From delivering fastballs to delivering the Gospel: Negro Leagues pitcher William Greason remembers Rickwood Field playing days
William Greason, far left second row, with the 1948 Birmingham Black Barons. (CNLR)
As a Negro Leagues Baseball pitcher, William Greason relied on two pitches.
“Fastball. Curveball. That’s all I needed,” Greason recalled. “That was enough to get them out. That was enough. Just control. The main thing was to have control. That’s a blessing, and I was blessed to have pretty good control.”
These days, Greason isn’t pitching from a mound in the middle of an infield. The 99-year-old is making his delivery from the pulpit of Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham’s West End Community.
These days, the Rev. William Greason is a pitch man for Christ. Where he was trying to get pitches by hitters and trying to get them out, today, his aim is to get them in. And he’s delivering one pitch.
“The Gospel,” he said. “That’s all.”
Nothing fast. No curve. He’s not trying to trick anybody.
“No, no, no, no, no,” he said. “Straight, hard straight Gospel. Yeah, that’s it.”
The Rev. William Greason models his signature cap from the U.S. Marines. (Solomon Crenshaw Jr. / Alabama News Center)
Greason and other former Negro Leagues Baseball players will be honored with a series of events at their old stomping grounds, historic Rickwood Field. America’s oldest baseball park will host the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants in MLB at Rickwood, an actual Major League Baseball game in the Magic City.
That game is part of a three-day baseball event where the real stars of the show are the ballpark that sits a block south of Third Avenue West and north of Lomb Avenue in the Fairview Neighborhood and the Negro League teams and players – like Greason – who applied their craft there.
RELATED: Rickwood Field and Major League Baseball are set to put spotlight on Birmingham, Alabama
On Tuesday, June 18, a Minor League Baseball game will be played, pitting the Birmingham Barons against the Montgomery Biscuits. Like the big-leaguers, the teams will pay tribute to the Negro Leagues by wearing vintage uniforms.
In between the two professional games is Barnstorm Birmingham on Wednesday, June 19. The name comes from an integral practice of Negro Leagues baseball in an era when teams and players in the Leagues traveled to different communities to promote their style of baseball. That practice was called barnstorming.
Wednesday’s event is a Juneteenth celebration at Rickwood Field that will be centered on Fam Jam, a celebrity softball game, followed by an electric performance by global music superstar Metro Boomin.
Launched by former All-Star pitcher C.C. Sabathia and Uninterrupted co-founder Maverick Carter, Uninterrupted Fam Jam is a celebrity event platform where attendees will witness another kind of history as stars of entertainment, sports and baseball descend on Birmingham to thrill fans in a celebrity softball game with remixed rules that will celebrate the Negro Leagues in a fresh way.
Greason has a double connection to the baseball festival. He was a Negro Leagues player who wound up having a brief stint in the Major Leagues, playing for the St. Louis Cardinals. The San Fracisco Giants released a video this week that prominently features Greason.
The former Birmingham Black Baron crosses the century mark early in September. As he looks toward that milestone, he looks back with gratitude.
“I’ve been blessed, tremendously blessed,” he said. “God let me live two wars, drove a truck for 15 years, taught school, was at the Baptist College, was at Samford. He let me be here (at Bethel) 52½ years, and at New Hope in Bessemer for a year and a half.
“I thank God for letting me live. He’s good to me.”
The mosaic of Greason’s life is in some ways like that of Old Testament Moses, whose recorded 120 years included 40 as the adopted son of an Egyptian king and another 40 as a shepherd and son-in-law of a priest. The Bethel pastor’s path has included two tours of duty as a Marine, 15 years as a truck driver, working at Pizitz department store and years as a teacher at Birmingham Baptist College.
He didn’t begin his life’s journey with dreams of making it to the Major Leagues.
“No, not exactly, because we didn’t have any Blacks in Major League Baseball,” said Greason, a native of Atlanta. “I didn’t worry about getting there. I just played because I liked to play. Somebody saw me messing around with a baseball, and I started playing. I started playing a little sandlot ball.
“I started there in ’48 with the (Black) Barons,” he said. “I went to the Marines in ’43, came out and played a little bit of sandlot. Some guy saw me playing and I went to Asheville to play with the Asheville Blues. I didn’t stay there long because we played against the Barons in the beginning of the season in an exhibition game and I pitched against them and did pretty good.
“Next thing I know, they had me in Birmingham.”
Greason’s final season with the Black Barons was in 1951. By then, many of the stars of the team – including Willie Mays – had moved on. After having taken part in the Battle of Iwo Jima, Greason was recalled to active duty because of the Korean War. He did not have to deploy overseas this time, instead spending most of his second tour of duty in the Marines playing baseball.
Greason started the 1954 season at the St. Louis Cardinals minor league spring training camp in Albany, Georgia. He would ultimately get into three games for the big-league St. Louis club before being sent down to the Columbus Red Birds of the American Association on June 20, 1954.
The preacher doesn’t dwell on what might have been with his baseball career.
“Life goes on and you forget about it and not worry about it and not be angry about it and thank God you’re still living,” the pastor said. “To live 99 years and nine months, who would be angry about something like that? I wouldn’t.”
