Tony Conigliaro

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Full Name: Anthony Richard Conigliaro Primary Position: OF,RF Height/Weight: 6' 3"/185 First Game: April 16, 1964 Birthdate: January 7, 1945 Final Game: June 12, 1975 Birthplace: Revere, Massachusetts MLB Experience: 8 years Died: February 24, 1990 Deathplace: Salem, Massachusetts Bat/Throw: Right/Right

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[edit] Biography

Tony Conigliaro was born January, 7, 1945, in the Boston suburb of Revere, Massachusetts. At the age of eight, the family moved across town to East Boston, where Tony soon became the best ballplayer in the neighborhood. From there, he moved onto star in high school, and, after being courted by fourteen of the then twenty Major League teams, signed with the Red Sox on September 11, 1962 for $22,000. (In those days, before the draft, teams would set their sights on one player who was considered a top prospect and would give a large signing bonus to, leaving small amounts for the rest. A few weeks before signing Conigliaro, the Red Sox signed 17 year old California high school star [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Tony_Horton ]to a six figure contract.)

After an 84 game minor league career, Conigliaro found himself the starting leftfielder for the Red Sox on Opening Day, 1964, April 16 th in Yankee Stadium, at the age of 19. (The Red Sox moved Carl Yastrzemski to centerfield to accommodate Conigliaro. This was a one year experiment, beginning in 1965 Yaz was the permanent left-fielder, with Conigliaro in right). Conigliaro went 1-5 in his debut, and the next day, April 17, in the Red Sox home opener, [http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA196404160.shtml homered] on the first pitch he saw in Fenway Park, off White Sox ace Joel Horlen.

Conigliaro went on to hit .290 with 24 homers in his rookie season, but a broken arm suffered when hit by a pitch on July 24 cost him six weeks, and, most likely, the American League Rookie of the Year Award.

In 1965, Conigliaro hit 32 homers, despite missing 24 games after yet again being hit by a pitch, this on breaking his left wrist, and became the youngest HR champ in history at the age of 20.

In 1966, Conigliaro was healthy the entire season, playing a career high 150 games. In 1967, he was also healthy, playing 95 of 117 games leading up to August 18 th, the missed due to military requirements, not due to injury.

At the beginning of August, Conigliaro was well on his way to realizing his dreams of being a complete player, he was hitting .303 and had committed only three errors in right field. The Red Sox, at the beginning of the season, were 100-1 shots to win the pennant, coming off 1966’s 72-90 record and ninth place finish. At the end of the day, August 17, 1967, the Red Sox found themselves in the pennant race, sitting in fourth place but only 3 ½ games behind the first place Minnesota Twins. Arriving in Boston for a four game weekend series were the California Angels, who were in fifth place, a game behind.

In the first game, on Friday night, [ http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS196708180.shtml August 18], the Angels starter was righthander Jack Hamilton. Hamilton, 28, had been traded to the Angels on June 10 th, and after spending the previous year and a half as the New York Mets closer, found himself in the Angels rotation. Hamilton had started a game against the Red Sox a week earlier in California, and Red Sox manager Dick Williams had accused Hamilton of throwing a spitball. At this point of the season, Conigliaro was mired in a slump, his average dropping 29 points the previous month. Uncharacteristically booed at Fenway, Conigliaro singled his first at-bat. George Scott led off the fourth inning for Boston and blooped a ball to short left center, and was thrown out at second on a great pickup and throw by Angels centerfielder Jose Cardenal. Before the next pitch could be thrown, a fan in the leftfield grandstand tossed a smoke bomb onto the outfield grass, which delayed play for several minutes. Instead of remaining on the mound and throwing to stay loose, Hamilton retreated to the visitor’s dugout. Once play resumed, Reggie Smith lined a first pitch fastball for a single. Conigliaro, now hitting sixth due to his slump, figured Hamilton would try a breaking ball since he hadn’t warmed up during the delay. Crowding the plate more than usual, he was fooled by a fastball inside, and was unable to get out of the way, the pitch hitting him flush on the cheek just below the left eye. Despite the now famous picture of Conigliaro taken the next day with his eye swollen shut and black, he was initially expected to miss not more than three weeks.

Maybe in part due to their response to a fallen teammate, the Red Sox finished the season by winning 26 of their last 42 games and clinched the pennant on the second to last day of the season. Conigliaro, through a special exemption granted by the commissioner’s office, was on the bench in uniform during the Red Sox seven game World Series defeat at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals. Conigliaro's rightfield replacements in the Series, Ken Harrelson and Jose Tartabull, combined to go 3-25 with no extra base hits and two RBI, those coming on one hit, a two run single by Tartabull in Game Five. With Conigliaro in the lineup during the Series, one could assume Red Sox Nation would not have had to wait an additional 33 years to hoist the Championship Trophy.

Conigliaro missed the rest of the 1967 season and all of 1968, and over the last three seasons of his career had bouts of diminished vision, although he did play 141 games in 1969 and 146 in 1970, which included 36 homers and 116 RBI. Following the 1970 season, Conigliaro was traded to the California Angels and retired mid-way during the 1971 season after again experiencing vision problems. Two attempts at a comeback, first as a pitcher and then as the Red Sox designated hitter in 1975 were both brief and unsuccessful.

On January 3, 1982, Conigliaro interviewed for the color analyst position with WSBK-TV, at the time the Red Sox flagship station. On the drive back to Logan Airport to catch a flight to his California home with his brother Billy driving, Conigliaro suddenly slumped over, the victim of a heart attack. Without oxygen to his brain for over ten minutes, Conigliaro remained in a vegetative state until he died on February 24, 1990 at the age of 45.

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• Signed as an amateur free agent by Boston Red Sox (October 10, 1962).
• Traded by Boston Red Sox with Ray Jarvis and Jerry Moses to California Angels in exchange for Ken Tatum, Jarvis Tatum and Doug Griffin (October 11, 1970).
• Released by California Angels (November 25, 1974).
• Signed by Boston Red Sox (March 5, 1975).
• Released by Boston Red Sox (September 2, 1975).

[edit] Trivia

• 1 Time All-Star: 1967
• Brother of Billy Conigliaro

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