The Red Sox and the Tony Conigliaro Award

This article appears in SABR’s “Overcoming Adversity: Baseball’s Tony Conigliaro Award” (2017), edited by Bill Nowlin and Clayton Trutor.

The Tony Conigliaro Award was the brainchild of Boston Red Sox Vice President of Public Relations Dick Bresciani. The first award was presented in 1990, in honor of Red Sox outfielder Tony Conigliaro, who had died in February 1990 at the age of 45. “Bresh,” as he was widely known, died of complications from leukemia in November 2014.

Red Sox Senior Director of Public Affairs Pam Kenn talked about the process in an interview on November 18, 2015, not long before Mitch Harris was selected as the 2015 recipient.

“Bresh started it. Bresh came up with the idea,” said Kenn. He knew Tony and kept it going through 2013. Pam Kenn picked up the ball. “I’d been involved in the administration of the process in the past – mostly, getting the guys to come to the dinner. Shortly before he died, he actually pointed me to the files, with the previous letters and all that he’d done before. It’s mostly correspondence, tallies from voting, things like that.

“It’s been the same process every year. At the end of the season you have a good sense of your team and how the year went and who was good and all that. We reach out to each PR director, or PR staff, and ask for a nomination from their team. We attach a brief paragraph about Tony C and how he had overcome adversity – spirit, courage, and determination are the three things that we look for – and then each team submits nominations to us.”

There haven’t been as many teams nominating as in earlier years, perhaps because they don’t know if one of their players would be able to attend the dinner and receive the award. As the organizing force behind the award, the Red Sox leave it up to each team to decide who they might wish to nominate.

“We tell them who had won before, but we don’t tell them what each person has overcome. We provide that information, and we let them decide. A lot of times they’ll come back and ask, ‘Is this someone who would fit?’ Most of the time we just say, ‘Yes, nominate whoever.’

“The Padres last year nominated Dave Roberts. Normally, it’s a player but this was the case of a coach. We’re open to things like that. We really are open. It’s not just physical adversity. There are Tommy John guys. There are people like Dewon Brazelton who overcame … even Wilson Ramos last year, he overcame a very tough upbringing, and a kidnapping.

“I think Dave tugs at our heartstrings. Tony C was a player. It’s really up for interpretation.  These were Bresh’s parameters, which I would respect and want to hold to, but I think there’s some flexibility.”

The Red Sox ask for nominations by a certain date, typically right at the beginning of November. At the time of the interview, the Red Sox had narrowed the list down to five candidates to present to the committee.

Who’s on the committee? In 2015, it consisted of three people from Major League Baseball – Pat Courtney, Phyllis Merhige, and Katy Feeney. Both Richie and Billy Conigliaro were on the committee. There was also a fan, Brenda Cook, for the past few years. “I think we may have gotten her through the BoSox Club.” The committee changes every once in a while. Bill Ballou, former president of the Boston chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America, said the committee included the president and most recent past president of the BBWAA. “There are some sports editors as well.” Broadcaster Joe Castiglione was on the committee in 2015.

“There are basic parameters but I do think it has changed in the past, of who actually votes. Scott Lauber voted on behalf of the Herald last year. Mike Lynch. Howard Ulman. Brenda Cook. Joe Sullivan. Joe Castig. Phyllis, Pat, and Katy.”

After Gordon Edes was named Red Sox Historian in 2015, he joined Pam in overseeing the award. “We revamped the committee selecting the award,” he said, “giving it a more national composition, because it is an award for which any major leaguer is eligible. We had committee members from USAToday, Yahoo!, ESPN, Fox, and MLB.com, as well as a more varied group of local participants. Billy and Richie Conigliaro each had votes. We also revamped the selection process, no longer just relying on clubs to nominate candidates. Committee members are also urged to do so; for example, it was my idea last year to nominate 2015 winner Mitch Harris, one of four players I personally nominated last year, and we had numerous nominations from our committee this year.

“Once we gathered nominations, I sent out bios of the candidates, we had a conference call to discuss the candidates, and the vote took place a week later. It is my goal to have a revolving number of committee members in the future.”

The Red Sox are involved in organizing the list but a glance at the list of honorees over the years shows that Red Sox players are not overly represented. There have been three Tampa Bay Rays, three Red Sox, and three Angels over time. To some extent, the final selection represents which ballclubs have been more diligent in the nomination process. “The Angels nominated somebody this year. The Rays are usually pretty on top of it. They did tell us they don’t have a nomination this year.”

There were a couple of years there were ties, simply because that’s how the vote came out. The process is open for review, and any such review may result in future change. For now, it seems to work well.

It is considered a major-league award, given by the ballclub. The Red Sox pay for the recipient’s airfare, hotel, and other expenses.

BILL NOWLIN is national Vice President of SABR and the author of nearly 20 Red Sox-related books. Bill is also co-founder of Rounder Records of Massachusetts. He’s traveled to more than 100 countries, but says there’s no place like Fenway Park.

How the Award is Selected: The 2016 Tony Conigliaro Award

A look into how 2016 honoree Yangervis Solarte was selected is reflected in the following press release from the Red Sox on December 25, 2016:

San Diego Padres infielder Yangervis Solarte has been selected the winner of the 2016 Tony Conigliaro Award in voting conducted by a 20-person committee of media members, Major League Baseball executives, Red Sox officials, and members of the Conigliaro family.

Solarte received 11 first-place votes and a total of 62 points, based on a 5-3-1 points system for first-, second- and third-place votes. Phillies catcher Tommy Joseph, who had three first-place votes, and Royals catcher Salvador Perez tied for second with 23 points apiece. Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez (4), Pirates pitcher Ryan Vogelsong (1) and Indians pitcher Perci Garner (1) received the other first-place votes.

The Conigliaro Award has been given every year since 1990 in memory of the former Red Sox outfielder, whose career was tragically shortened by a beanball in 1967 and whose life ended in 1990 at the age of 45. It is awarded to a “Major Leaguer who has overcome adversity through the attributes of spirit, determination and courage that were trademarks of Tony C.”

The award was presented at the Boston Baseball Writers Dinner on Thursday, January 19, 2017 at the Marriott Copley Place.

Solarte was nominated for the award by his team, the San Diego Padres. In September, Solarte’s 31-year-old wife and mother of their three children, Yuliette Pimentel Solarte, succumbed to cancer. Solarte left the club in July to spend four days at his wife’s side; a week after her death, he returned to the club, their three daughters and his mother accompanying him to San Diego.

“It feels a little different, and she’s gone now, but at the end of the day those things are out of our control,’” Yangervis said upon his return. “Those things are up to God and that was his decision. We fought. We were hoping that she’d be around for a little bit longer, but here we are.”

Megan Otto, the Padres’ manager of player and family relations, nominated Solarte.

“For Yangervis, 2016 has been one of the most personally challenging years that he will have in his lifetime,’’ she wrote. “Dealing with personal loss and missing time to due to injury, and yet he still managed to produce the best year of his career.’’

Solarte earlier in the season also missed six weeks due to a hamstring injury. In 109 games, he batted .286 with a career-high 15 home runs and career-best 71 RBIs.

“He’s had a heck of a year,” Padres manager Andy Green said. “With what he’s been through at home, his ability to still perform on a baseball field has honestly been astounding to me.”

Conigliaro, a native of Swampscott, Mass., at 19 hit a home run in his first at-bat at Fenway Park in 1964. A year later, 1965, he became the youngest player to lead his league in home runs when he hit 32 in 1965, his second full season in the big leagues. He also became the youngest American League player to reach 100 home runs when he hit No. 100 at 22 years and 197 days, just 65 days older than the major league record holder, Mel Ott (22 years, 132 days).

Conigliaro’s early promise of greatness went unfulfilled after he was struck in the face by a pitch from Jack Hamilton of the Angels on Aug. 18, 1967, fracturing his left cheekbone, dislocating his jaw, and severely damaging the retina in his left eye. It was the only hit batsman of the season for Hamilton, and just one of 13 in the span of an eight-year career.

Conigliaro missed all of the 1968 season, but returned to play two more years in Boston, hitting a career-high 36 home runs for the Sox in 1970, when he also drove in 116 runs. He was traded after the season to the California Angels, but declining vision led him to announce his retirement in 1971. He attempted another comeback for the Red Sox in 1975, but ended his career after batting just .123 in 69 plate appearances.

Congliaro suffered a massive heart attack in 1982, and died eight years later at the age of 45.

These people comprised the committee that conducted the voting:

• Pat Courtney, chief communications officer, Major League Baseball
• Phyllis Merhige, senior vice president, club relations, MLB
• Katy Feeney, senior vice president, scheduling and club relations, MLB
• Pam Kenn, Boston Red Sox VP, community, alumni and player relations
• Gordon Edes, Red Sox historian
• Billy Conigliaro, brother, Tony Conigliaro
• Richie Conigliaro, brother, Tony Conigliaro
• Tim Brown, Yahoo! Sports
• Steve Buckley, Boston Herald
• Uri Berenguer, play-by-play Red Sox Spanish-language broadcast team
• Joe Castiglione, WEEI radio play-by-play broadcaster
• Doug Glanville, ESPN
• Steve Hollingsworth, 2015-16 president, BoSox Club
• Jon Paul Morosi, MLB.com and MLB Network
• Bill Nowlin, author and baseball historian
• Dave O’Brien, NESN Red Sox play-by-play broadcaster
• Jorge Ortiz, USA Today
• Nilson Pepen, host and producer, Conversando de Deportes
• Grace Pontius, Class of 2018, Mount Mansfield (Vt.) Union High School
• Jayson Stark, ESPN.com