As a Red Sox fan, one know's heart-break: numerous times of being so close to winning the big game only to fall on their face and this year is no different as the Bombers continue to gain on the AL-leaders, Boston continues to slide. But in life as in baseball, and Boston nothing pulls on the heart-strings as much as when the good die young or when a youngster full of hope for the future is side-lined with a major injury, cut short from their attaining their full-potential. The darkest day the Red Sox Nation had was 40-years ago today, when Red Sox slugger Tony C's career was finished by what retrosheet.org refers to as "The Beaning". (Photo credits: Boston Dirt Dogs)
At age 21, Tony Conigliario was the youngest player in the American League to reach 100-home-runs, leading the AL in 1965 with 32 home-runs and tapped for the All-Star team in 1967. Anthony Richard Conigliario was a home-grown talent, born in Revere, Mass and reared in East Boston; the local kid who made it put rumps in the seats at Fenway ending a previous (dwindling) 9,000 attendance average. The Red Sox signed Tony C at the age of 17 for $20,000 and their investment paid off in droves as the Red Sox Nation tuned in and came to the games.
Fitting For A Greek Tragedy
The Red Sox hosted the California Angels at Fenway on August 18, 1967 facing the Angels' pitcher Jack Hamilton who was known as an aggressive pitcher who would throw inside on batters to brush them off the plate. Besides the aggressive nature of Hamilton, he was also known to throw the spit-ball, viewed as somewhat of an under-handed pitch and out-lawed in today's game.
In the bottom of the fourth-inning, with two outs, Tony C came to the plate. The first offering from Hamilton was high and inside, brushing Tony C back from the plate. As if it was fore-shadowing to the tragedy that was about to take place, someone threw a smoke-bomb onto the field. With the smoke lingering across the in-field, Hamilton's next pitch came in on Conigliario hitting the young 22-year old below the left eye, shattering his cheek bones and the orbital-bones around the eye socket, an injury that darkened Conigliario's vision later ending his career and darkened that sad day at Fenway.
Posted by The Bushido
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