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Bill Greason
William Henry Greason (born September 3, 1924) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who years later became a Baptist minister in Birmingham, Alabama. Greason played for the Birmingham Black Barons in the Negro leagues from 1948 to 1951 and for the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League in 1954.
Greason is the last living player who played in the Negro Major Leagues.
Greason was born in Atlanta, where, as he told a 2020 interviewer, "I grew up across the street from Martin Luther King Jr." Greason enlisted in the United States Marine Corps during World War II—one of the first black Marines—and completed his basic training at Montford Point. He embarked with the 66th Supply Platoon, an all-black unit, for the Pacific Theater of Operations and took part in the Battle of Iwo Jima.
Greason was a 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m), 170 lb (77 kg) right-handed pitcher. After the war, he played professional baseball in the Negro leagues for the minor league Nashville Black Vols and Asheville Blues, and the major league Birmingham Black Barons, where he was a teammate of Willie Mays. According to Baseball Reference, Greason posted a 3–2 record in eight games pitched for the 1948 Black Barons, with four complete games, one shutout and one save, with an earned run average of 4.44. That season, in the last-ever Negro League World Series, he defeated the soon-to-be champion Homestead Grays to claim Birmingham's lone victory in the five-game series.
In 1950 and 1951, Greason also played for the Charros de Jalisco of the independent, racially integrated Mexican League.
In 1952, Greason joined minor league baseball as a member of the Oklahoma City Indians of the Double-A Texas League, where he won nine of his ten decisions and posted a 2.14 earned run average. Earlier that season, the Texas circuit had been integrated by another African-American pitcher, Dave Hoskins of the Dallas Eagles. On August 3, 1952, the two men faced each other in a game at Dallas that drew 11,000 fans, half of them from the black community; Greason won the game, 3–2.
Another successful year at Oklahoma City in 1953 led to Greason's acquisition by the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball, where he would become the team's second African-American player, after Tom Alston.
Greason appeared in three games for the 1954 Cardinals, two as a starting pitcher. In his May 31 debut, he took the loss after allowing five earned runs and five hits over three innings in a rain-shortened game against the Chicago Cubs. In Greason's next start, he failed to record an out against the Philadelphia Phillies and allowed one earned run. In his final MLB game, he pitched a scoreless inning of relief against the New York Giants.
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Bill Greason
William Henry Greason (born September 3, 1924) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who years later became a Baptist minister in Birmingham, Alabama. Greason played for the Birmingham Black Barons in the Negro leagues from 1948 to 1951 and for the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League in 1954.
Greason is the last living player who played in the Negro Major Leagues.
Greason was born in Atlanta, where, as he told a 2020 interviewer, "I grew up across the street from Martin Luther King Jr." Greason enlisted in the United States Marine Corps during World War II—one of the first black Marines—and completed his basic training at Montford Point. He embarked with the 66th Supply Platoon, an all-black unit, for the Pacific Theater of Operations and took part in the Battle of Iwo Jima.
Greason was a 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m), 170 lb (77 kg) right-handed pitcher. After the war, he played professional baseball in the Negro leagues for the minor league Nashville Black Vols and Asheville Blues, and the major league Birmingham Black Barons, where he was a teammate of Willie Mays. According to Baseball Reference, Greason posted a 3–2 record in eight games pitched for the 1948 Black Barons, with four complete games, one shutout and one save, with an earned run average of 4.44. That season, in the last-ever Negro League World Series, he defeated the soon-to-be champion Homestead Grays to claim Birmingham's lone victory in the five-game series.
In 1950 and 1951, Greason also played for the Charros de Jalisco of the independent, racially integrated Mexican League.
In 1952, Greason joined minor league baseball as a member of the Oklahoma City Indians of the Double-A Texas League, where he won nine of his ten decisions and posted a 2.14 earned run average. Earlier that season, the Texas circuit had been integrated by another African-American pitcher, Dave Hoskins of the Dallas Eagles. On August 3, 1952, the two men faced each other in a game at Dallas that drew 11,000 fans, half of them from the black community; Greason won the game, 3–2.
Another successful year at Oklahoma City in 1953 led to Greason's acquisition by the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball, where he would become the team's second African-American player, after Tom Alston.
Greason appeared in three games for the 1954 Cardinals, two as a starting pitcher. In his May 31 debut, he took the loss after allowing five earned runs and five hits over three innings in a rain-shortened game against the Chicago Cubs. In Greason's next start, he failed to record an out against the Philadelphia Phillies and allowed one earned run. In his final MLB game, he pitched a scoreless inning of relief against the New York Giants.
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