DENVER -- Rockies right-handed pitcher Chad Bettis' inspiring return from a battle with testicular cancer has earned him the 2017 Tony Conigliaro Award. The award will be presented at the 79th annual Boston Baseball Writers' dinner, co-hosted by the Boston chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America and the Sports Museum, on Jan. 18.
Since 1990, a player each year has been honored in the name of Conigliaro -- a former Red Sox star whose career was altered by a pitch that struck him in the eye in 1967, and whose life ended in 1990 at the age of 45, days after a massive heart attack.