Bill Antonello

{{short description|American baseball player (1927-1993)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2024}}

{{Infobox baseball biography

|name=Bill Antonello

|image=Bill Antonello 1950 (cropped).jpg

|caption=Antonello in 1950

|position=Outfielder

|bats=Right

|throws=Right

|birth_date={{Birth date|1927|5|19}}

|birth_place=Brooklyn, New York, U.S.

|death_date={{death date and age|1993|3|4|1927|5|19}}

|death_place=Fridley, Minnesota, U.S.

|debutleague = MLB

|debutdate=April 30

|debutyear=1953

|debutteam=Brooklyn Dodgers

|finalleague = MLB

|finaldate=September 27

|finalyear=1953

|finalteam=Brooklyn Dodgers

|statleague = MLB

|stat1label=Batting average

|stat1value=.163

|stat2label=Home runs

|stat2value=1

|stat3label=Runs batted in

|stat3value=4

|teams=

• Brooklyn Dodgers ({{mlby|1953}})

}}

William James Antonello (May 19, 1927 – March 4, 1993) was an American professional baseball player whose 12-season career included 40 games in Major League Baseball as an outfielder, pinch hitter and pinch runner for the {{mlby|1953}} Brooklyn Dodgers. The Brooklyn[https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/antonbi01.shtml Baseball Reference][https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/A/Pantob101.htm Retrosheet] native threw and batted right-handed, stood {{convert|5|ft|11|in}} tall and weighed {{convert|185|lb}}.

Antonello attended Fort Hamilton High School and served in the United States Navy as a 17-year-old during World War II.{{cite web |url=https://ripbaseball.com/2019/05/29/grave-story-bill-antonello/ |title=Bill Antonello (1927–1993) |last=Gazdziak |first=Sam |date=29 May 2019 |website= |publisher=RIP Baseball |access-date=13 December 2022 |quote=}} He signed with the Dodgers in 1946 and spent seven full seasons in their farm system 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 appearances. Those seven hits included one home run, hit off Ken Raffensberger of the Cincinnati Redlegs at Crosley Field on May 17.Retrosheet box score (17 May 1953, Game 2): [https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1953/B05172CIN1953.htm "Brooklyn Dodgers 10, Cincinnati Redlegs 0"] Antonello batted .163 with four runs batted in.

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 in six games. He played professionally through the 1957 minor-league season.

Antonello settled in his wife's hometown of Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he had played Triple-A baseball during the early 1950s, and died in Fridley, Minnesota, at age 65 in 1993.