Boston Sports Extra

There are no Hall of Famers in the numbers 21 through 25 for the Red Sox. However, that statement can be a bit misleading. Four of the five I have selected could be Hall of Famers if not for varying reasons. Two of them are borderline cases that have received varying support, while another clearly has the numbers to be there.

Number 21 – Roger Clemens

“The Rocket” would clearly be a Hall of Famer based purely upon his numbers and awards. During his time with the Red Sox, Clemens became “The Rocket” and was a Hall of Fame pitcher for roughly a decade. During that time, he won an MVP Award and had a third-place finish. Clemens also won three Cy Young Awards while also finishing in second and third during other seasons.

Clemens broke out in 1986 with his first Cy Young Award and his MVP Award. He had his first 20 strikeout game in April that season en route to striking out 238 batters for the season. He led the league in wins, ERA, and WHIP as he finished 24-4 for the pennant-winning club.

Clemens led the league in wins again in 1987 as he won the Cy Young Award. After two more very good seasons, Clemens was as dominant as ever between 1990 and 1992. He finished second in the Cy Young vote in 1990 due to Bob Welch’s 27 wins, but Clemens was the better pitcher. He led the league with a 1.93 ERA that season and finished 21-6. Clemens led the league in ERA again in both 1991 and 1992, giving him three straight ERA crowns to begin the nineties.

Clemens tailed off from there, but pitched very well for a bad team in 1994 and looked like vintage Rocket down the stretch in 1996 when he punched out 20 batters in a game for the second time. He went 192-111 with a 3.06 ERA and struck out 2590 batters during his time in Boston. From 1986-92 he averaged a season of 19-9 with a 2.66 ERA and 239 strikeouts. There is a strong argument for retiring his number.

Honorable Mentions: Tex Hughson, Ray Culp

Number 22 – Rick Porcello

At number 22, we get an active Red Sox. Porcello has had an up and down Red Sox career, but he did win a Cy Young Award and contribute to the 2018 World Series champions, so at a thin number he gets the edge.

Porcello came to the Red Sox in 2015 on a questionable contract given his mediocrity to date. The decision looked like a disaster that first season as he was 9-15 with an ERA approaching 5.00. Porcello bounced back to enjoy a career year in his second season in Boston. In 2016, he led the league in wins, finishing 22-4 with a 3.15 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP. His 189 strikeouts were far and away – a career high at the time.

Porcello regressed again in 2017, leading the American League with 17 losses despite playing for a division-winning ballclub. His strikeout numbers did stay up, however, but his home run rate skyrocketed. This past season Porcello found some middle ground, posting a 4.28 ERA while finishing with a 17-7 record. He set a career high in strikeouts with 190 over 191.1 innings. In the postseason, he made three starts and two key relief appearances, pitching to a 3.52 ERA. It’s been an interesting career in Boston for Porcello.

Honorable Mentions: Sammy White, Bill Campbell

Number 23 – Luis Tiant

Tiant is one of the most popular pitchers in franchise history. Tiant had some good seasons in Cleveland in the sixties but hadn’t been good since breaking a bone in his shoulder. He led the league with 20 losses in 1969, a season after winning 21 and posting a 1.60 ERA. He missed a lot of time in 1970 and the Red Sox were able to sign him during the 1971 season off the scrap heap.

Tiant was not immediately good for the Red Sox, struggling in that first season. However, by year two he was pitching like it was 1968 again. Pitching out of the pen for much of the year, Tiant made 19 starts that season in 42 appearances, going 15-6 with a league-leading 1.91 ERA. The next season he won 20 games for the first time in five seasons, eclipsed 200 strikeouts and led the league in WHIP.

Tiant finished fourth for the Cy Young in 1974, going 22-13 with a 2.92 ERA in over 300 innings pitched. After an 18 win 1975, Tiant went 3-0 in the postseason. He pitched a complete game versus the Athletics in the ALCS and won two games against the Reds in the World Series. Tiant then won 21 games in 1976, giving him three 20-win seasons over a four-year stretch. He finished fifth in the Cy Young vote and made the All-Star team.

From 1972 through 1978, his final season in Boston, Tiant was 121-74 with a 3.30 ERA, not too shabby for someone signed off the scrap heap. He has had varying levels of support for the Hall of Fame as he remains on the outside looking in.

Honorable Mentions: Tom Brunansky, Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd, Brian Daubach

Number 24 – Dwight Evans

I would have loved to see Dwight Evans get his number 24 retired, but the chance for that probably ended with Manny Ramirez wearing the number. Dewey spent parts of 19 seasons with the Red Sox and played at a borderline Hall of Fame level. Had he hit earlier in his career as he did during the eighties, he likely would be in by now.

Evans was always a great fielder, winning eight Gold Gloves in right field. His first came in 1976 and he won three of them during the seventies. His hitting was solid, yet unspectacular until the strike-shortened season of 1981. Evans led the league in home runs and OPS that season, making the All-Star Game, finishing third in the MVP vote and winning the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Awards. Red hot before the strike took place, an argument can be made that the strike cost him the MVP Award. Had he won an MVP, maybe Dewey would be in the Hall.

Dewey hit a career-high 32 home runs in 1982, a number he matched in 1984 and eclipsed with 34 in 1987. He led the league in walks three times during the eighties and OPS twice. For the decade, Evans hit 256 home runs and drove in 900 runs while posting a .280/.385/.497/.882 batting line. That’s some Hall of Fame work when you throw into consideration his eight Gold Glove Awards.

Honorable Mentions: Manny Ramirez, David Price, Mike Stanley

Number 25 – Tony Conigliaro

When I say Tony Conigliaro could be a Hall of Famer, it’s not in the same way as the previous guys. Obviously, Conigliaro is not a Hall of Famer off what he achieved. However, if Jack Hamilton’s fastball hadn’t crushed his eye socket in 1967, Conigliaro may have become a Hall of Famer. Conigliaro was just 22 years old at the time and already had 104 home runs in his career, with some of the season still to play. He had a home run crown under his belt and seemed like he could be well on his way to joining the 500 home run club.

Even with the tragic events that took place in his life, Tony C is still the greatest Red Sox to ever don the number 25. On top of the previous statistics I stated, he did briefly return and even hit a career-high 36 home runs in 1970. Unfortunately, his eyesight rapidly deteriorated from there, quickly ending his playing career. In all, the local kid hit 162 home runs and drove in 501 runs for the Red Sox. Would the Red Sox have won the World Series in 1967 had Conigliaro not been injured?

Honorable Mentions: Mike Lowell, Troy O’Leary

Featured picture credit to “Boston Baseball History/Rich Pilling” and taken from Cooperstown Cred

Fifty years ago today, Tony Conigliaro’s life changed forever. A Jack Hamilton fastball clocked him right in the eye, causing permanent retina damage. On this fiftieth anniversary of the beaning I want to take a look at his career so abruptly and brutally ended.

A brilliant rookie year

(Photo By The Denver Post via Getty Images)

In Conigliaro’s 1964 rookie season, at the age of 19, he hit 24 home runs in just 404 at-bats, the most home runs ever hit by a teenager. The next season he led the league with 32 home runs, at just 20 years old. Conigliaro reached star status before he could legally have a beer. He was the youngest American Leaguer ever to reach 100 career home runs. At the time of the beaning in August, 1967 Conigliaro had 104 career home runs.

Just imagine if…

I have no problem projecting that Tony Conigliaro would have hit 500 career home runs and been a Hall of Famer had this savage injury never occurred. The question for me — how many more than 500 did he have in him? At 22, he had ample room for growth and improvement in his game. Tony proved this in his 1970 season when he hit a career-high 36 home runs. Unfortunately, his eyesight continued to deteriorate. By the next season, his baseball career came to an end.

Year	Age	Tm	G	PA	AB	H	HR	RBI	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS

1964	19	BOS	111	444	404	117	24	52	.290	.354	.530	.883
1965	20	BOS	138	585	521	140	32	82	.269	.338	.512	.850
1966	21	BOS	150	628	558	148	28	93	.265	.330	.487	.817
1967	22	BOS	95	389	349	100	20	67	.287	.341	.519	.860
1968			Did	Did	Did	Did	Did	Did	Did	Did	Did	Did	Did
1969	24	BOS	141	566	506	129	20	82	.255	.321	.427	.748
1970	25	BOS	146	617	560	149	36	116	.266	.324	.498	.822
1971	26	CAL	74	292	266	59	4	15	.222	.285	.335	.620

1975	30	BOS	21	69	57	7	2	9	.123	.221	.246	.466
8 Yr	8 Yr	8 Yr	876	3590	3221	849	166	516	.264	.327	.476	.803
162	162	162	162	664	596	157	31	95	.264	.327	.476	.803

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com:

This is all creative conjecture, of course, but Conigliaro could have added roughly eight more home runs the rest of the 1967 season. By that point, he averaged 35 home runs per 162 games played, per baseballreference.com. Take away some games played for injuries and rest days, why couldn’t he hit 30 home runs a year? Adding in 30 home runs for his missed 1968 season, that bumps his career total to 142 at age 23.

I’m assuming his down 1969 season, when he hit .255 with 20 home runs, was caused by a combination of rust and poor eyesight. Take away these as if they never happened, and tack on 10 more home runs, he’d have 172 homers. I’ll leave his 1970 season of 36 alone since that was ultimately his career high. Through his age-25 season that would total 208 career home runs.

Compare with today’s lineup

By the way, Mookie Betts turns 25 this October. He has 72 home runs. Jackie Bradley Jr. just broke out last year at age 27. At this same age, Tony Conigliaro had already hit 164 home runs, beaned, missed an entire season, made an amazing comeback and ultimately retired. Think about that for a second. Jackie Bradley is a young player just entering his prime.

Tony C’s career at the age of 25 was practically finished due to circumstances out of anyone’s control. There is no reason to think he couldn’t have continued as a perennial candidate to lead the league in home runs for the next eight to 10 years. His 162-game average at that stage of his career included 34 home runs, and he hadn’t necessarily hit his prime. A conservative estimate of 30 home runs per year for the next 8 seasons would give him 448 home runs. Factor in his young age and improving skills, I suspect he could have hit even more. He’d probably have some seasons in the upper 20’s, and he probably could have seasons where he reached and eclipsed 40 home runs. I’m slotting him at 35 home runs per year over the next eight seasons. That would give him a career total of 488 home runs through his age 33 season.

From there where do we go? It’s reasonable to expect a little decline maybe as he entered his mid-thirties. However, at 34 he would have some good baseball left. The designated hitter came into effect in 1973. Conigliaro could have moved to DH somewhere along the line to keep him from getting injured in the field. I’m predicting that Tony C would have eclipsed the 500 home run mark in 1979 at the age of 34.

Sad end to a brilliant career cut short

Projecting for a little decline I estimate Tony at 30, 25 and 20 home runs in his age 34, 35 and 36 seasons. This would place him at 563 career home runs after 1981. At 36 years old he could still play and add to that total. By giving him just 30 home runs over the next two years he’d be at 593. If he was left just shy of 600 would he stick around another year to reach it? I’d say yes and ultimately project Tony C for just over 600 career home runs. At that time in history, the total would have placed him fourth on the all-time list.

Instead of chasing 600 home runs, Tony Conigliaro suffered a massive heart attack in 1982 at the age of 37. This heart attack was followed by a stroke that left him totally incapacitated until his death in 1990 at the age of 45. The story of Tony C is one of the most tragic stories that can be told. Hall of Fame career aside, a quality life for Tony all but evaporated by the age of 37. In all likelihood these health problems stemmed back to his being beaned by a baseball.