Apr. 16, 1964 - “I felt like I belonged — I felt great,” said Tony Conigliaro (pictured today in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium), boy center fielder of the Boston Red Sox.
Game No. 1 in what the victorious Red Sox believe will be a long, illustrious career was over for Tony, a 19-year-old kid born in Revere, Mass.
Tony got a single in five at-bats at Yankee Stadium today, made a good catch of a long drive off the bat of Tom Tresh, scored a run all the way from first base on a freaky single to right — and almost hit into a triple play.
“Yeah, I know I came close to a triple play,” he said afterward. “They told me that would have made history, doing that in my first time at bat, but I don’t want to make that kind of history.”
Yogi Berra, who had a big-league coming-out party of his own as the New York manager, didn’t have much time to appraise Conigliaro, he said. “He looked like could run real good. That’s I noticed,” Berra said.
Run he did. Tony came up for his first look at the American League’s most distinguished pitcher, Whitey Ford, in the second inning with Dick Stuart on second and Lucien Clinton first. Third baseman Clete Boyer fielded Conigliaro’s rapid ground ball near the base, which he touched, and threw to second for a double play. Bobby Richardson dispatched the ball to first, but Tony made it. It would have been a triple play with almost anyone else on the team running.
Bob Tillman lobbed a single behind first base that stuck in the grass, and Tony whirled all the way home.
“It happened so fast,” Tony said of the very first play of the game, Phil Linz’s fly ball to him. “I went up and back and up, and I was nervous, but never thought I’d drop it. Once the game started, I was okay, but I was pacing the dugout before the game, trying to relax. But I’m sure glad they didn’t hit the ball to me in the eighth or ninth because I couldn’t see a thing in that sun.”
Said Boston manager Johnny Pesky: “The kid’s catch off Tresh [against the wall, 407 feet from the plate, second inning] took the hex off. That showed him he was all right out there. He didn’t look bad at any time, which is unusual for a new kid. He took his rips at the plate fine.”
Coach Harry Malmberg’s primary duty today was to see that Conigliaro got out of bed on time. “Harry called me, just to make sure,” Tony laughed. He had overslept Wednesday and was fined $10 by Pesky for reporting late to practice. “Frank Malzone’s my roommate, but he was staying with his folks, so they had Malmberg call me just to make sure. But I was up all right. I wasn’t going to be late for this.”
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