It was the Spring of 1964.

Yes, you read that correctly …1964. 60-years ago! I was a kid who loved playing and watching baseball. It was a time when baseball was king. It was America’s pastime.

Living south of Boston, I was a huge Red Sox fan. Growing up, Ted Williams was a Boston sports icon, and in 1961, Carl Yastrzemski took over the mantle from Ted, as the leader of the Sox. However, it wasn’t until the Spring of ’64 that I could honestly name an athlete as my idol.

His name…Tony Conigliaro.

Also known as ‘Tony C’ or ‘Conig,’ he was only 19 years-old when he made his Red Sox MLB debut.

In his first Fenway Park at bat, Tony hit the first pitch he saw for a mammoth home run over Fenway’s Green Moster in left field. From that moment on, he captured my imagination and gave every young baseball player hope of one day playing in the majors.

Tony C, a favorite of many Red Sox fans, grew up just outside of Boston and was drafted by the Sox in 1962, at the age of 17. He played only 1-year in the minors, where he hit .363 with 24 home runs, while playing in the NY-Penn League.

In his first MLB season, he hit .290 with 24 home runs – and in his second year (1965), he led the American League in home runs with 32. He would later become the youngest player in the American League to hit 100 home runs. He was certainly well on his way to becoming a Hall of Fame candidate and an iconic figure in MLB.

Then came the night of August 18, 1967.

I remember that night well. I was working at my father’s Drive-In Theater. My job was in the snack bar making hamburgers, hot dogs, and pizza. It was my own little corner of the world … with my grille, oven, and little, black & white TV. Never would a summer night go by in those days without my Drive-In and Red Sox.

The movies and baseball. Could it get any better than that for a teenage boy?

But that August night was different.

As usual, I would make sure all work was in order, as Tony C came to the plate. I couldn’t miss any of my idols’ at bats. But what I was about to witness was one of the saddest moments of my young life.

The Sox were playing the California Angels with Jack Hamilton on the mound. As Tony stood at the plate, in his famous batting stance, he got hit in the face by a fastball. The sound of him getting hit came right through the TV. It was eerie…and a moment that I will always remember.

The pitch broke Tony’s left cheekbone and dislocated his jaw. It also put a hole in his retina.

Here are some excerpts from Tyler O’Shea’s column in The Underdog Newsletter regarding that moment:

“A couple of inches higher and I’d have been killed,” Tony told Sports Illustrated.

“Later on, some of my teammates told me they thought I was dead.”

Lying there with a horrified group gathered around him, Tony said a prayer:

“God, please, please don’t let me die right here in the dirt at home plate at Fenway Park.”

The injury was so severe that he was administered last rites.

Tony tried to make a comeback in 1968, but his eyesight was poor and doctors said it was too dangerous for him to play. However, he wouldn’t quit.

Then, in ’69, his eyesight miraculously improved and his comeback began again. In 141 games that season, Tony hit 20 homers with 82 RBI, winning the ‘Comeback Player of the Year’ award. The following year he had career highs with 36 home runs and 116 RBI.

However, thereafter, his eyesight began to deteriorate again, and he retired in 1971. He tried a brief comeback in 1975, but to no avail. He would then begin a career in sports broadcasting, working in Providence and San Francisco.

Then, sadly, in 1982 while visiting Boston for a job interview for the position of Red Sox analyst, he suffered a heart attack, stroke, and permanent brain damage. This all occurred in his brother’s car while driving to the airport after the interview.

Tony never fully recovered from that day, and on February 24, 1990, (34-years ago this week), my boyhood idol passed away at the age of 45.

However, Tony C’s legacy lives on in the form of the Tony Conigliaro Award, which is presented to the MLB player “who best overcomes an obstacle and adversity through the attributes of spirit, determination, and courage that were trademarks of Conigliaro.”

Enshrined in the Red Sox Hall of Fame, Tony Conigliaro will forever be remembered as a legend of the game. But, God, what might have been.

Yes, Tony C is gone, but he will never be forgotten – at least not by this old man with wonderful memories of my youth…and my boyhood, baseball idol.

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