A Negro Leagues Star Is Still Sharing His Story
The older pastor, wearing a long purple robe, ascended the steps to the pulpit. “God has always had a plan and a purpose for each of our lives,” the Rev. William H. Greason said in a slow, gentle voice. From the pews came affirmations of “Amen!” and “All right!”
For more than 50 years at Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., Greason has been a constant presence in his congregants’ lives. He has officiated their weddings, baptized their children and lifted their spirits through loss. His parishioners say his impact has been extraordinary.
Long before he was a preacher, though, Greason had an entirely different life. In his dark, silent study down the hall at Bethel Baptist, on a shelf stuffed with old theological books, is a photograph of the 1948 pennant celebration of the Birmingham Black Barons of baseball’s Negro leagues. A young Greason beams at the center.
Greason, 98, is one of baseball’s “forgotten heroes,” according to the Center for Negro League Baseball Research. Seventy-five years ago, he shut down the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro American League’s championship series and then earned the Black Barons’ only win in the final Negro World Series, which the Black Barons lost to the Homestead Grays.
Back then, Greason was a lanky right-handed pitcher whose top-notch fastball and devastating curve dazzled crowds at Rickwood Field, a charming ballpark in Birmingham where the game’s greats of the first half of the 20th century — including Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Shoeless Joe Jackson and Babe Ruth — once played.
These days he is the oldest living player who can tell tales of the height of the Negro leagues, which were finally recognized as major leagues in 2020, many decades after their demise.
On a recent afternoon at his church, Greason — who was also the first Black pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals — talked about his playing days, how he became a minister and why he doesn’t watch baseball anymore.
But as Greason’s story shows, one’s love of the game is not so easily extinguished.
The Whiz Kid
Born poor in segregated Atlanta, Greason — imitating older ballplayers on sandlots — learned to pitch in the early 1930s. In his teens, he played semipro baseball for a pencil factory team. He loved using his wits and talent to fool batters, he said.
In 1943, with World War II raging, Greason was drafted into service. He reported to Montford Point, a segregated camp in North Carolina, becoming one of the first Black Marines. He served at Iwo Jima, where he watched many of his fellow Marines die and was a witness to the flag-raising made famous in a photograph by Joe Rosenthal of The Associated Press.
Convinced he, too, would perish on the island, Greason promised to do whatever God asked of him should he survive.
After the war, Greason returned to baseball. He quickly worked his way through the Negro minor leagues and had his contract purchased by the Black Barons in the spring of 1948.
The Black Barons were beloved in Birmingham, a deeply segregated manufacturing city in the southern foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Joining a talented, veteran-laden roster, the 23-year-old Greason won his first three starts. A newspaper called him “The Whiz Kid.”
He pitched before festive crowds at Rickwood Field, and during bus trips across the Jim Crow South and beyond, the quiet, unassuming Greason became “like brothers” with his teammates, he said.
One teammate was a 17-year-old center fielder still finding his way in the game: Willie Mays.
Greason “seemed to understand me pretty well,” Mays wrote years later. “He was always careful to help me out when he could without calling attention to what he was doing. He gave me respect and in turn helped me grow up.”
The Black Barons dominated the Negro American League in 1948 and topped the Monarchs in the league championship series. Greason had pitched brilliantly throughout the series and when Manager Lorenzo Davis, who was known as Piper, needed someone to close it out, he knew where to turn.
“Give me the damn ball,” Greason said before tossing a complete game three-hitter.
The Black Barons’ good fortune ran out in the Negro World Series — the last of its kind — with the Grays winning in five games.
As integration took most of the Negro leagues’ best players to the American and National Leagues, Greason made it his goal to join them. It took him until 1952 to catch on with Class AA Oklahoma City, but with batters “going dizzy trying to hit his assortment of pitches,” according to The Pittsburgh Courier, Greason became a target of the Yankees and the Red Sox, neither of which had fielded a Black player to that point.
Oklahoma City refused to relinquish Greason, hanging on to him until late 1953, when St. Louis acquired him.
He finally made his Cardinals debut at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Memorial Day 1954 when he was 29. With the wind howling toward the outfield, he gave up three home runs to left field in three innings. He made two other brief appearances before getting demoted. It would be his last major league chance.
He kept playing in the high minors, and starred for the Santurce Cangrejeros of the Puerto Rican Winter League. His Santurce teammates included Mays and the future Hall of Famers Roberto Clemente and Orlando Cepeda.
By phone, Cepeda vividly recalled Greason, who had power at the plate in addition to his pitching exploits, blasting “the longest home run I ever saw in Puerto Rico.”
Life After Baseball
After finishing his professional career in 1959 with Class AAA Rochester, Greason returned to Birmingham and drove a delivery truck for a department store.
He and his wife, Willie, whom he had met during his playing days, attended the 16th Street Baptist Church. On the horrific Sunday in 1963 when Ku Klux Klan members bombed the church, killing four girls, Greason was away playing semipro baseball.
One Sunday afterward, Greason recalled, “all of a sudden the Lord spoke to me from within. He said: ‘It’s time.’”
Greason, honoring the promise he had made in Iwo Jima, began studying for the ministry and preaching at the 16th Street Baptist Church. His sermons taught “human rights — the rights of people and the word of God,” remembered Shelley Stewart, then a disc jockey who has been called “the radio voice for the Birmingham civil rights movement.”
Greason became pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in 1971. Overseeing a congregation of 1,000-plus members, Greason officiated ceremonies, led Bible classes, preached and counseled — “nurturing a whole generation up through childhood,” according to Mike Holt, a deacon at Bethel Baptist.
In the decades that have passed, nearly everyone who knew Greason as a ballplayer has died. Aside from a few books in his study — a Negro leagues encyclopedia; a worn paperback titled Baseball’s Forgotten Black Heroes — few visible clues connect him to his former life.
In 2018, after 65 years of marriage, Willie died as well.
Even as Greason’s own health began to decline, he kept on preaching.
“In his mind God anointed him as pastor,” Holt said, “and only God can take him down.”
In the small house where he lives alone, Greason watches TV programs featuring televangelists and “The Kelly Clarkson Show” — but not baseball. “It’s not what it used to be,” Greason said.
Specifically, Greason said with disapproval, modern players wear long pants and batting gloves. It was the same tone he uses to describe contemporary music in church or young and fiery guest preachers.
Did he know about the pitch clock? “I worked fast,” he replied.
At that point, Greason’s eyes sparkled with a memory.
“Before games,” he said, “I’d go over the whole lineup and ask myself: ‘How are you gonna pitch ’em?’ So when I got out on the field, I knew what I had to do.”
Smiling, Greason said he remembered a full Rickwood Field on pitching days — and having a good, confident feeling. “I believed I could get anybody out,” he said.
Greason said Mays, with whom he has stayed in touch, was the best ballplayer ever — better than Ruth and Hank Aaron — because Mays could do it all.
Increasingly in recent years, according to Thom Craig, Bethel Baptist’s trustee administrator, Greason has been telling old baseball stories from the pulpit.
As Greason’s 99th birthday approaches in the fall, his life’s two callings — baseball and the Gospel — are intersecting more than ever.
On a bright Sunday morning, about 50 parishioners gathered in Bethel Baptist’s high-ceilinged sanctuary.
“God didn’t give you the ability to throw a baseball like he did to me,” Greason, who stood before them wearing dark-framed glasses, announced over organ music, “and he gave you a gift that I can’t do nothing with!” Congregants nodded passionately and called out “Amen!”
Greason retired to his study after the service. He put his robe away in the closet, a Black Barons jersey hanging a few hooks away.
Other artifacts could be spotted nearby. There was a mitt on the shelf of a cherry wood hutch and framed pictures of Greason from his playing days.
And encased in glass on his desk: a baseball with “John 3:16,” the Bible verse promising believers eternal life, written on its surface.
———————–
By: Louie Lazar
Title: A Negro Leagues Star Is Still Sharing His Story
Sourced From: www.nytimes.com/2023/06/04/sports/baseball/bill-greason-negro-leagues.html
Published Date: Sun, 04 Jun 2023 09:00:55 +0000
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The U.S. trials for both the world championships and Pan American Games teams were held over the past couple of days, with an all-around competition held on Tuesday, followed by a more relaxed situation where the athletes could pick two events. A couple of hours after the second day of competition concluded, the selection committee had two full teams ready to go, with the worlds team pretty strategically perfect, at least based on my very specific qualifications.
My impression of the first night was that many athletes looked exhausted and not quite up to the task, especially given how late in the day the competition was, and how long things dragged on, with each rotation taking around 45 minutes, double what these athletes are used to at elite meets.
The fatigue affected some of the best, including Simone Biles, who had some uncharacteristically weak form at various points throughout the night, which caused a fall on her van Leeuwen and some smaller mistakes on beam and floor. In her final event, Biles over rotated her Yurchenko double pike on vault, which ended up looking like more of a timer as she threw the skill to her back, but she nonetheless won the competition with a 55.700, down several points from what she showed she was capable of at nationals, but still enough to finish in first place and automatically qualify to the worlds team.
Coming closest was Shilese Jones, who had a very strong meet going up until bars. Actually, I’d Include bars as part of her strong meet, as the routine was excellent, and the mistake that ended up costing her a full point in deductions – a brush of her feet on the mat after her Pak salto – didn’t affect her rhythm at all to the point where it wasn’t noticeable to anyone watching. The view of her feet was cut off for the viewer watching on the stream, but while you’d still notice a flaw in the gymnast’s movements in most cases like these, Jones seamlessly continued into the rest of her routine and finished well. When her score came up as 13.5, it was shocking, but on the second day she came back sans foot drama, connected the Pak to van Leeuwen, increased her difficulty score to a 6.5 – third highest in the world – and scored a 14.75 total, once again proving what a threat she is for a bars medal.
Skye Blakely came into this trial as one of my three locks for the team along with Biles and Jones, and everything she did here to finish third all-around confirmed this opinion. Her floor still isn’t really usable, but she offers so much on bars and beam, both of which have been so consistent this season, and her vault is yet another solid Yurchenko double full, which the team might not need, though could use in a pinch if needed. She did have a fall on a bars release on day two, but with everything else she’s done there this year, this mistake changed absolutely nothing for me.
Rounding out the top five were Joscelyn Roberson and Leanne Wong, though they would have been my next team picks regardless of where they had fallen in the all-around rankings. While they weren’t locks for me in the sense that there were a few other solid options and I wasn’t sure if the selection committee would match my brainwaves, they were the two I wanted most to round out the team, filling the roles of a strong multi-event specialist as well as a well-balanced utility player who might not be a top-scoring athlete on any event, but who is absolutely vital to the team thanks to her ability to step in anywhere and score nearly as well.
In the latter role, Wong was the clear winner for me. She came into this season for the first time at the U.S. Classic in August, finishing second all-around, and then surprised to win all-around bronze at nationals with even-keeled and solid performances on every apparatus across both days of competition. Wong, who stuck with her Florida coaches this year instead of going back to GAGE, has been at a level we’ve never quite seen from her – maybe not gymnastically, exactly, as we’ve seen her look strong before and with higher difficulty in some areas, but in terms of her confidence and the joy she’s bringing to every performance.
I’ve always been a fan of built-in alternates for teams, and while everyone is calculating numbers and putting together spreadsheets showing the top-scoring teams, I’m keeping scoring potential in mind, but also always making room for someone who adds value in a different way. It’s not super often that teams need to replace higher scores with a more consistent low score, but two very recent examples include Biles being forced to withdraw from the team final in Tokyo and Blakely’s bars being considered too much of a risk at last year’s worlds, where Wong – who only competed on vault in qualifications – was able to come in and put up a steady score for the team. With only five athletes on a team and three scores needed for each event in the final, not having a trusted backup is a scary prospect.
Between classics, nationals, and trials, Wong hit 18 out of 18 routines. She also only won a single event medal, with her silver on vault at the U.S. Classic. So there’s a massive pro, but also a massive con, but is it really a con? Does everyone on every team really need to be an individual medal contender, or is there room for those who bring a different skillset to the mix, especially when the big scores are more or less covered by other athletes and the alternative would be another specialist with high-scoring potential but an inconsistent history? Not to mention that the top all-around athletes shouldn’t be required to compete all four events in the team final, and Wong is the best option to provide relief for Biles on bars and Jones on beam or floor, for example.
If Wong proved herself ready for a spot all summer, Roberson’s done it all season, going back to her fantastic performances on vault, beam, and floor at the Winter Cup in February to her multiple 14+ scores on floor in international competition – her 14.15 at the DTB Pokal Team Challenge, 14.1 and 14.067 at Pan Ams, and 14.066 at the Cairo World Cup are the top four international scores out of over a thousand international floor scores seen in the entirety of 2023 so far – to a domestic summer season that saw her win all-around bronze at the U.S. Classic before becoming the vault champion at nationals. In my eyes, she didn’t need to do much more at trials to show her readiness, but she did it anyway, finishing first on vault and second on floor.
While I was convinced, however, my concern was that the selection committee wouldn’t be, especially when the experienced Jordan Chiles made a strong case for herself on vault and bars despite looking a bit shaky elsewhere. Experience helps in situations like a world championships meet, and Chiles was a standout last fall, putting up four excellent scores to help the team win gold in the final before going on to win medals on vault and floor. Then there were a couple of other gymnasts with standout events, like Zoe Miller on bars and Kaliya Lincoln on vault, beam, and floor, both of whom put absolutely everything into Tuesday’s all-around competition with Lincoln’s score a career-best, as well as Jade Carey on vault, where the reigning world champion excelled, scoring a 14.8 for her Cheng on day two.
Roberson and Wong were my picks to round out the top all-arounders with both a specialist and the opposite of that, but I saw the value in selecting others as well, and felt like this team could have gone several different ways. But it seems the committee and I were on the same page for once, with Roberson and Wong joining the expected Biles, Jones, and Blakely trifecta, while Kayla DiCello – who kind of quietly slipped into seventh all-around here despite a fall on bars – was named the alternate.
DiCello was also picked to compete at the Pan Am Games, along with Chiles, Lincoln, Miller, and first-year senior Tiana Sumanasekera, who won this year’s Pan Am Championships all-around title back in May. Carey was also offered a Pan Ams spot, but turned it down due to a personal conflict and will instead compete at the Swiss Cup, while Alicia Zhou, Eveylynn Lowe, and Nola Matthews earned non-traveling alternate spots for Pan Ams, and Katelyn Jong previously earned an individual spot for Pan Ams by winning the Junior Pan Am Games title in 2021, though she was injured while training vault on Tuesday, so it’s unclear whether she’ll be able to compete or not.
I understand that Carey or Miller could have added more to the team’s scoring potential than some of those who were selected, and that there are very valid arguments for other combinations of athletes, but I love the strategy the selection committee ultimately went with, even if it was by coincidence if they ultimately just went with the all-around rank order from Tuesday’s competition. Either way, what stands out most about this team is that it wasn’t just the right team based on one night, but it was also the right team based on the months of tests that preceded the trial competition. This group of athletes is exactly who I would have selected after nationals, and the potential they have for success in Antwerp is nothing short of tremendous.
Article by Lauren Hopkins
———————–
By: Lauren
Title: Why the U.S. Worlds Team is Perfect and Exactly What We Wanted
Sourced From: thegymter.net/2023/09/22/why-the-u-s-worlds-team-is-perfect-and-exactly-what-we-wanted/
Published Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2023 04:57:49 +0000
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Did you miss our previous article…
https://mansbrand.com/kathryn-bernardo-puts-healthcare-workers-at-the-forefront-in-seoul-2/
Kathryn bagged the award for her role as medical nurse Ali in the series 2 Good 2 Be True, and dedicated her win to the real healthcare workers
Over the years, Asia’s Superstar Kathryn Bernardo has played a number of iconic roles that fans will always remember. In 2010, she won the hearts of many as the young Gretchen Barretto in Magkaribal, and in 2019, with a number of successful projects under her belt, she showed a new side of her acting prowess as Joy in Hello, Love, Goodbye. Before we all say hello to Philo, the actress closes the chapter of Nurse Ali from 2 Good 2 Be True by receiving an award at Seoul International Drama Awards.
RELATED: 5 Times Kathryn Bernardo Proved She’s a Fashion Chameleon
Making meaningful success
Yesterday, the 27-year-old artist honored her well-beloved character in the series. In her speech, she emphasized the value of health workers, as well as awareness on Alzheimer’s Disease.
The actress said, “It’s always been more than just [sharing a] love story to our audience, but also spreading awareness about Alzheimer’s disease, and educating people about those who struggle with it, and how we can offer them the best support they need. This project made me appreciate our nurses and our healthcare workers so it was really more than just another TV show for me.”
During its air, 2 Good 2 Be True simultaneously premiered on Netflix and ABS-CBN’s other online and television platforms. In the show, Ali, played by Bernardo, took care of Ronaldo Valdez’s portrayal of Lolo Sir. In the series, he was experiencing the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.
Looking back on the role
The 130-episode run of the show was a success, with the audience applauding the team for the heavy research on medical procedures exhibited in the series. In one of the scenes, Kathryn conducted the F.A.S.T. method to confirm the stroke of Valdez’s role. Besides the factual portrayal of the procedure, viewers praised the actress’s expressive restraint playing Ali. According to some reviews, this was a factual portrayal of the health workers’ reality in their attachment to their patients.
2 Good 2 Be True also starred the actress’ on and off screen partner, Daniel Padilla. The actor played Eloy, Lolo Sir’s estranged grandson and Ali’s love interest. Besides their established chemistry over the years, the love team’s relationship with Ronaldo Valdez’s character won the hearts of fans. In a tribute to the veteran actor, Bernardo referred to him as “the lolo I never had.”
Apart from her role as a persistent nurse, Ali was also well-beloved for being a determined dreamer and a hardworking family member. To some KathNiels, the comedic side of Alison Fajardo was also a throwback to Chichay. The latter was from the series Got 2 Believe.
On September 27, the actress will deliver a darker, more mature character as Philo in her newest film, A Very Good Girl.
Congratulations to Kathryn Bernardo for her well-deserved recognition at the Seoul International Drama Awards!
Featured Image: STAR CINEMA (via Instagram)
The post Kathryn Bernardo Puts Healthcare Workers at the Forefront in Seoul appeared first on MEGA.
———————————–
By: Chlarine Gianan
Title: Kathryn Bernardo Puts Healthcare Workers at the Forefront in Seoul
Sourced From: mega-onemega.com/kathryn-bernardo-puts-healthcare-workers-at-the-forefront-in-seoul/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=kathryn-bernardo-puts-healthcare-workers-at-the-forefront-in-seoul
Published Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2023 10:17:15 +0000
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The success of interim agreements — and the money left on the table not being able to give Oscar fare a proper campaign — could be enough to convince AMPTP members to finalize negotiations with the WGA and SAG.
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Title: For Studios’ Bottom Lines, Awards Season May Be Stronger Than the Strikes
Sourced From: www.indiewire.com/awards/industry/will-awards-season-end-strikes-1234907380/
Published Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2023 19:00:00 +0000
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Did you miss our previous article…
https://mansbrand.com/pr1-mathiasen-seeking-out-bronze-driver-for-2024-program/
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