t take me out until that man is not pitching.”
And so it went on. Zero after zero after zero. In the 16th, Marichal got through the meat of the Braves lineup once again. But that was the end of the line. Dark wasn’t going to let him go back out – I guess 16 innings was the cutoff. Mays, who was due up in the bottom half, assured his young ace that wouldn’t be an issue. “Don’t worry. I’m going to win this game for you.”
And he did just that – because he’s the Say Hey Kid. At 12:31 AM, Spahn hung a screwball and Mays deposited it into the left-field stands for a game-winning solo home run.
After it was all said and done, Marichal had thrown 227 pitches, while Spahn – at 42 years old – had thrown 201.
Nowadays, teams don’t even let pitchers throw that many in three months. And get this – it was the THIRD time Spahn had gone at least 15 innings. We will never see something like this again. It’s a testament to the durability and endurance these two greats had, and why they were first-ballot Hall of Famers.
As for the players whose batting averages took a hit? They couldn’t help but be impressed. “I’ve been around a long time and that’s the finest exhibition of throwing I’ve ever seen,” Aaron said.
We tend to agree with the home run King on this one.