He was the classic example of "local kid makes good". Born in Revere, Mass., Tony Conigliaro (who would have turned 66 today) had it all. A superstar at age 17 in high school, he achieved every Boston kid's dream by hitting a home run in his first Red Sox at-bat at Fenway.Your humble scribe is old enough to have seen Tony play for that brief shining period before Jack Hamilton effectively ended a sure-fire Hall of Fame career. He was truly something special—the fastest to 100 home runs ever. But the glory was not to be.
It is almost inconceivable that this would have been his 66th birthday. Most of us will always remember him as the young, tall, strong local kid who made us all proud.