Anthony Richard (“Tony”) Conigliaro was born in Revere, Massachusetts, on January 7th back in 1945.
After graduating from St. Mary’s High School (in Lynn, MA) in 1962, he was signed by the Red Sox at the tender age of seventeen. The next year, he hit .363 with 24 home runs in the NY Penn League and was subsequently promoted to Boston. In his rookie year (1964), Conigliaro endeared himself to Boston baseball fans by hitting .290 with 24 HR in an injury-shortened campaign (he played only 111 games due to a broken arm and broken toes suffered in August). In the 1965 and 1966 seasons, he hit .267 with 60 HR… he led the league in homers in ’65 (32) and established himself as one of the most prolific offensive forces in the American League.
In 1967, “Tony C” was an integral part of the Red Sox “Impossible Dream” team. He hit .287 with 20 HR in 95 games and was named to his only all-star team. In the first game of a double-header on July 23rd, in Cleveland, he hit the 100th home run of his career… and in so doing he became the second-youngest player in MLB history to hit 100 career homers (Mel Ott, 1931). But in a game at Fenway Park on August 18th, he stepped to the plate against California Angels pitcher Jack Hamilton, who unleashed a high inside fastball to the plate. Conigliaro, who was famous for striding toward the plate to cover the outside corner, was slow to react to the pitch. He was hit on his left cheekbone, sustaining a fractured cheekbone and a dislocated jaw. He suffered severe damage to his left retina. It was a horrific injury, famously demonstrated on the cover of Sports Illustrated almost three years later.
Amazingly, Conigliaro returned to the diamond in 1969 and 20 HR while driving in 82 runs in 141 games – the performance earned him the MLB Comeback Player of the Year award. And then in 1970, he set career-highs in both HR (36) and RBI (116).
But his damaged eyesight continued to deteriorate. He played with the Angels in 1971, hitting only .222 in 74 games (266 AB) and then disappeared from the game until 1975 when he attempted another comeback. But his courageous effort fell short… as he hit a paltry .123 in 21 games. Alas, a career that had offered such mythic promise ended prematurely and in futility.
On January 3, 1982, he suffered a heart attack and shortly thereafter suffered a stroke, lapsing into a coma. He lived at his parents home in Nahant until his death more than eight years later. He died in 1990 in Salem, MA, at the age of 45. He is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Malden, MA.
He has been honored by Major League baseball through the creation of the Tony Conigliaro Award, which is given annually to the player who best overcomes an obstacle and adversity through the attributes of spirit, determination and courage that were his trademarks.
Prior to the start of the 2007 season, the current Red Sox ownership honored him when they named a new 200-seat bleacher section on the right field roof, “Conigliaro’s Corner”.
For those of us who are old enough to have seen him play, we are left to wonder about what might have been…
Gold bless you, Tony.
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