‘Pitching preacher’ played for Birmingham Black Barons, St. Louis Cardinals during long baseball career
and The Birmingham News will be producing weekly stories that showcase the history of Rickwood Field, and history of baseball in the state of Alabama.
The longtime — and still active — pastor at Bethel Baptist Church in the West End area of Birmingham, Greason has been a busy man lately. With the MLB at Rickwood Field game between the Cardinals and San Francisco Giants set to take place next week, he’s given numerous interviews about his life and baseball career, including his relationship with a certain famous former teammate, Willie Mays.
“Oh, it was great,” said Greason, who earned $500 month with the Black Barons. “We could play. We had the talent. God gifted us to be able to have the talent to play ball. It was a blessing, because segregation was way up there. We didn’t worry about that. Whenever we played the Homestead Grays, Kansas City Monarchs and all of those guys, we had something to offer.
At age 18 in 1943, Greason entered the Marine Corps, where he was part of the all-Black 66th Supply Platoon in the Pacific Theater of World War II. His unit was called into action in early 1945 at Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest battles of the war, with more than 6,000 Americans and more than 17,000 Japanese killed over the course of five weeks.
Greason pitched that spring against the Black Barons, impressing Davis enough that he eventually acquired the young right-hander and brought him to Birmingham. In addition to winning a championship on the field, Greason also met his future wife, Willie Otis Underwood, one Sunday at 16th Street Baptist Church. The two were married in 1953 and stayed together until her death in 2018.
The environment was not a welcoming one for Greason, who said he could rarely find anyone to even play catch with him. “He had me out pitching batting practice one night,” Greason said. “… I wasn’t getting the ball over the plate. He came out and said, ‘Get the damn ball over the plate!’ I said, ‘What the hell you think I’m trying to do? You think I got a string on this damn ball?’ He was shocked. Being from Alabama, a Black talking like that to a white man? He turned and walked away.In this 1979 photo, Rev.
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