Horrific, and no less so for the fact that it was accidental. It was brushback pitch that rose up and in and Conigliaro, who regularly crowded the plate, froze.

Ironically, while it effectively destroyed Tony C.'s career, it happened in the middle of the greatest pennant race in AL history, with the Red Sox, Twins, Tigers, and White Sox battling it out to the last day. At the time of the incident, the Red Sox were struggling, and in losing one of their two best hitters, it looked like a death blow to their chances. Instead, they went on a hellacious tear, climbed back into the race, and ultimately won the pennant largely thanks to a ferocious batting performance from Yaz. I was twelve when this happened, and it was the year I became a Red Sox fan.

Tony C,who died tragically-and way too young,is responsible for my best baseball moment.My dad and I were sitting behind the Red Sox dugout at Tiger Stadium in the mid-sixties and Tony C went 0 for 4.After his last at bat,he rolled his bat toward me over the dugout roof;I grabbed it.The next day,he hit two homers.When we moved, my mom-typical-later tossed the bat out along with a 1952 Mickey Mantle card

This was one of the worst beanings of all time. His eye socket had been crushed, there were some unbelievable pictures of it in Time or Look or Life or some magazine popular at the time, it had to be 1966 or 1967. Tony C. was emerging as one of the best hitters in the game and this ended his career.