In 2001: “12-year-old” Danny Almonte of the Bronx pitched a perfect game against Apopka, FL in the Little League World Series. Almonte’s team, however, would be stripped of their victories when it was found out that the star pitcher and other players on his team were too old to be participating in the games. Almonte went on to become a top prospect in high school (although he went undrafted) and in 2005 married a 30-year old hairdresser.
In 1967: Almost 47 years to the day Ray Chapman was killed by a bean ball, Boston Red Sox outfielder Tony Conigliaro was severely injured when he was struck on the cheekbone with a fastball by Jack Hamilton of the California Angels at Fenway Park. Tony C., one of the most popular Red Sox of the sixties, would miss the rest of the 1967 season and all of the 1968 season due to loss of vision. The 1964 Rookie of the Year was a talented player who was often beset by injuries throughout his career. He was named Comeback Player of the Year in 1969, but never really recovered from the beaning and retired early in 1971 and made an abbreviated comeback attempt in 1975. He suffered a massive heart attack in 1982 and died in 1990 at the age of 45. Many New Englanders (where Conigliaro was from) blamed his hard luck story on the Curse of the Bambino that supposedly befell the Red Sox for decades. baseballlibrary.com
Today’s Birthdays: Roberto Clemente was born on this day in 1934 in Puerto Rico and RJ Warner was born sometime during a rowdy bicentennial celebration in Pittsburgh.