By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
When the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers play Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night, Ernie Clement will become just the 12th native Rochesterian – and 13th raised-in-Rochester athlete – to play for a league championship in one of the four major sports.
Clement has been a key component in the Blue Jays march to their first World Series since 1993, which was 2 ½ years before he was born.
The 2014 graduate of Brighton High School has provided impeccable Gold Glove defense all season and has been swinging an ultra-hot bat in the postseason. He is 18-for-42 (.429) with three doubles, a triple, a home run, 7 RBIs and 10 runs scored. He also continues to put the ball in play, striking out just twice in 45 plate appearances.
They played in the World Series
Just three Rochester natives have been on the active roster of World Series-winning teams: Infielder Heinie Groh, and pitchers George Mogridge and Johnny Antonelli. Another, pitcher Howie Krist, played for the World Series losing team in 1943, the St. Louis Cardinals.
Mogridge pitched in two games for Washington in 1924, helping the Senators defeat the New York Giants in seven games. Mogridge pitched a total of 12 innings in the series, making one start, and had a 2.25 ERA. That Senators pitching staff also included Walter Johnson.
Groh won with the Cincinnati Reds in 1919 and New York Giants in 1922 (he hit .474 that fall, going 9-for-19). Krist faced one batter in his only appearance on the mound for the Cardinals in 1943 World Series, allowing a hit. The Cards lost the series in five games to the New York Yankees.
Antonelli was a pitching hero for the Giants in 1954, six years after graduating from Jefferson High School. During the regular season, Antonelli went 21-7 with a 2.30 ERA in the regular season; he would have in all likelihood been the Cy Young Award winner, if the honor existed then.
Against the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, he won his only start and also earned a save in the clinching game, compiling an 0.84 ERA with 12 strikeouts in his 10 2/3 innings of work.
George Selkirk was born in Canada but raised in Rochester, graduating from Rochester Technical High School in 1927. The outfielder was a member of five World Series winning teams with the Yankees (1936, 37, 38. 39 and 41) and also on the 1942 team that lost to the Cardinals.
He was a career .265 hitter (18-for-68) in the World Series with 2 homers and 10 RBI.
They played in the Super Bowl
Roland Williams, a 1993 graduate of East High School, was the first Rochester native to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. A tight end, he helped the St. Louis Rams win Super Bowl XXXIV following the 1999 regular season.
The late Arthur Jones was a defensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens and had a key sack and fumble recovery in a 34-31 victory over the San Francisco 49ers. He was born in Rochester and attended high school in the Binghamton area. He died earlier this month.
Brian Kozlowski, who played 14 NFL seasons at tight end, was a member of the Atlanta Falcons when they lost Super Bowl XXXIII to the Denver Broncos following the 1998 regular season.
They played in the Stanley Cup Final
The Gionta brothers, Brian and Stephen, both skated for the Cup with the New Jersey Devils while Ryan Callahan played in NHL’s championship series with the Tampa Bay Lightning. All three grew up in Greece.
Brian Gionta won the Cup as a rookie with the Devils in 2003 and paraded Lord Stanley around Rochester that summer. He produced a goal and eight assists during the Devils 24-game journey to the Cup title.
Stephen Gionta was a member of the Devils in 2012 when they lost in the Cup final to the Los Angeles Kings.
Three years later, Ryan Callahan played for the Lightning, who lost the championship round to the Chicago Blackhawks.
He played in the NBA Finals
Thomas Bryant is the only Rochesterian to have played in the NBA’s championship series and has done so twice, with the Denver Nuggets in 2023 and the Indiana Pacers last spring.
Bryant’s only playoff appearance for Denver came in Game 3 when he was on the court for 29 seconds in a 109-94 Game 3 victory over the Miami Heat. The Nuggets won the series in five games. This past season he averaged 5 ½ minutes during the six-game finals loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Bryant played at Bishop Kearney High School before transferring to a West Virginia prep school following his sophomore season of 2012-13.
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