Tony Conigliaro was a supernova. It's a story you want to believe in: Local boy, gets drafted out of high school, gets to the bigs quickly, and makes an immediate impact. He was a star. He was destined for the Hall of Fame. He crowded the plate.
August 18,1967. Angels at Red Sox. Bottom of the fourth inning, two down. Jack Hamilton came inside with his first pitch to Tony C. and hit him in the head. His left cheekbone cracked. His jaw was dislocated. His retina in his left eye was badly damaged; with 20-300 vision he was legally blind in his left eye.
He came back in 1969 and it wasn't a bad season. He had a resurgence in 1970; he hit thirty-six home runs and had 116 RBI. And then in some sick twist of fate he was traded to the Angels for Doug Griffin, Jarvis Tatum, and Ken Tatum. California didn't work out and eventually he made his way back to the Sox in 1975. He made it into twenty-one games as a DH but there wasn't anything left.
January 9, 1982. A heart attack. A clot. His brain is deprived of oxygen for fourteen minutes and he falls into a coma. A fighter, he wakes up but there's severe brain damage. He survives eight years until he succumbs to renal failure on February 24, 1990.
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