retirement, he ranked sixth in NL history in strikeouts (2,282) and shutouts; his complete games ranked ninth among NL pitchers active after 1920. His 2.89 ERA placed him second behind Whitey Ford, and his average of 1.82 walks per nine innings placed him fifth, among pitchers with at least 2,500 innings pitched since 1920, and his winning percentage was the sixth highest among modern NL pitchers with 200 wins. Marichal was also an agile fielder, with his 291 putouts tied for sixth in major league history. His 243 wins were the most by a foreign-born pitcher in over half a century, and he held virtually every career record for Latin American pitchers before most of them were broken by Luis Tiant and Dennis Martínez. Marichal was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983, with Roseboro's support; he was the first Dominican player, and the first foreign-born pitcher, ever selected. Early life Juan Marichal was born on October 20, 1937, in the small farming village of Laguna Verde, Dominican Republic, the youngest of Francisco and Natividad Marichal's four children. He has two brothers, Gonzalo and Rafael, and a sister, Maria. His father died of an unknown illness when Marichal was three years old. His house did not have electricity, but food was plentiful since his family owned a farm. As a child, Marichal worked on the farm daily and was responsible for taking care of his family's horses, donkeys, and goats. He lived near the Yaque del Norte River and often spent time swimming and fishing. One day, while Marichal was playing by the river, he fell unconscious owing to poor digestion and was in a coma for nine days. Doctors did not expect him to survive, but he slowly regained consciousness after his family gave him steam baths under doctor's orders. His older brother Gonzalo instilled a love of baseball in young Marichal and taught him the fundamentals of pitching, fielding, and batting. Every weekend, Marichal played the sport with his brother and friends. For their games, they found golf balls and paid the local shoemaker one peso to sew thick cloth around the ball to make it the proper size. They employed branches from a wassama tree for bats and canvas tarps for gloves. Among his childhood playmates were the Alou brothers, Felipe, Jesús, and Matty, who all later played with Marichal on the San Francisco Giants.