I regret to inform you that Byron Buxton is on the I.L. again.
Scheduled start time: 7:10 Central
Weather: Almost perfect, start temp 59°
Opponent’s SB site: Over The Monster
TV: BSNorth (where available). Radio: Doesn’t keep pulling this cable crap
Byron Buxton is on the I.L. with knee inflammation. Austin Martin takes his place on the roster. Brock Stewart has right shoulder tendinitis, so Kody Funderburk moves over from St. Paul.
Today’s BoSox hurler, Tanner Houck, used to throw a four-seamer. But last year, that got clobbered. So now he throws a slider, split, sinker and cutter. As Ben wrote of Houck and other hot-starting Sox players, not all of this is sustainable. But it’s been impressive so far! Houck also has the fastest game in the majors this season, at 1:49. It’s the fastest game since 2010.
Chris Paddack starts for the Twins, and it’s quite possible his performance is very sustainable. YTD digits:
Friggin’ Diamond Sports Group is up to being annoying again. WCCO reports that negotiations between Comcast and Diamond have fallen apart, meaning no Twins baseball for now. I’d expect them to resolve this soon. But it’s annoying. Stupid Diamond can’t even get through one full season without being annoying.
What, pray tell, is this? It’s Red Sox star Tony Conigliero, showing off a perfectly likable voice. One that, combined with his good looks, might have made him a fairly popular music star – if the song came out in 1955 instead of 1965.
Conigliero wasn’t 21 yet. He’d lead the AL in home runs that year, with 32, in what was fast becoming a pitcher-dominant era. By age 22, he’d make his first All-Star team.
By 30, he was out of baseball. By 45, he was dead.
As usual, a good place to start reading is SABR, and here’s a fine article about Conigliero by Bill Nowlin. It tells how, up until one awful moment, Conigliero was a hometown dream-come-true story. Born in a Boston suburb named for Paul Revere. Went to Catholic high school, where he was a superstar scouted by several MLB teams. When he signed with the Red Sox, fans were ecstatic.
Remind you of anyone?
But, in 1967, Coniligiero would be hit in the face by a baseball. You can see the picture here, if you’re morbidly inclined. Fortunately, it’s in black-and-white… and dang, if even in a hospital bed, with a giant swollen eye, Consigliero doesn’t just exude a come-hither look.
(Nowlin relates how Conigliero was assigned veteran Dick Williams as a roommate, and Williams said “I never saw him. Not late at night, not in the morning, never. I was providing veteran influence to a suitcase.” However, it’s quite possible Williams wasn’t exactly the ideal person to be acting as sexual watchman…)
The fateful game was on August 18th. Conigliero was facing journeyman pitcher Jack Hamilton, and was in the middle of a mini-slump. He was crowding the plate to show he wasn’t afraid, and grainy footage shows he used a pronounced batting crouch. That doesn’t give the pitcher a very big strike zone to work with.
Both Nowlin and the bruised-picture-link describe what happened next. You can pretty much imagine. Everybody worried he was dead. He wasn’t, but the sounds the team physician heard were not encouraging.
By morning, though, Conigliero was out of danger. And Hamilton had visited the hospital to apologize.
Conigliero’s season was over, but Boston’s wasn’t. They’d win the pennant, in fact (with both Minnesota and Detroit one game behind). And take the World Series to seven games, before losing to St. Louis.
I imagine that, for years, that World Series loss, and Conigiliero’s injury, must have felt like the way Francisco Liriano’s 2006 injury felt for Twins fans. What if?
You never know. The Sox were up against Bob Gibson, at the height of his dominance. (He’d go on to post a ridiculous 1.12 ERA the next season, after which MLB would lower the mound.) My guess is that Gibson was just too much of a buzzsaw, the same way Sandy Koufax was in 1965. But you never know.
Amazingly, Conigliero would make a comeback in 1969, when he was pretty good… and in 1970, when he was outstanding. But then Boston traded him to the Angels, and he fell off dramatically.
There had been tension in the clubhouse between the two Conigliaro brothers (yup, his brother Billy was a BoSox, too) and new manager Eddie Kosko. That personality conflict might have been part of the reason Tony was traded. Or the Red Sox had some indication that his batting eye was slipping. In any case, the Angels cut Conigliero after half a season. He was finished in baseball. Almost.
Consigilero kept hoping the blind spot in his field of vision would go away, and worked as hard as he could to keep practicing in the meantime. By 1975, he had improved just enough to make the Red Sox as a DH/pinch hitter for a few games. And the fans loved him for it, even if he couldn’t really hit at all.
Conigliero got a job as a sports reporter for a San Francisco station. By this account, at least, he was pretty terrible at at, although he showed improvement over time. A few years later, Conigliaro interviewed with the Red Sox for a color commentary job. The interview went well. It looked like he would get the job.
And then two days later he had a heart attack, followed by a stroke. Two days after his 37th birthday. He pretty much needed permanent total care after that, and died at age 45.
Happily, the Red Sox faithful still remember Tony. In 2007, the team designated 200 bleacher seats on the roof deck as “Conigliero’s Corner.” For $25 per ticket, and only available to purchase at the stadium, they were intended to make games affordable for families. Appropriate for a local boy who made good.
SO OF COURSE they came down two years later. You think owner John Henry was gonna let anything get between him and turning every inch of Fenway Park into a giant reverse-ATM? Are you MAD?
“Conigiliero’s Corner” was a fine idea, doomed, alas, to never last. Just like Boston’s chosen son.
By the way, you should absolutely read this wonderful article. It’s about Jeff Kantor, the organist at Fenway Park, who hasn’t missed a game in 21 years. That’s over 1,700 games at this point.
Has he played with The Baseball Project? Oh, you know he has.
Best of all, guess who was his biggest music teacher as a kid? His synagogue’s cantor, of course! Cantor teaches Kantor. It’s too perfect, folks!
Game 1 in Minnesota. pic.twitter.com/YrNP59j4iA
— Red Sox (@RedSox) May 3, 2024
Home sweet home! pic.twitter.com/GMhXJ98xra
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) May 3, 2024