Lawrence Public Library

The Tony Conigliaro story, Bruce Fitzpatrick, V. 1

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individual biography

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The Tony Conigliaro story

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Bruce Fitzpatrick

By the time he was five he was a kid with a dream: some day he'd be a baseball player. By the time he graduated from high school he had become a nationally touted hitting machine. A 'phenom' they said. There wasn't a pitcher he couldn't hit. This attracted scouts from every team in professional baseball, including the Boston Red Sox, who played less than five miles from where he'd grown up, and who signed him as a teenager. His other significant teenage experience came when he fell in love for the first time. Eventually, Julie Markakis would go from childhood sweetheart to the love of his life, though several of their experiences would be wrought with heartache. Gifted with extraordinary skills, a story book romance, rare physical abilities, and Hollywood handsome looks, it appeared Tony had been blessed by the gods. He was even brought up to the big team after only a year in the minors. On his first at bat in front of his hometown fans, he hit a towering home run over Fenway's famous 'Green Monster' that left the park, which made him the overnight darling of Boston's airwaves. Then, on August 18, 1967 at the height of Boston's Impossible Dream year, he suffered the second worst 'beaning' in baseball history. Doctors feared he would never see again; fans feared he'd never play again; and his family watched in horror, fearing he might never rise again as he lay in the dirt beside home plate, wreathing in agony. But his childhood dream still lived. After two years of grueling physical conditioning and medical regimens he returned to baseball and earned the Comeback Player of the Year Award. Ironically, two years later he was traded to the team that beaned him. No longer in Boston, his enthusiasm waned and he left the game after only a few months. When it seemed all was lost, he was offered the color commentator position on the Red Sox broadcast network, and the chance to live and work back home again. In the midst of this, he was beset with the most challenging experience of his life, an event that nearly killed him. On death's doorstep, people everywhere rallied to his aid. His friends and fans hadn't forgotten him, nor would they. Ever. This is more than a sports story. It's a human interest story, a love story, a story of triumph and tragedy, and is one of the greatest comeback stories in all of sports history