Review: The Triumph and Tragedy of Tony C

August 18 marked the 40th anniversary of the near-fatal beaning of Boston Red Sox star Tony Congiliaro.

Author David Cataneo portrays Tony C. as a hometown product. Handsome, talented, and tremendously popular the slugger amassed 100 home runs at a very young age and was touted by some as the next big thing.

But a fastball out of the hand of the Angels’ Jack Hamilton brought everything to a crashing halt.

Pictures following the incident show the ugly aftereffects: being carried off the field on a stretcher; a black eye swollen shut, effectively shutting of the rest of Conigliaro’s career. It had been years since such an awful beaning garnered this much attention and sympathy.

Tony C. is all the more tragic because it follows the athlete from an early age, when fate seemingly dictated a famous future. After the incident, Conigliaro tried valiantly to make a comeback. After sitting out the 1968 season, he came back to hit 20 home runs and drive in 82. The next year was even better: 36 HR and 116 RBI. But the eyesight was fading and he was out of the game after 1971, with 1975 serving as a final futile foray in which he tried to reinvent himself as a pitcher.

The bad luck followed him in his post-athletic career. Several opportunities, including a health food store and working as a TV sportscaster failed to pan out.

Conigliaro then succumbed to increasingly serious health issues. He died in 1990 at the age of 45.

Cataneo’s book is light on the triumph and heavy on the ultimate tragedy. But it’s fitting at this time to take another look at this ode to an athlete who died too young.

An interesting and far-underrepresented look at Jack Hamilton, the pitcher who threw the fateful pitch.