The first black pitcher in St. Louis Cardinals history had a prominent place in the baseball spotlight in Birmingham, Alabama Thursday evening.
Major League Baseball got it right on Thursday night in its honoring of Willie Mays and the Negro Leagues. As some of baseball’s greatest met at Rickwood Field, the memory of Mays, who passed away just days ago, was as vibrant and alive as if he was there.
From one of the best renditions of the national anthem to the final out, this was a night that reached beyond the diamond. The game itself was almost anticlimactic. For me, this was a night about history, both past and present.
Former Birmingham Barons and former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bill Greason was honored with throwing out the first pitch. The Negro Leagues oldest living player at 99 (and oldest living former Cardinal) had his well-earned and well-deserved moment in the spotlight.
Greason was so much more than just the first black pitcher in Cardinals history. He was the first black Marine to land at Iwo Jima during World War II. He was a civil rights activist who grew up in Atlanta across the street from a younger Martin Luther King, Jr. He has spent more than 50 years leading the congregation at Bethel Baptist Church, located two miles from Rickwood Field.
Greason was not only Mays’ teammate in Birmingham but his roommate. He also played with the Santurce Crabbers in the Puerto Rican Winter League where he found himself on a roster with future Hall of Famers including Mays and Roberto Clemente. He was a baseball racial barrier breaker when he joined the Oklahoma City Indians in 1952 and became the first black pitcher in Cardinals franchise history, making his debut on May 31, 1954. In 1958, the Cardinals assigned him to the Rochester Red Wings, where he became a mentor to future great Bob Gibson.
Greason retired from professional baseball in 1959, yet 65 years later, his impact lives on. It is a legacy that will not soon be forgotten.
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