Tony Conigliaro Stats

Tony Conigliaro was born on Sunday, January 7, 1945, in Revere, Massachusetts. Conigliaro was 19 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 16, 1964, with the Boston Red Sox. His biographical data, year-by-year hitting stats, fielding stats, pitching stats (where applicable), career totals, uniform numbers, salary data and miscellaneous items-of-interest are presented by Baseball Almanac on this comprehensive Tony Conigliaro baseball stats page.

Baseball Almanac Top Quote

"The Tony Conigliaro Award is given each year to the MLB player who overcomes an obstacle and adversity through the attributes of spirit, determination, and courage that were trademarks of Tony Conigliaro. Conigliaro was hit in the face by a pitch in 1967. His injuries were so severe that he did not return to the playing field until 1969, homering on Opening Day. Despite his dramatic return, Conigliaro continued to be plagued with vision problems and was forced to retire at age 30." - Nowlin, Bill. Author. Overcoming Adversity: Baseball's Tony Conigliaro Award. The SABR Digital Library. 5 January 2017. Book Press Release Description.

Tony Conigliaro

Tony Conigliaro Autograph on a 1971 Topps Baseball Card (#105 | <a href='../baseball_cards/baseball_cards_oneset.php?s=1971top01' title='1971 Topps Baseball Card Checklist'>Checklist</a>)

Tony Conigliaro Autograph on a 1971 Topps Baseball Card (#105 | Checklist)

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Birth Name:   Anthony Richard Conigliaro
Nickname:   Tony C
Born On:   01-07-1945  (Capricorn)
Place of Birth Data Born In:   Revere, Massachusetts
Year of Death Data Died On:   02-24-1990 (1,000 Oldest Living)
Place of Death Data Died In:   Salem, Massachusetts
Cemetery:   Holy Cross Cemetery, Malden, Massachusetts
High School:   St. Mary's High School (Lynn, MA)
College:   None Attended
Batting Stances Chart Bats:   Right   Throwing Arms Chart Throws:   Right
Player Height Chart Height:   6-03   Player Weight Chart Weight:   185
First Game:   04-16-1964 (Age 19)
Last Game:   06-12-1975
Draft:   Not Applicable / Signing Bonus = $20,000

Tony Conigliaro

Tony Conigliaro Pitching Stats

- - Did Not Pitch - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Tony Conigliaro

Tony Conigliaro Hitting Stats

1964 19 Red Sox 111 404 69 117 21 2 24 1 52 35 1 78 0 0 5 11 .290 .354 .530
1965 20 Red Sox 138 521 82 140 21 5 32 2 82 51 6 116 6 3 5 9 .269 .338 .512
1966 21 Red Sox 150 558 77 148 26 7 28 0 93 52 8 112 6 7 5 6 .265 .330 .487
1967 22 Red Sox 95 349 59 100 11 5 20 0 67 27 2 58 2 6 5 3 .287 .341 .519
1969 24 Red Sox 141 506 57 129 21 3 20 0 82 48 6 111 3 5 4 11 .255 .321 .427
1970 25 Red Sox 146 560 89 149 20 1 36 2 116 43 4 93 0 6 8 11 .266 .324 .498
1971 26 Angels 74 266 23 59 18 0 4 0 15 23 1 52 1 1 1 10 .222 .285 .335
1975 30 Red Sox 21 57 8 7 1 0 2 0 9 8 0 9 1 3 0 2 .123 .221 .246
8 Years 876 3,221 464 849 139 23 166 5 516 287 28 629 19 31 33 63 .264 .327 .476

Tony Conigliaro

Tony Conigliaro Fielding Stats

1964 Red Sox CF 24 23 594 47 2.0 46 42 4 1 0 n/a n/a n/a .979 2.09
1964 Red Sox LF 83 82 2,070 143 1.7 139 136 3 4 0 n/a n/a n/a .972 1.81
1964 Red Sox RF 1 1 9 1 1.0 1 1 0 0 0 n/a n/a n/a 1.000 3.00
1965 Red Sox CF 2 2 48 7 3.5 5 4 1 2 0 n/a n/a n/a .714 2.81
1965 Red Sox RF 135 135 3,603 278 2.1 273 263 10 5 1 n/a n/a n/a .982 2.05
1966 Red Sox RF 146 145 3,924 261 1.8 254 246 8 7 0 n/a n/a n/a .973 1.75
1967 Red Sox RF 95 95 2,388 182 1.9 179 174 5 3 1 n/a n/a n/a .984 2.02
1969 Red Sox LF 1 1 27 2 2.0 2 2 0 0 0 n/a n/a n/a 1.000 2.00
1969 Red Sox RF 136 134 3,492 211 1.6 207 204 3 4 2 n/a n/a n/a .981 1.60
1970 Red Sox RF 146 146 3,786 261 1.8 255 248 7 6 1 n/a n/a n/a .977 1.82
1971 Angels RF 72 71 1,879 165 2.3 164 157 7 1 1 n/a n/a n/a .994 2.36
RF Totals 731 727 19,081 1,359 1.9 1,333 1,293 40 26 6 n/a n/a n/a .981 1.89
LF Totals 84 83 2,097 145 1.7 141 138 3 4 0 n/a n/a n/a .972 1.82
CF Totals 26 25 642 54 2.1 51 46 5 3 0 n/a n/a n/a .944 2.14
7 Years 841 835 21,820 1,558 1.9 1,525 1,477 48 33 6 n/a n/a n/a .979 1.89

Tony Conigliaro

Tony Conigliaro Miscellaneous Stats

1964 Red Sox 2 4 .333 5 0 n/a 16.8 5.2 7.8 - - -
1965 Red Sox 4 2 .667 1 0 n/a 16.3 4.5 6.4 - - -
1966 Red Sox 0 2 .000 4 0 n/a 19.9 5.0 6.0 - - -
1967 Red Sox 4 6 .400 0 0 n/a 17.5 6.0 5.2 - - -
1969 Red Sox 2 4 .333 6 0 n/a 25.3 4.6 6.2 - - -
1970 Red Sox 4 2 .667 0 0 n/a 15.6 6.0 4.8 - - -
1971 Angels 3 3 .500 2 0 n/a 66.5 5.1 17.7 - - -
1975 Red Sox 1 0 1.000 6 0 15 28.5 6.3 6.3 - - -
8 Years 20 23 .465 24 0 15 19.4 5.1 6.2 - - -

Tony Conigliaro

Tony Conigliaro Miscellaneous Items of Interest

1964 Boston Red Sox 25 $17,500.00 - -
1965 Boston Red Sox 25 $17,500.00 - -
1966 Boston Red Sox 25 $35,000.00 - -
1967 Boston Red Sox 25 $50,000.00 Stats -
1969 Boston Red Sox 25 $35,000.00 - -
1970 Boston Red Sox 25 $60,000.00 - -
1971 California Angels 4 $76,000.00 - -
1975 Boston Red Sox 25 $50,000.00 - -

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Anthony Richard Conigliaro was a Major League Baseball player with the Boston Red Sox (1964-1967, 1969-1970), California Angels (1971), and Boston Red Sox (1975). Tony, his nickname, went 1-for-5 in his Major League debut, at Yankee Stadium, but one day later, on April 17, 1964, he became an all-time fan favorite with the Boston Red Sox when he crushed the first pitch thrown to him that day, in his first at-bat, in Fenway Park.

Tony Conigliaro Rookie Card | Baseball Almanac

Tony Conigliaro Rookie Card | 1964 Topps Baseball Card (#287 | Checklist)
Baseball Almanac Research Library

The 19-year-old phenom continued to hit towering home runs, twenty-four in total during his rookie season, the most homers ever hit in Major League history by a teenager — a record that still stands through today!

Bill James 19-Year-Old All-Star Team

Position 19-Year-Old Year
Catcher Ivan Rodriguez 1991
First Base Phil Cavarretta 1936
Second Base Sibby Sisti 1940
Third Base Buddy Lewis 1936
Shortstop Robin Yount 1975
Left Field Tony Conigliaro 1964
Center Field Ken Griffey, Jr. 1989
Right Field Mel Ott 1928
Starting Pitcher Wally Bunker 1964
Starting Pitcher Dwight Gooden 1984
Starting Pitcher Bob Feller 1938
Starting Pitcher Gary Nolan 1967
Starting Pitcher Chief Bender 1903
Relief Pitcher Billy McCool 1964

Sophomore slump? Absolutely not, in fact, Tony C hit an American League leading thirty-two homers, the youngest home run champion in league history!

During his third season, an All-Star selection (finally) was added to his record setting resume, as well as his one-hundredth career home run. He was exactly 22-years and 197 days old, the second youngest player in Major League history (youngest from the American League) to reach the 100-HR Club (Full List). Do you know who was first? [Answer]

Tony Conigliaro Sports Illustrated | Baseball Almanac

Tony Conigliario | Sports Illustrated | June 22, 1970
Baseball Almanac Research Library

Then that happened. August 18, 1967. The Boston Red Sox were playing the California Angels at Fenway Park. Tony C dug-in against righty Jack Hamilton. A high fastball hit Tony on the left side of his face, causing a linear fracture of his cheekbone, a dislocated jaw, and damage to his left retina.

Tony Conigliaro Beaning | August 18, 2017 | MassLive

'Tony C' can see to hit

For "Tony C," who has always had a keen awareness of his own drama, the situation was ripe for grand gestures. One year aho he was legally blin in his left eye. His spectacularly precocious career seemed over. But last month, when he arrived at the Boston Red Sox spring training camp, his sight miraculously had returned and Tony Conigliaro was embarking at a comeback at the age of 24.

Conigliaro had been one of baseball's most exciting players. In 1965, before he was old enough to vote, he led the American League in home runs and the fans loved him. He partied with beauty queens, safaried in Africa, and got fined $1,000 for arriving for a game so hung over he vomited into his own glove in right field. Then, in August 1967, a fast ball smashed his face. Last year, after a winter of slow improvement, his vision deteriorated in spring training until all depth perception was gone. A cyst, caused by the beaning, had broken his left eye, leaving a hole in the retina. There was no cure. "When the doctor said I was through, I cried a lot," he recalls. "I fell asleep and when I woke up up I hoped it was a dream. I felt so alone. I didn't know what to do."

He tried to start a new career as a singer. He had some talent, but his heart wasn't in it. Last fall, as he fitfully attempted to become a one-eyed pitcher in the Florida Instructional League, near-perfect vision suddenly returned. "It's inexplicable," says Dr. Charles Regan of the Retina Foundation. "The hole had healed. I don't know of any case like it."

So here he was back in Florida, savoring the implications of his reprieve, yet aware that he must prove he could really see a pitched baseball - and hit it well enough to reclaim his old job. To cheer him on girl friends flew in from New Orleans and Miami, and there were a score of fans from his hometown, Swampscott, Mass. - his father and mother, even his barber and shoemaker. In his wallet was a slip of paper from a Chinese fortune cookie: "This will be your best year. Make the most of it."

But the pressure on him was enormous. Every time he came to bat his teammates watched for a sign that he was really back, and the fans went out of their way to cheer for him. And then - in the second game of the spring - a loud voice pierced the cheers. "Don't get hit in the eye again, Tony!"

"I heard it," Conigliaro sizzled afterward. "And they better cut it out, because I don't know how much I can take before I explode."

Actually, he had already exploded, flattening a man in a one-punch bar fight several nights before. He isn't a heavy drinker and the fight had nothing to do with baseball. His emotions had just broken loose, emotions he had contained last year even when a heckler at his rock 'n' roll show yelled, "You're lucky you can sing 'cause you can't see."

"He knows he's gonna make it back," says Tony's 21-year-old brother Billy, a Red Sox rookie. "But it's how he makes it back that counts. He doesn't want to be just another mediocre player."

Conigliaro wasn't getting many hits, but he was hitting the ball hard. Before the eye injury he had crowded the plate, five inches away. Pitchers threw at him to force him back and he suffered three broken bones in three seasons. Now he was standing more than a foot from the plate. "I'm not afraid of being hit," he said. "But I'm not particularly happy where I'm standing now."

One night Tony, worrying about it, couldn't sleep. By morning he had decided to move five inches nearer the plate. "I had to find out if I can hit right now." That day he lined a single and a double to left field and barely missed a home run. "That's as well as I've hit since 1967," he said in the clubhouse, pulling on a pair of virtually transparent knit slacks. "If you wear pants like these, you've got to hit."

As spring training neared an end, the base hits still weren't coming often enough. But Tony answered two of the questions. He could see the ball, and he could hit it - how well only the season would tell. For his father, Sal Conigliaro, who had offered the doctor his own eyes for transplants, this was enough. One night, at a party in Winter Haven, Tony sauntered over and stared suspiciously at his father's socks. "They're not yours," snapped Sal. "That SOB. He's got eyes like a hawk." Then the father whispered to himself, "Thank God."

Source: LIFE Magazine. April 4, 1969. David Wolf.

The author asked, "how well only the season will tell." Tony had a truly respectable return to the diamond, playing 136 games in right field (four errors), hitting 20 long balls, driving in 82 runs, ultimately earning him a Comeback Player of the Year Award. A year later, it seemed like he was literally back on track to the Hall of Fame, hitting a career high 36 home runs and 116 runs batted in; however, the eyesight issues returned. His performance in California (1971), and another attempt at a comeback with Boston (1975), were but a shell of his former self.