#140 John Antonelli
Progress: 1st of this card
218 of 407 53.5% complete
How acquired: $1.99 one ebay
Condition: Very Good
This is not my favorite looking card in this set. Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of these "white backs," I much prefer the gray. I'm sure that aesthetic preference is shared by others, and has more than a little bit to do with the insane prices people will pay for the rare gray (Canadian?) back versions of the cards in this series. Aesthetics, and extreme scarcity. That said, this is a card I need, it's in great shape, and set me back less than the price of a pack of 2017 Topps.
And while I had never heard of Antonelli before picking up this card, that's much more an indictment of me than it is of Antonelli's career. He made five All-Star teams with the Giants in a six year window from '54-59, finishing as high as 3rd in the 1954 MVP voting. He helped the Giants win the '54 World Series, leading the Giants to a 3-1 win in Game 2 when he went the full nine, and also picked up a save in the deciding Game 4 of the Giants sweep of Cleveland. For the Series he threw 10.2 innings, posted an ERA of 0.84, and drove in a run at the plate too for good measure.
Stats: 12 seasons, 5x All-Star, 126 wins, 110 loses, 102 CG, 3.34 ERA, led NL with 2.30 ERA and 6 SHO in '54, 15 home runs as a batter
Best Hall of Fame Showing: N/A
Johnny Antonelli was an upstate New York boy. He ran a few tire shops in the area, I used to walk past one of his shops in Endicott, N.Y., all the time. I wrote about it once.
ReplyDeleteAlways love seeing an old Boston Brave
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