Let's revisit one of my favorite early "missing" cards from the blog, my 1972 card for Tony Conigliaro of the California Angels, created and posted in December, 2014:
Just a great card to design and actually print up, as part of one of my early "Series" packs a few years back.
Here's the original write-up for that post, which appeared on December 6th of 2014:
A little while back I fulfilled a request for a 1976 Tony Conigliaro card, even though it wasn't on my radar.
Today I'll post up a "Tony C" card that was INDEED on my radar: a "missing" 1972 design. Check it out.
The reason I consider it a missing card, even though Conigliaro
didn't play in 1972, was that in 1971 he did suit up in 74 games for the
California Angels, good for 292 plate appearances.
For the season he hit .222 with four homers and 15 runs batted in, along with 23 runs scored and 59 total hits.
It is easy to forget that after his beaning in 1967, and missing
all of 1968, Conigliaro came back and posted a remarkable return season
in 1969, hitting 20 homers, driving in 82, and taking home the American
League Comeback Player of the Year Award.
1970 was even more incredible, as he swatted a career high 36 home
runs, while driving in 100+ for the only time in his career (116)!
Sadly because of the beaning he suffered eye-troubles and was never
the same again, and he was traded to the California Angels with pitcher
Ray Jarvis and catcher Jerry Moses for Doug Griffin, Jarvis Tatum and
Ken Tatum.
As if that wasn't enough for the poor guy, the true tragedy of the
Tony Conigliaro story would be in 1982, when he was about to interview
for a broadcasting job in Boston and suffered a catastrophic stroke,
leaving him in a vegetative state until his death
eight years later in 1990.
Really a sad story that leaves you with the "what if's" of the sports world…
