Tony Conigliaro aka Tony C. who had a great start to his major league baseball career with the Boston Red Sox but who would end up having a tragic life was born on this day in 1945. Both Tony and his brother Billy would play for the Boston Red Sox. The Conigliaro’s were hometown products growing up in the Boston suburbs

In his rookie year 1964 at the age of 19, Tony C. hit 24 home runs, 52 RBI’s and had an average of .290 in just 111 games before he broke his arm and his toes in August. In his second season he led the American League with 32 home runs, the youngest ever home run champion. By 1967 he was the youngest player in American League history to reach 100 career home runs. Only Mel Ott with the New York Giants in the National League hit 100 home runs at a younger age. He holds the record for the most home runs hit by a teenager. He made the All-Star team in 1967.

On August 18. 1967 Tony Conigliaro was hit by a Jack Hamilton pitch on his left cheekbone. He was carried off the field on a stretcher. The batting helmets at the time did not have the protective ear-flap that they have today. Tony C. had a fractured left cheekbone and a dislocated jaw with severe damage to his left retina. The picture of Tony C in the hospital afterwards is gruesome. He would be sidelined for a year and a half. He was only 22 years old when he was hit by that pitch. He came back in 1969 and hit 20 home runs and knocked in 82 runs and in 1970 hit 36 home runs and knocked in 116 runs.  He was named the American League Comeback Player of the Year in 1969.That was pretty much it for Tony C. His eyesight was permanently damaged. He retired after 1971, attempted a comeback in 1975 which failed.

After his baseball playing days ended Tony became a sports anchor in San Francisco. On January 3rd, 1982 he was in Boston interviewing for a broadcasting position when he had a heart attack while being driven to the airport by his brother Billy. He then had a stroke and went into a coma. He would remain in a vegetative state for eight years until he died in 1990 at the age of 45.