Gene Conley

Post date: Mar 13, 2013 11:54:44 PM

GENE CONLEY, YOUR TABLE IS READY

March is the first month of the year that Americans can follow both baseball and basketball games simultaneously. In the NBA, the season starts to mean a little more. In baseball, the pitchers and catchers have been in camp for several weeks, and real games, albeit with some non-rostered invitees wearing numbers on their backs that are higher than NFL linemen, are being played in earnest.

Things get better as the weeks progress. The March Madness tournaments are not far off. Just about the time the NCAA and NIT fields get small enough to really mean something, the baseball teams are whittling down their rosters, trying to shape their starting rotations, and talking to the press about who might be their closers. By the time Opening Day arrives, we have a veritable sports Horn of Plenty on the flat screen, with baseball’s regular season, the final stages of the NCAAplayoffs, and the NBA’s “second season” heating up. Yes, the end of winter and beginning of spring is a good time to be a fan. Imagine how much better it would be if you were playing both sports at that level, at the same time. Gene Conley, can you share with us how good it was?

Donald Eugene Conley’s major league debut came on April 17, 1952 with the Boston Braves. A highly touted rookie, Conley drew the nod to start in the Braves’ third game of the season against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Like a lot of rookie pitchers in their first starts, it did not go too well for the 6’8” hurler, who gave up four earned runs in four innings. The potent Dodger lineup nicked him for eleven hits; Conley walked two and had one strikeout. In spite of his poor showing, Braves skipper Tommy Holmes left him in to start the fifth inning, but that did not turn out to well for the tall youngster, either, as Andy Pafko led off and promptly homered. After Gil Hodges followed with a double to left, Conley was pulled, replaced by the Braves long man Bert Thiel. Conley did have some measure of success that day, however, hitting a line drive single to left in his only trip to the plate. The big hurler would go on to pitch six years with the Braves, two with the Philadelphia Phillies, and three in the American League for the Boston Red Sox, leaving baseball in September, 1963, two months shy of his 33^rd birthday. When he retired from the Big Show, Conley’s record stood at 91-96 with 888 strikeouts and a respectable 3.82 ERA.

Conley’s NBA career began with the Boston Celtics on November 16, 1952, six days after his 22^nd birthday and six months following his major league debut. It was Boston’s seventh game of the year when Conley came in as a substitute at forward. Although he did not score from the field and committed two fouls, he made two free throws. The Celtics were high on their tenth round draft pick out of Washington State, and Conley went on to carve out his niche on the hard court as an effective rebounder, averaging 6.3 rebounds per game during an average of 16 minutes of playing time. After the 1952-1953 season, Conley took a five year break from the NBA, returning to the Celtics for the 1958-’59 season, playing in Boston for three more seasons, through the spring of 1962. Before the start of the 1962-’63 season, Big Gene was traded to the New York Knicks. Two years later, he untied his NBA laces for good.

One does not have to look hard at Conley’s careers to see that he was not simply filling two rosters. During his time in the Majors, he appeared in four National League All-Star games; 1954, 1955, and both contests in 1959. Conley also played in the 1957 World Series, winning a title as a pitcher for the Milwaukee Braves. Seven months later, he contributed to another world championship when the Celtics won the first of three NBA titles with Conley on the team. One can only wonder if an athlete will ever achieve such a milestone again.

For this and many other reasons, Gene Conley, your table is ready. Order anything you want; you earned it a long time ago.