Blast from the Past: Your 1954 World Series Champion New York Giants!

It's hard to believe that before 2010, to find the last Giants franchise team to win the World Series you had to go all the way back to 1954 when they were still in New York.  As I think I have mentioned before, I've always been fascinated by lineups.  Back in those days, managers were less concerned with playing matchups and platoons and you pretty much knew what the lineup was going to be without looking at the lineup card.  Here is the standard 1954 Giants lineup along with key bench players and the pitching rotation and key bullpen members:

Lineup:

Whitey Lockman 1B  .251/.318/.375, 17 2B, 3 3B, 16 HR, 2 SB, 73 R, 60 RBI, 638 PA.

Al Dark SS.                .293/.325/.446, 26 2B, 6 3B, 20 HR, 5 SB, 98 R, 70 RBI, 693 PA.

Don Mueller RF         .342/.363/.444, 35 2B, 8 3B, 4 HR, 90 R, 71 RBI, 657 PA.

Willie Mays CF          .345/..411/.667, 33 2B, 13 3B, 41 HR, 119 R, 8 SB, R, 110 RBI, 641 PA.

Hank Thompson 3B   .263/.389/.482, 18 2B, 3B, 26 HR, 3 SB, 76 R, 86 RBI, 557 PA.

Monte Irvin LF           .262/.363/.438, 13 2B, 3 3B, 19 HR, 7 SB, 62 R, 64 RBI, 512 PA.

Davey Williams 2B    .222/.284/.316, 18 2B, 3 3B, 9 HR, 65 R, 46 RBI, 601 PA.

Wes Westrum C          .187/.315/.305, 3 2B, 3B, 8 HR, 25 R, 27 RBI, 299 PA.

Bench:

Ray Katt C                 .255/.314/.435, 7 2B, 3B, 9 HR, 26 R, 33 RBI, 227 PA.

Dusty Rhodes OF      .341/.410/.695, 7 2B, 3 3B, 15 HR, 31 R, 50 RBI, 186 PA.

Starting Rotation:

Johnny Antonelli(L)  21-7, 2.30, 258.2 IP.

Ruben Gomez(R)      17-9, 2.88, 221.2 IP.

Sal Maglie(R)            14-6, 3.26, 218.1 IP.

Jim Hearn(R)            8-8, 4.15, 130.0 IP.

Don Liddle(L)           9-4, 3.06, 126.2 IP.

Relievers:

Marv Grissom(R)     10-7, 2.35, 122.1 IP, 17 Saves.

Hoyt Wilhelm(R)      12-4, 2.10, 111.1 IP, 7 Saves.

Windy McCall(L)     2-5, 3.25, 61 IP, 2 Saves.

Overall a much weaker lineup than the 1951 team except Mays and Mueller had stupendous seasons to pick up the slack for an otherwise aging group.  Dusty Rhodes put up insane numbers in a small sample(just under 1/3 of a season's worth of PA's).  He was more of a platoon LF than a bat off the bench down the stretch and in the World Series and even batted cleanup with Mays moving down the lineup late in the season.  Larry Jansen was used mostly in relief while Sal Maglie and Jim Hearn were on the downside of their careers.  Johnny Antonelli and Ruben Gomez picked them up to lead the rotation.  We profiled the key roles Marv Grissom and Hoyt Wilhelm played in our last Blast from the Past post.