Exhibition games rarely are predictive, but on March 18, 1954, the New York Giants faced the Chicago Cubs at Phoenix in a seemingly meaningless game that was a template for the upcoming season.
Willie Mays blasted a home run and added a pair of doubles, while recently acquired young left-hander Johnny Antonelli hurled four innings, struck out five Cubbies, and didn’t walk anyone.
Although the Cubs managed a pair of runs against Antonelli, the significant factor was that he didn’t walk a batter.
Antonelli’s performance was his first solid outing of the spring. The former Milwaukee Braves bonus baby had walked 12 in his first five innings, which prompted manager Leo Durocher and Frank Shellenback to shorten Antonelli’s stride.
The win was New York’s sixth straight in the Cactus League.
Monte Irvin was leading the club with a .437 batting average, followed by Willie’s .436 with six home runs. Durocher told reporters that Irvin was a great state of mind ever since Willie returned because Monte had his room mate back.
Willie Mays and Johnny Antonelli would lead the Giants to their first pennant since 1951, but of much greater significance, the duo would play important roles in the team’s first World Championship since 1933, when they defeated the Washington Senators.
Mays won the National League batting title with a .345 average, led the league with a .667 slugging average, and won the MVP. In the 1954 World Series against the Cleveland Indians, Willie hit .286, had a .444 on base average, and turned the World Series around with the catch off Vic Wertz in the first game.
Antonelli had a spectacular season. He won 21 games, led the league in ERA (2.30), ERA+ (178) and fewest hits allowed per nine innings (7.3). Despite the fact that Johnny was only 24 years old, he hurled 258 2/3 innings because it was 1954, not 2010.
In the World Series, Johnny started the second game and allowed one run, beating Early Wynn, 3-1 in a complete game victory. Two days later, he came into the fourth and final game for Hoyt Wilhelm in the eighth inning, shut out the Tribe, and earned the save as the Giants swept the highly favored team from Cleveland.
Today, exhibition games, often called “preseason” games in an attempt to camouflage the fact that they don’t count, are really training sessions. Winning is unimportant, which makes a team’s record meaningless.
But in 1954, teams really did try to win exhibition games. The Giants-Cubs game in which Mays had three extra base hits and Antonelli demonstrated that there was a chance he might not be a wild left-hander can be looked back upon as the game that would define the Giants’ 1954 season.
References:
By LOUIS EFFRAT Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES.. (1954, March 19). ANTONELLI STARS IN 9-TO-6 VICTORY :Giants’ Southpaw Strikes Out Five Cubs and Walks None in Four-Inning Stint. New York Times (1923-Current file),p. 26. Retrieved November 13, 2010, from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 – 2007). (Document ID: 84113677).
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