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the angels & mlb remember

from the Mets to the California Angels in June thers a permanent place to play led to the con-
1967 and had a record of 8-2 when he started struction of their arena, the BB&T Center in Sun-
against the Red Sox at Fenway Park on the night rise.
of Aug. 18. Conigliaro, a popular player from the After he bought the Dolphins in the early 1990s,
Boston suburbs, was an All-Star who at 22 had Huizenga also purchased their home field, Joe
become the youngest American League player to Robbie Stadium (now known as Hard Rock Stadi-
reach 100 home runs. They faced each other in um) in Miami Gardens.
the fourth inning of a scoreless game. Coniglia-
ro crowded the plate, as was his custom, then As he prospered in business, Huizenga, along
Hamilton delivered the pitch that decked him. with wife Marti, donated generously to the com-
Conigliaro had barely moved as the baseball flew munity. Marti Huizenga died in January 2017 at
in memoriam
toward his head. The ball fractured his left cheek- age 74. The Huizenga Family Foundation made
bone, dislocated his jaw and left him with retina $2.6 million in contributions in 2015 alone, and
damage and blurred vision. An unsettling photo contributed more than $150 million to charities
appeared in newspapers showing Conigliaro in via the foundation through the years.
his hospital bed, his left eye blackened. In 1989, the Huizengas donated $1 million to the
Conigliaro missed the rest of the 1967 season Broward Community Foundation to establish a
and all of 1968. He returned to the Red Sox for children’s fund. The entrepreneur also gave $1
1969 and 1970, hitting 56 home runs over those million in personal and corporate funds in 1997
seasons. In 1971, he was traded to the Angels, to The African-American Research Library and
but with the vision in his left eye deteriorating, Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale.
he struggled at the plate. He retired midseason. The man with the hard-to-pronounce Dutch
He came back to the Red Sox in 1975, then left surname (HIGH-zing-a) hailed from the Chicago
baseball for good after playing in 21 games. area, but it was in Florida — his home for more
On the night he was felled, Conigliaro wore a than 60 years — that he gained celebrity status
cap of hard plastic. It wasn’t until 1971 that the for his entrepreneurial energy and vision. After
Major Leagues required helmets, though only for his success with Blockbuster Entertainment —
new players. An earflap was mandated in 1983, and later Extended Stay hotels and AutoNation
though veteran players were allowed to shun — local investors wanted his autograph as much
them if they wished. as the opportunity to invest in his next venture.
Jack Edwin Hamilton was born Dec. 25, 1938, in H. Wayne Huizenga was born Dec. 29, 1937, in
Burlington, Iowa, and grew up nearby in Morning the Chicago suburb of Evergreen Park to par-
Sun. He was an all-state baseball player in high ents of Dutch descent. He attended a Christian
school and signed with the St. Louis Cardinals school until his mid-teens, spent all day Sunday
organization in 1957. A right-hander, he made in church and was forbidden to read the comics
his Major League debut with the Philadelphia by his religious parents.
Phillies in 1962 and later pitched for the Detroit After his family moved to the Fort Lauderdale
Tigers, Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox area when he was 15, Huizenga attended Pine
as well as the Mets and Angels. Crest School, where he played center on the
He pitched the second one-hitter in Mets history football team and was class treasurer. After high
in May 1966, allowing only a bunt single by Car- school graduation, he moved back to Chicago.
dinal pitcher Ray Sadecki. Both a starter and a In 1956, Huizenga enrolled at Calvin College, a
reliever, Hamilton had a career record of 32-40. liberal arts school in Grand Rapids, MI, affiliated
with the Christian Reformed Church. He dropped
WAYNE HUIZENGA, former own- out before the end of his sophomore year and
er of the Marlins and whose rest- moved back to Fort Lauderdale.
less entrepreneurial spirit led him Huizenga’s road to riches began in the early
to become the only U.S. business- 1960s when a friend asked him to manage a
man to found three Fortune 500 three-truck, trash-hauling operation in Pompano
companies, passed away March Beach. While he saw the potential in a service in-
22nd of last year. He was 80. dustry with steady, repeat customers, Huizenga
In creating companies including also remembered the words of his businessman
Waste Management, Blockbuster father: “You can’t make any real money working
and AutoNation, Huizenga earned a reputation for someone else.”
as a corporate alchemist, spinning fractured So in 1962, Huizenga borrowed $5,000 from his
industries into consolidated empires that domi- dad to buy a truck and started a garbage route of
nated the marketplace in trash collection, video his own. Seven years later, his Southern Sanita-
rentals and automotive sales. tion Service operated 20 trucks on routes in Fort
Huizenga used his wealth and persuasiveness to Lauderdale, Miami, Tampa and Key West.
bring baseball and hockey to South Florida. In the Waste Management was born from a merger of
early 1990s, he owned three of South Florida’s Southern Sanitation with three Chicago-based
professional sports teams: the Miami Dolphins, companies, including two firms that were suc-
Florida Panthers and Florida Marlins. cessors to Huizenga & Sons, his grandfather’s
According to the Forbes 400 list of wealthy Amer- trash-hauling company. Waste Management
icans, Huizenga’s net worth of $2.8 billion in 2017 went public in 1971.
made him the 288th wealthiest person in Amer- Huizenga left Waste Management in 1984 at age
ica. 47, but his career cobbling together profitable
Huizenga also had a hand in building the sports business giants from small players was just be-
teams’ homes. His push to find the Florida Pan- ginning.
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