Tony Conigliaro Painting (11X14)

Lost Ballparks creator/artist Michael Koser has created a new series of original paintings, "Lost Ballparks Legends" featuring some of baseball's all-time greats. 

This item, a painting of Tony Conigliaro on an 11X14 wood canvas, is 1 of 1. There is no other like it.

"Tony C" was a Red Sox legend! In 1964, as an 18 year old rookie, Conigliaro batted .290 with 24 home runs in 111 games. In '65 he led the league with 32 home runs. At age 22 he had reached a career total of 100 home runs becoming the youngest player in AL history to do so. Tragically, in 1967 he was hit in the face by a pitch and was never the same player. He passed away in 1990 at age 45.

"Tony Conigliaro was enormously talented. Please remember, when he came back in 1969 after missing the final six weeks of the 1967 season (after being hit) and all of the 1968 season, he was fooling us all. He hit 20 homers and drove in 82 to become the logical winner of the Comeback Player of the Year Award, and he followed that up with 36-116 production in 1970. And then the Red Sox traded him! Don’t get me started on that one. OK, did they know he was doing it with one eye? I don’t think so. If they did, they sure didn’t tell the Angels. My only point is that he was doing it with one eye, and there aren’t enough laudatory adjectives to describe that achievement. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that a man who could do that against major league pitching with one eye and who already had more than 100 homers in the books before age 23 was going to have a pretty good career. No, I don’t think we’re exaggerating anything. Tony C was going to Cooperstown the night he was hit, and he wasn’t going to have any need to buy a ticket when he got there, if you know what I mean." - Bob Ryan, Boston Globe