Gene Conley

Monbonthbump

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SoSH Member
Nov 6, 2005
222
Lincoln,NE
I thought the passing of Gene Conley at least merited a mention on SOSH. He was definitely one of the best two way athletes of all time and played for both the Celtics and Red Sox with distinction. He was the ace of the staff consisting of Monbo, Ike Delock, and Earl Wilson in 1962. He was also a bit of a flake and is probably best remembered for exiting the team bus at a stop light in NYC, entering a bar with Pumpsie Green, and disappearing for five days. Reportedly he was trying to fly to Jerusalem during that period. Peter Golenbock's book "Fenway" gives the details of that episode in 1962. RIP big guy.
 

Al Zarilla

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Dec 8, 2005
58,909
San Andreas Fault

Otis Foster

rex ryan's podiatrist
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Jul 18, 2005
1,708
His disappearance and resurfacing with Pumpsie is one of the great baseball stories. IIRC, they were both drunk when they were stopped at Logan. They must have been quite the odd couple. Did anyone ever find out what they were doing during the intervening 5 days?

That brings the late Maury McDermott to mind, but I won't hijack the Conley discussion. Maury deserves his own thread.
 

Pandemonium67

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Apr 17, 2003
5,575
Lesterland
In the dim recesses of my earliest childhood memories, I remember Conley as a good-hitting pitcher. In '61 he hit two HRs for the Sox, in '62 he hit one. As a 6 or 7 year-old (born in 1955), I saw one of those dingers on TV. I thiink it hit one of the girders holding up the screen over the Monster.
 

HangingW/ScottCooper

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SoSH Member
Nov 10, 2006
2,493
Scituate, MA
Thoughts to the family.

Very odd though, just last weekend my mother-in-law pulled out a random baseball card and asked me if it was worth anything. It was a 1957 Topps Gene Conley card.