Free Republic

Yesterday I commented somewhat extensively on Jack Hamilton, who is considered to this day a hate object because of the tragic beaning of Boston Red Sox star Tony Conigliaro in 1967. The tragedy ruined Conigliaro’s career and may—may—have contributed long-term to his premature death. It certainly hung Hamilton with a reputation as a careless headhunter. And he doesn’t deserve it. The Red Sox plan to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the Conigliaro beaning Saturday night, before playing the team for whom Hamilton pitched when Tony C. went down for the count, the team known then as the California Angels. It’s...

It was Friday, Aug. 18, 1967, and the town was alive because the Red Sox were in an honest-to-God, late-summer pennant race for the first time in 17 years. The fourth-place Red Sox (3 1/2 games back) were playing the fifth-place Angels (four back) in the first of four and it was baseball as baseball was meant to be until that awful moment in the bottom of the fourth with Tony Conigliaro batting against California righthander Jack Hamilton. The sound. Rico Petrocelli will never forget the sound. ``It was a `squish,' " recalls Petrocelli, the on-deck hitter, ``like a tomato...