The older pastor, carrying a protracted purple gown, ascended the steps to the pulpit. “God has all the time had a plan and a goal for every of our lives,” the Rev. William H. Greason stated in a sluggish, light voice. From the pews got here affirmations of “Amen!” and “All proper!”
For greater than 50 years at Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., Greason has been a continuing presence in his congregants’ lives. He has officiated their weddings, baptized their youngsters and lifted their spirits by way of loss. His parishioners say his influence has been extraordinary.
Lengthy earlier than he was a preacher, although, Greason had a completely totally different life. In his darkish, silent examine down the corridor at Bethel Baptist, on a shelf filled with outdated theological books, is {a photograph} of the 1948 pennant celebration of the Birmingham Black Barons of baseball’s Negro leagues. A younger Greason beams on the middle.
Greason, 98, is certainly one of baseball’s “forgotten heroes,” in response to the Middle for Negro League Baseball Analysis. Seventy-five years in the past, he shut down the Kansas Metropolis Monarchs within the Negro American League’s championship sequence after which earned the Black Barons’ solely win within the ultimate Negro World Sequence, which the Black Barons misplaced to the Homestead Grays.
Again then, Greason was a lanky right-handed pitcher whose top-notch fastball and devastating curve dazzled crowds at Rickwood Subject, an enthralling ballpark in Birmingham the place the sport’s greats of the primary half of the twentieth century — together with Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Shoeless Joe Jackson and Babe Ruth — as soon as performed.
Lately he’s the oldest dwelling participant who can inform tales of the peak of the Negro leagues, which had been lastly acknowledged as main leagues in 2020, many many years after their demise.
On a current afternoon at his church, Greason — who was additionally the primary Black pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals — talked about his taking part in days, how he grew to become a minister and why he doesn’t watch baseball anymore.
However as Greason’s story exhibits, one’s love of the sport shouldn’t be so simply extinguished.
The Whiz Child
Born poor in segregated Atlanta, Greason — imitating older ballplayers on sandlots — realized to pitch within the early Thirties. In his teenagers, he performed semipro baseball for a pencil manufacturing unit staff. He beloved utilizing his wits and expertise to idiot batters, he stated.
In 1943, with World Warfare II raging, Greason was drafted into service. He reported to Montford Level, a segregated camp in North Carolina, turning into one of many first Black Marines. He served at Iwo Jima, the place he watched a lot of his fellow Marines die and was a witness to the flag-raising made well-known in {a photograph} by Joe Rosenthal of The Related Press.
Satisfied he, too, would perish on the island, Greason promised to do no matter God requested of him ought to he survive.
After the conflict, Greason returned to baseball. He rapidly labored his method by way of the Negro minor leagues and had his contract bought by the Black Barons within the spring of 1948.
The Black Barons had been beloved in Birmingham, a deeply segregated manufacturing metropolis within the southern foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Becoming a member of a proficient, veteran-laden roster, the 23-year-old Greason gained his first three begins. A newspaper referred to as him “The Whiz Child.”
He pitched earlier than festive crowds at Rickwood Subject, and through bus journeys throughout the Jim Crow South and past, the quiet, unassuming Greason grew to become “like brothers” along with his teammates, he stated.
One teammate was a 17-year-old middle fielder nonetheless discovering his method within the sport: Willie Mays.
Greason “appeared to know me fairly effectively,” Mays wrote years later. “He was all the time cautious to assist me out when he might with out calling consideration to what he was doing. He gave me respect and in flip helped me develop up.”
The Black Barons dominated the Negro American League in 1948 and topped the Monarchs within the league championship sequence. Greason had pitched brilliantly all through the sequence and when Supervisor Lorenzo Davis, who was often known as Piper, wanted somebody to shut it out, he knew the place to show.
“Give me the rattling ball,” Greason stated earlier than tossing an entire sport three-hitter.
The Black Barons’ luck ran out within the Negro World Sequence — the final of its type — with the Grays profitable in 5 video games.
As integration took many of the Negro leagues’ finest gamers to the American and Nationwide Leagues, Greason made it his objective to affix them. It took him till 1952 to catch on with Class AA Oklahoma Metropolis, however with batters “going dizzy making an attempt to hit his assortment of pitches,” in response to The Pittsburgh Courier, Greason grew to become a goal of the Yankees and the Purple Sox, neither of which had fielded a Black participant to that time.
Oklahoma Metropolis refused to relinquish Greason, hanging on to him till late 1953, when St. Louis acquired him.
He lastly made his Cardinals debut at Wrigley Subject in Chicago on Memorial Day 1954 when he was 29. With the wind howling towards the outfield, he gave up three house runs to left discipline in three innings. He made two different transient appearances earlier than getting demoted. It will be his final main league likelihood.
He stored taking part in within the excessive minors, and starred for the Santurce Cangrejeros of the Puerto Rican Winter League. His Santurce teammates included Mays and the longer term Corridor of Famers Roberto Clemente and Orlando Cepeda.
By cellphone, Cepeda vividly recalled Greason, who had energy on the plate along with his pitching exploits, blasting “the longest house run I ever noticed in Puerto Rico.”
Life After Baseball
After ending his skilled profession in 1959 with Class AAA Rochester, Greason returned to Birmingham and drove a supply truck for a division retailer.
He and his spouse, Willie, whom he had met throughout his taking part in days, attended the sixteenth Avenue Baptist Church. On the horrific Sunday in 1963 when Ku Klux Klan members bombed the church, killing 4 ladies, Greason was away taking part in semipro baseball.
One Sunday afterward, Greason recalled, “rapidly the Lord spoke to me from inside. He stated: ‘It’s time.’”
Greason, honoring the promise he had made in Iwo Jima, started finding out for the ministry and preaching on the sixteenth Avenue Baptist Church. His sermons taught “human rights — the rights of individuals and the phrase of God,” remembered Shelley Stewart, then a disc jockey who has been referred to as “the radio voice for the Birmingham civil rights motion.”
Greason grew to become pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in 1971. Overseeing a congregation of 1,000-plus members, Greason officiated ceremonies, led Bible courses, preached and recommended — “nurturing an entire era up by way of childhood,” in response to Mike Holt, a deacon at Bethel Baptist.
Within the many years which have handed, almost everybody who knew Greason as a ballplayer has died. Apart from just a few books in his examine — a Negro leagues encyclopedia; a worn paperback titled Baseball’s Forgotten Black Heroes — few seen clues join him to his former life.
In 2018, after 65 years of marriage, Willie died as effectively.
Whilst Greason’s personal well being started to say no, he stored on preaching.
“In his thoughts God anointed him as pastor,” Holt stated, “and solely God can take him down.”
Within the small home the place he lives alone, Greason watches TV applications that includes televangelists and “The Kelly Clarkson Present” — however not baseball. “It’s not what it was once,” Greason stated.
Particularly, Greason stated with disapproval, trendy gamers put on lengthy pants and batting gloves. It was the identical tone he makes use of to explain modern music in church or younger and fiery visitor preachers.
Did he know in regards to the pitch clock? “I labored quick,” he replied.
At that time, Greason’s eyes sparkled with a reminiscence.
“Earlier than video games,” he stated, “I’d go over the entire lineup and ask myself: ‘How are you gonna pitch ’em?’ So after I obtained out on the sector, I knew what I needed to do.”
Smiling, Greason stated he remembered a full Rickwood Subject on pitching days — and having a great, assured feeling. “I believed I might get anyone out,” he stated.
Greason stated Mays, with whom he has stayed in contact, was one of the best ballplayer ever — higher than Ruth and Hank Aaron — as a result of Mays might do all of it.
More and more in recent times, in response to Thom Craig, Bethel Baptist’s trustee administrator, Greason has been telling outdated baseball tales from the pulpit.
As Greason’s 99th birthday approaches within the fall, his life’s two callings — baseball and the Gospel — are intersecting greater than ever.
On a brilliant Sunday morning, about 50 parishioners gathered in Bethel Baptist’s high-ceilinged sanctuary.
“God didn’t provide the capacity to throw a baseball like he did to me,” Greason, who stood earlier than them carrying dark-framed glasses, introduced over organ music, “and he gave you a present that I can’t do nothing with!” Congregants nodded passionately and referred to as out “Amen!”
Greason retired to his examine after the service. He put his gown away within the closet, a Black Barons jersey hanging just a few hooks away.
Different artifacts may very well be noticed close by. There was a mitt on the shelf of a cherry wooden hutch and framed photos of Greason from his taking part in days.
And encased in glass on his desk: a baseball with “John 3:16,” the Bible verse promising believers everlasting life, written on its floor.