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'54 Giants Hero Basks In SF's World Series Win

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — Before San Francisco reliever Brian Wilson closed out Game 5 by pitching a World Series-clinching perfect ninth, Johnny Antonelli was the last Giants pitcher to know what it was like to win it all.

The 80-year-old former Giant watched the final out of San Francisco's 3-1 win over Texas Monday night at his home in Rochester. Antonelli tells the Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester and YNN television that he was so excited afterward that he had a tough time getting to sleep.

The Rochester native won Game 2 of the 1954 World Series and got the save in Game 4 — including the final out — as the then-New York Giants completed their sweep of the Cleveland Indians.

He says he spent the past 56 years pulling for the Giants to win another World Series.

Antonelli was traded from the Milwaukee Braves to the Giants before the '54 season and went 21-7. A National League all-star six times in his 12-year career, he pitched seven seasons for the Giants, winning 108 games, before being traded to the Indians in 1961, his final season.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

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