Whatever Happened To ... Antonelli Tire Co.?

• Antonelli started his business with his World Series money %28%248%2C750%29
• His first store opened at the corner of Keeler Street and North Clinton Avenue in 1955
• At its peak%2C his 28 stores employed just fewer than 300 employees

He was arguably the best major leaguer to come from Rochester, but generations might have known Johnny Antonelli better from his post-baseball career.

The Jefferson High School graduate and World Series hero owned a tire business that expanded to 28 shops throughout New York state. He went from the pitcher's rubber to pitching rubber tires and, for years, was the exclusive Firestone tire dealer in the area.

"I started the business with my World Series money," Antonelli said from his home in Pittsford. He won the 1954 World Series while pitching for the New York Giants. The payout was a whopping $8,750, and, Antonelli said, "You could start a business then with $8,750."

His first store opened at the corner of Keeler Street and North Clinton Avenue. The 1955 grand opening came just months after Antonelli won one game and saved another in the Series sweep over the Cleveland Indians.

Johnny Antonelli Tire Co. was an immediate hit. It wasn't long before Antonelli opened more and more stores and became well-known in the industry. He pitched several more years for the Giants, who moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season, but always kept a close eye on the business.

Superstar teammate Willie Mays once commented to Antonelli about his success. Antonelli set up a meeting between Mays and Firestone officials, with plans for Mays to open tire stores in Oakland. All went well until the Firestone people asked Mays to put up a $25,000 start-up fee. The story is recounted in the book Johnny Antonelli A Baseball Memoir, by Antonelli and Scott Pitoniak.

"Willie, who was making $125,000 at the time, was taken aback," Antonelli writes in the book. " 'Willie Mays doesn't come up with any money,' he said. And that was that … It's too bad Willie didn't make the investment because those stores became very profitable, and Willie would have made millions."

(Those were the days, remember, when that kind of money was unthinkable for athletes.)

At its peak, Johnny Antonelli Tire Co. had 12 shops in Monroe County as well as stores in places like Elmira, Binghamton and Schenectady. The 28 total stores employed just fewer than 300 employees, Antonelli said.

"Of the 28, we had 16 winners and 12 losers," Antonelli said earlier this month. "You can't win 'em all."

He did well enough to retire from baseball after the 1961 season, when he was only 31. Antonelli pitched for the Cleveland Indians and the then-Milwaukee Braves that final year, and learned that the New York Mets, an expansion team in 1962, had purchased his rights after the season.

Still, Antonelli walked away from baseball. That prompted a response from the legendary Casey Stengel, who managed the Mets in their inaugural year.

"I guess Johnny Antonelli is doing all right selling those black doughnuts in Rochester," Stengel said, as recalled in A Baseball Memoir.

The tire company held Johnny Antonelli Night every year at Red Wings games at the old Silver Stadium and gave away prizes like tires and TVs. Johnny Antonelli Tire Co. started a promotion with radio station WVOR called "Captain Friendly," in which store managers cruised around in a van and helped stranded motorists.

Captain Friendly never charged for the roadside assistance, which often left the surprised motorists impressed.

"Fantasy, right?" wrote Mitch Broder in a 1985 Democrat and Chronicle story. "Somewhere else, maybe. But not here. Here, this kind of stuff happens every day. Yes, Rochester, there is a Captain Friendly."

Antonelli got out of the tire business in 1994. He had become frustrated with Bridgestone, the company that bought out Firestone, and called it quits.

"We decided we were just spinning our wheels," Antonelli said, no pun intended. "We decided to get out of the business."

For several decades, though, the black doughnuts served this baseball legend and this community well.

Morrell is a Rochester-based freelance writer.

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About this feature

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