Why the Boston Red Sox Should Retire Tony Conigliaro’s Number 25?

“Say what you will, the guy was a fighter…Between the lines there was nobody who played harder…by having Tony Conigliaro in there fighting every day, the game of baseball was the winner.” Dick Williams manager of the Boston Red Sox Impossible Dream Team. “He hit thirty six home runs blind. He couldn’t see the ball. That’s how much guts he had. He couldn’t see and he had the balls to get in there with them throwing ninety miles per hour.” Jerry Maffeo, friend of Tony C.

When the Boston Red Sox finished next to last place in the American League at the end of the 1965 season, in the middle of that difficult year, there was an optimistic point that sparkled, that skinny twenty-year-old kid, who played hard in right field. Tony Conigliaro had hit thirty two dingers to lead the league, while hitting for an average of .269 and plating in 82 runs. He had proved that for him there wasn’t any jinx of the sophomore year. Ha had showed everybody that his rookie season numbers in 1964 (117 hits, 21 doubles, 24 home runs, 52 rbis, 69 runs, .290 batting average in 111 games) weren’t a fluke, he was for real. Since his days in the Florida Instructional League at Bradenton, Tony showed all that intensity, willingness and courage proper of that kind of player any team wants to have in its lineup. In one of those games, they were winning 2-1, the bases were loaded and the next batter hit a line drive to shallow right field, Tony sprinted and dived to make a fantastic catch that saved his team from at least two runs. That was a picture that remained in the mind of every ball player in the field or in the excitement of the followers seated at the stands, it was imprinted in stone with the features of an unforgettable sculpture. In his debut at Yankee Stadium before the American League champions and their pitching ace Whitey Ford, on April 1964, Tony Conigliaro complained to the chief umpire when Ford threw a ball in the dirt, that this guy, who had already won 199 games in MLB was throwing spitballs “Why don’t you make him wipe that stuff off the ball before he throws it?” In the second inning Tom Tresh smashed a line drive to the right center wall and Tony made a great running catch what gave him a huge round of applause and a four photo sequence in the following day New York Times. During the first month of the season Tony C smacked 5 homers and also was hitting for average. “Baseball writers calculated how he might stand up to other teen wonders in baseball history such as Kaline, Mel Ott, Bobby Doerr, Jimmie Foxx, and Freddie Lindstrom, who all ended up in the Hall of Fame. Red Sox coach Billy Herman called him ‘the best nineteen-year-old I’ve ever seen, bar none’” (The Triumph and Tragedy of Tony Conigliaro. Tony C. David Cataneo. 1997)

In the middle of a game before the Angels some teammates were impressed by the fastaball of young righthander Bob Lee. “I hit ten homers off him last year in Welville. Tone scoffed (and exaggerated). “Why don’t you hit one now and show us?” somebody challenged. Tony hit the first delivery Lee pitched him out of the park. He got back to the dugout and faced the bench,. In August 1965 Tony came back to play and raised his final batting average to .269, with eighty two runs batted in and led the American League in home runs with thirty two. He was the youngest player to win a home run title at twenty years and nine months. Even when it wasn’t a real good year. He slumped, he spent some time in the bench. He was publicly branded a liar, he showed up drunk for work. In the 1966 season when the Boston Reed Sox stumbled as a very weak team with an ugly record of 72-90, Tony Conigliaro played in 150 games, hit 28 homers, got 93 rbis and batted for .265. On April 29th, 1967, the Boston Red Sox were losing before the Kansas City A’s in the bottom of the fifteen inning, at that moment Tony led off the frame with a single. George Scott, Tony’s teammate with the Impossible Dream Boston Red Sox recalls: “He wanted to be the man. In the eighth and ninth inning, he wanted to be up there. He was a clutch player. He was the best I’ve ever seen. Tony and Frank Robinson…I’d like to know who was ever more aggressive and more determined than those two”. On April 7th 1969, the Boston Red Sox visited the Baltimore Orioles at Memorial Stadium and in the tenth inning, Tony Conigliaro attempting a comeback with a partially recovered left eye hit a homer against reliever Pete Richert to win the game 4-2.

Then when the Red Sox arrived in Boston for the opener at Fenway Park on April 14th, 1969, Tony Conigliaro came to bat in the fourth inning, with the game tied 3-3 and the bases loaded. Pitcher Mike Adamson threw him a fastball and Tony swung mightily but he only got a grounder to the third base line. “I wasn’t up there looking for a base hit. I wanted a home run”. He still ran as hard as he could. Tony’s cleats hit the bag before Brooks Robinson’s throw whacked into first baseman Boog Powells glove. The red Sox won 5-3, so technically Tony’s dribbler was the game-winning hit. When at the beginning of May Tony started to had troubles to distinguish the ball against the background of the white shirts and other stuff in the bleachers, he experienced prolonged slumps that made him to ask the Red Sox front office for trying at persuading the fan in the bleachers to use dark clothing. Anyway Tony kept having difficulties to see the ball and had very severe headaches. So, one Sunday afternoon after the game had finished, manager Dick Williams, in front of the baseball writers asked tony if he wanted some days off to recover, but Tony said: “No. I sat it out for a year and a half. That was long enough.” On August 18th, 1969, two years after that fatal night, the Minnesota Twins defeated the Red Sox 6-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning. Tony came to bat against right hander Bill Zepp, one out, Carl Yastrzemski and Reggie Smith were on base. Tony smacked a homer to the left field screen to tie the game. Boston won in the bottom of the tenth inning. Tony felt very relieved. On May 9, 1970 at Oakland, the game was tied in the ninth, Yastrzemski was on first, Tony got out from an oh-for-twelve streak with a home run deep into the left field seats. The next night Tony smacked a home run high off the left field foul pole against Athletics reliever Rollie Fingers. On May 12 in Anaheim Tony homered against Angels knuckleballer Eddie Fisher. The next night Tony blasted two homers against the Angels.

On May 16 against the Cleveland Indians at Fenway Park, Tony tied the game with a two-run homer in the sixth inning. In the eighth Carl Yastrzemski smashed a ball against Cleveland right hander Dennis Higgins to the right of the centerfield flagpole. Tony stepped to the plate, shocked by the immensity of Yaz’s blast. “What can I ever do to top that?” Manager Eddie Kasko recalls: “He was very conscious of center stage. He liked to be up there with the bases loaded and the game on the line. And I’ll tell you, there weren’t too many others I’d rather see up there. Him or Yaz.” On May 19 at Fenway Park with the bases loaded and the game tied in the ninth inning, Tony singled against reliever Fred Lasher to beat the Tigers. This kind of moment maybe made many people overlook the solid defensive or cooperative team work attitude Tony performed on the field, like that doubleheader of May 24th against the Baltimore Orioles. The Red Sox arrived at the bottom of the ninth winning 1-0 with a runner on second base, the Orioles first baseman, Boog Powell hit a single to right field where Tony took the ball on one hop and threw a one-hop shot to home plate, where catcher Gerry Moses lunged and tagged-out Terry Crowley to save the victory. In the nightcap Tony walked in the night to start a game-winning rally. On July 4, at Fenway Park, Fred Lasher the sidearming right-hander traded recently from the Detroit Tigers to the Cleveland Indians, came as a reliever pitcher to start the seventh inning. Less than two months earlier Tony had defeated Lasher and the Tigers with a bases-loaded single in the ninth inning. This time Tony led off the inning and Lasher decked him with a pitch, Tony got up and smacked a home run. After the game, Lasher said: “Tell Conigliaro he’d better be a little careful the next time he faces me. The next time he just may get a little jammed”. Billy read the quotes in the newspaper and asked his brother: “What are you going to do if he throws at you?” “I’m going to go out to the mound”, said Tony.

On July 12 the Red Sox visited the Indians for a doubleheader. In the nightcap Lasher started his only major league game in his career. Tony came to bat in the first inning and Lasher’s first pitch plunked him in the left forearm. “The way to get him out was to pitch him in, on the hands”, Lasher recalls. “Wouldn’t you know? I hit him. But it was unintentional. He figured it was intentional.” Tony had been hit seven times since the beaning that nearly killed him and had never charged the pitcher. This time he dashed to the mound, let out a small yell, and karate-kicked Lasher on the left high and hacked him in the face with a left-handed karate chop. Some day of June, 1983 the Boston Red Sox offered a Tony C’s night before one game at Fenway Park. No matter the last time Tony had donned a uniform was eight years ago, most of the people in the park held Tony’s poster and the media guide booklet delivered at the entrance of Fenway, with such a care like if they were holding the most valuable treasure of their baseball vintage memorabilia. That’s the last time I remember the Boston Red Sox organization have planned a tribute for Tony C. I challenge them to have another Tony C’s night at Fenway Park and everybody will watch the whole place packed to the top of light towers. Yes, even now, more than fifty years from his playing days with the Red Sox.

Alfonso L. Tusa C. August 17, 2021.