Anthony Richard Conigliaro (January 7, 1945 – February 24, 1990), nicknamed "Tony C" and "Conig",[1][2] was an American Major League Baseball outfielder and right-handed batter who played for the Boston Red Sox (1964–1967, 1969–1970, 1975) and California Angels (1971).

During the Red Sox "Impossible Dream" season of 1967, he was hit in the face by a pitch that caused a severe eye injury and derailed his career.

After retirement from baseball, he had a heart attack and suffered brain damage at age 37, leaving him severely impaired for the last eight years of his life.

Hall of Fame baseball writer Peter Gammons' article in Sports Illustrated at the time of Congliaro's 1990 death is entitled "A Life Torn By Tragedy".

[5][6] He attended St. Mary's High School in Lynn, Massachusetts, where he played starting quarterback on the football team and starred in baseball.

[5] In 1963, he batted .363 with 24 home runs, and an on-base plus slugging (OPS) of 1.139, playing for the Wellsville Red Sox in the Single-A New York–Penn League.

[9] In the fall of 1963, he played instructional league baseball in Sarasota, and was included on the Red Sox 1964 roster coming into spring training.

[9][3] During his 1964 rookie season, Conigliaro batted .290 with 24 home runs and 52 RBI in 111 games,[10] but a pitched ball broke his arm[11][12] and his toes in August.

[29] (In 1970, pitcher Ken Tatum had hit the Orioles Paul Blair in the face with a pitch that resulted in multiple fractures and the need for surgery.

[32] He returned to the Red Sox briefly in 1975 as a designated hitter, hitting two home runs in 21 games, but was forced to retire because his eyesight had been permanently damaged.

[37] On January 9, 1982, then 37-year-old Conigliaro was in Boston to interview for a broadcasting position when he suffered a heart attack while being driven to the airport by his brother Billy.

Conigliaro never fully recovered and suffered slight brain damage due to the stroke, until his death more than eight years later, in February 1990, at the age of 45 from pneumonia and kidney failure.

[21][5][3] Conigliaro's parents and brothers cared for him closely during his last eight years, during which time he was bedridden, unable to walk and barely able to speak.

[3] During 1982, Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, whose wife had come out of a coma three years earlier, visited Conigliaro to try and give him some optimism.

In one April fundraising event at Boston's Symphony Hall, Frank Sinatra, Dionne Warwick, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio and Willie Mays were among those raising money to support Conigliaro ($230,000).