William James Antonello (May 19, 1927 – March 4, 1993) was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player whose 12-season career included 40 games in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

as an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

pinch hitter In baseball, a pinch hitter (PH) is a substitute batter. Batters can be substituted at any time while the ball is dead (not in active play); the manager may use any player who has not yet entered the game as a substitute. Unlike basketball, A ...

and pinch runner for the Brooklyn Dodgers. The

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

Baseball Reference
/ref>
/ref> native threw and batted right-handed, stood tall and weighed . Antonello attended Fort Hamilton High School and served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

as a 17-year-old during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He signed with the Dodgers in 1946 and spent seven full seasons in their

farm system In sports, a farm team (also referred to as farm system, developmental system, feeder team, or nursery club) is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful pl ...

before his promotion to the 1953 edition. In his long big-league campaign, he started nine games, five of them in left field, scored nine runs, and collected seven hits and two bases on balls in 45

plate appearance In baseball, a player is credited with a plate appearance (denoted by PA) each time he completes a turn batting. Under Rule 5.04(c) of the Official Baseball Rules, a player completes a turn batting when he is put out or becomes a runner. This ha ...

s. Those seven hits included one

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

, hit off Ken Raffensberger of the Cincinnati Redlegs at Crosley Field on May 17. Retrosheet box score (17 May 1953, Game 2)
"Brooklyn Dodgers 10, Cincinnati Redlegs 0"
/ref> Antonello batted .163 with four

runs batted in A run batted in or runs batted in (RBI) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if th ...

. That year, Brooklyn captured 105 regular-season games and the National League pennant, but Antonello did not appear in the 1953 World Series, won by the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

in six games. He played professionally through the 1957 minor-league season. Antonello settled in his wife's hometown of

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, ...

, where he had played Triple-A baseball during the early 1950s, and died in Fridley, Minnesota, at age 65 in 1993.

References

External links

1927 births 1993 deaths Baseball players from Saint Paul, Minnesota Brooklyn Dodgers players Charleston Senators players Daytona Beach Islanders players Greenville Spinners players Hollywood Stars players Major League Baseball outfielders Mobile Bears players Newport News Dodgers players Oklahoma City Indians players St. Paul Saints (AA) players Shreveport Sports players Baseball players from Brooklyn Toronto Maple Leafs (International League) players Fort Hamilton High School alumni United States Navy personnel of World War II Burials at Fort Snelling National Cemetery 20th-century American sportsmen {{US-baseball-outfielder-1920s-stub