Friday, December 14, 2018

A's Stephen Piscotty Wins Tony Conigliaro Award For Overcoming Adversity

(Getty Images)
Oakland A's outfielder Stephen Piscotty is the recipient of the 2018 Tony Conigliaro Award. The award has been given out annually since 1990 to the MLB player who "has overcome adversity through the attributes of spirit, determination, and courage that were trademarks of Tony C." Winners are selected by an 18-person committee, made up of media members, MLB executives, Red Sox officials, fan representatives, and Tony's brothers, Richie and Billy Conigliaro. The award will be formally presented to Piscotty at the 80th annual Boston Baseball Writers' Dinner on January 17, 2019. Piscotty's mother was diagnosed with ALS in 2017. He was traded from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Oakland A's to be near his mother's home in northern California during her battle against the disease. Gretchen Piscotty passed away on May 6th of this year. In his first game back after her death—at Fenway Park—Piscotty hit a home run over the Green Monster in his first at-bat.