Legendary Sox player dies.

[dustcover]

Gene Conley was one of my favored players back-in-the-day! He recently passed away. What I best remember was he and Pumpsie Green going AWOL. They no longer make 'em like old Gene.

 

http://calltothepen.com/2016/07/26/red-sox-history-gene-conley-pumpsie-green-disappear-from-bus/

[a700hitter]

He is from back in the day when players were interesting personalities and not cookie-cutter clones schooled to give canned answers to every question. I enjoy reading and hearing about eccentric players. Guys like Derek Jeter played for 20 years and the amount of interesting stories about him could fill a sentence.

[cp176]

Gene Conley and Pumps Green! I remember them but I don't remember the incident.

[Spudboy]

He is from back in the day when players were interesting personalities and not cookie-cutter clones schooled to give canned answers to every question. I enjoy reading and hearing about eccentric players. Guys like Derek Jeter played for 20 years and the amount of interesting stories about him could fill a sentence.

 

Well he did f*** a young Miriah Carey.

[a700hitter]

Well he did f*** a young Miriah Carey.

That is true. Maybe the only interesting story that I read about Jeter was about his practice of giving goodie bags of memorabilia and jewelry to his one night stands. One time he did a repeat without realizing it and the girl was upset because she got the same standard goodie bag. She had doubles of everything.

[S5Dewey]

Gene Conley and Pumps Green! I remember them but I don't remember the incident.

 

At the risk of sounding really stupid - which somehow has never bothered me before! LOL - wasn't Conley also the guy who played for the Celtics?

[dustcover]

At the risk of sounding really stupid - which somehow has never bothered me before! LOL - wasn't Conley also the guy who played for the Celtics?

 

On April 26, 1952, the Boston Celtics selected Conley with the 90th pick of the NBA draft. Playing 39 games as a rookie in the 1952-53 NBA season, Conley averaged about 12 minutes a game for a Celtics team that went 45-26 in the regular season under Red Auerbach. Conley did not play in the Celtics' two playoff series that season, with the team losing 3-1 in the Eastern Division finals to the New York Knicks.

 

After a five-year hiatus to focus on baseball with the Milwaukee Braves, Conley returned to the Celtics for the 1958-59 season, again seeing limited usage at about 13 minutes a game for a team that swept the Minneapolis Lakers 4-0 in the NBA finals. Conley averaged 4.2 points and 5.4 rebounds during the regular season and 4.9 points and 6.8 boards in the playoffs. Conley would have his best year as a Celtic the following season, averaging nearly 19 minutes a game during the regular season to score 6.7 points while hauling in 8.3 rebounds on average over 71 games in the regular season. The Celtics repeated as NBA champions with a 4-3 finals win over the St. Louis Hawks, with Conley roughly duplicating his regular season averages during the playoffs.

 

Conley would play on one more championship Celtics team during the 1960-61 season, culminating in a 4-1 defeat of the Hawks. Conley skipped the following NBA season while pitching for the Red Sox, then joined the New York Knicks where he averaged 9.0 points and 6.7 rebounds in 70 games during the 1962-63 season, before his minutes dropped precipitously the following year which was his last in the NBA.

 

[S5Dewey]

On April 26, 1952, the Boston Celtics selected Conley with the 90th pick of the NBA draft. Playing 39 games as a rookie in the 1952-53 NBA season, Conley averaged about 12 minutes a game for a Celtics team that went 45-26 in the regular season under Red Auerbach. Conley did not play in the Celtics' two playoff series that season, with the team losing 3-1 in the Eastern Division finals to the New York Knicks.

 

After a five-year hiatus to focus on baseball with the Milwaukee Braves, Conley returned to the Celtics for the 1958-59 season, again seeing limited usage at about 13 minutes a game for a team that swept the Minneapolis Lakers 4-0 in the NBA finals. Conley averaged 4.2 points and 5.4 rebounds during the regular season and 4.9 points and 6.8 boards in the playoffs. Conley would have his best year as a Celtic the following season, averaging nearly 19 minutes a game during the regular season to score 6.7 points while hauling in 8.3 rebounds on average over 71 games in the regular season. The Celtics repeated as NBA champions with a 4-3 finals win over the St. Louis Hawks, with Conley roughly duplicating his regular season averages during the playoffs.

 

Conley would play on one more championship Celtics team during the 1960-61 season, culminating in a 4-1 defeat of the Hawks. Conley skipped the following NBA season while pitching for the Red Sox, then joined the New York Knicks where he averaged 9.0 points and 6.7 rebounds in 70 games during the 1962-63 season, before his minutes dropped precipitously the following year which was his last in the NBA.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]517[/ATTACH]

 

That's cool. Thanks! So my memory isn't abandoning me... thus far anyway!!

[notin]

At the risk of sounding really stupid - which somehow has never bothered me before! LOL - wasn't Conley also the guy who played for the Celtics?

 

 

#11, i believe

[Maxbialystock]

This story could well be apocryphal, but here it is. It's spring training or later and a reporter is doing an interview. He asks Conley how hard it is to go from NBA basketball to baseball. Conley responds with: "it's really hard, I have to admit. It take me at least a couple of months to get out of shape so I can play baseball."

[harmony]

This story could well be apocryphal, but here it is. It's spring training or later and a reporter is doing an interview. He asks Conley how hard it is to go from NBA basketball to baseball. Conley responds with: "it's really hard, I have to admit. It take me at least a couple of months to get out of shape so I can play baseball."

From the Los Angeles Times:

"Red Auerbach used to say, 'Well, Gene, the playoffs are over, the season's over, now you can go down and try to get out of shape so you can pitch,' " Conley, laughing, says of the late Celtics patriarch. "He thought baseball was a sissy game, I think. I said, 'Red, come on. You don't know what it's like to be in St. Louis or Kansas City when it's about 110 degrees on the field and you're out there sweating away with Stan Musial or one of those guys looking out at you.' He laughed."

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/sep/01/sports/sp-crowe1

[jacksonianmarch]

Met the guy a few times. I know his family well. He will be missed