On August 18, 1967 the Red Sox’s Tony Conigliaro was batting against Angels spitballer Jack Hamilton at Fenway Park.

The first pitch came in high and struck All-Star outfielder in the cheek. He was rushed to the hospital with a linear fracture of the left cheekbone and a dislocated jaw with severe damage to his left retina. HIs batting helmet didn’t have an ear flap.

Brushing batters off the plate with inside pitchers has been a long tradition in baseball, however intentionally attempting to hit a batter with a 90 MPH fastball borders on criminal.

According to Wikipedia no major league pitcher for 90 years has hit more opposing batters than 6’10” left hander Randy Johnson, who has clunked 188 batters surpassing other dangerous MLB bean-ballers; Drysdale (154), Nolan Ryan (158) or Roger Clemens (159)

Many times the manager orders a pitcher to take revenge on an opposing batter.

Put him in his place.

According to Wikipedia “On May 1, 1974, Pittsburgh pitcher Dock Ellis, believing that his team needed motivation, decided to hit every batter in the Cincinnati Reds lineup. Ellis hit Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Dan Driessen, and tried to hit Tony Perez, but ended up walking him, and threw two pitches at Johnny Bench’s head before he was removed from the game

Dock Ellis also pitched a no-hitter on LSD in 1970.

Tony Conigliaro made a comeback after his injury, however his career was shortened by this bean balling and it may have even caused his death at an early age.

To read Red Sox shortstop Rico Petrocelli’s account of that evening, please go to the following URL

http://www.bostonspastime.com/tonycbeaning.html

Everyone great gets hit in baseball.

It’s long overdue to stop it.