Monday, April 18, 2016

#481 Billy Conigliaro

No surprise here....a legacy Red Sox fraternity by being brother and teammate to icon Tony Conigliaro....Unusual  and short career with times of great promise and a mysterious drop off.......worked way up farm system....had a tremendous fall call up in 1969 hitting 4 home runs with slugging pct. well above league average....High hopes for 1970...did not disappoint hit 18 home runs and drove in 58 with solid .270 BA....took over left field, allowing Yaz to take 1st....change came in 1971....put in Centerfield and brother Tony was traded to Angels....strange season occurred, hit .262 and was 7th AL doubles with 26...but only had 33 RBI’s...Traded to Brewers where he faultered in 1972...playing time was cut in half and BA dropped to .230....purchased by Oakland A’s in off season, mostly relegated to the bench...finished with 0 HR’s, 13 RBI’s, and .200 BA....balked at going to minors and retired from baseball.


2 comments:

  1. There are some newspaper articles at the time that show how Billy C was causing all sorts of problems in the Sox clubhouse, calling out Reggie Smith and Yaz, blaming them for Tony getting traded.

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  2. Yes, that is mentioned in Tony's SABR biography (Billy has one too but it's a link to a book). Being a locally-bred star, with a superstar brother, upstart Billy must have felt he had the swagger to be critical of Red Sox fixtures. Unless you are really good that's a sure way of being shuffled off to elsewhere within a short time.

    In Billy defense however there does seem to be something mysterious about Tony's trade.

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