Moskowitz: Shock, then resolve for ’67 Red Sox after Conigliaro beaned
From Eric Moskowitz at the Boston Globe on August 18, 2017:
Tony Conigliaro couldn’t wait to bat in the fourth inning, anticipating a fastball over the plate, seeing himself smash it back up the middle. He’d been in a hurry his whole life, a baby nicknamed “Choo-choo” for his high-energy crawling, a 4-year-old who begged his mother to tie his shoes each morning so he could spend all day at the park, tossing a ball and swinging a broomstick.
He was still in a rush at 19 in his first spring training with the Sox, when Ted Williams praised him but called him just a kid, still “two years away.” Except Conigliaro played so well he cracked the ’64 starting lineup, then homered on the first pitch he saw at Fenway Park.
Now he was 22, an All-Star and fourth-year veteran, finally playing for a winner and enjoying the best season of his career, with accomplishments that already foretold Cooperstown (youngest home run champ ever, at 20 in 1965; youngest in American League history to reach 100 homers, just that past month).
Sure, he had been in a little slump — but he could feel himself shaking it, making him especially eager to bat here now on Friday, Aug. 18, 1967, during a night game at Fenway, scoreless in the fourth.
Read the full article here: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/08/17/sickening-thud-awful-silence-and-team-that-somehow-finds-its-way/WHibnDP9iFEFrOabVd44uL/story.html
Related links:
- Read the SABR biography of Tony Conigliaro
- Get your free e-book copy of Overcoming Adversity: Baseball’s Tony Conigliaro Award
- Get your free e-book copy of The 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox: Pandemonium on the Field
Originally published: August 21, 2017. Last Updated: August 21, 2017.