Bill Greason

William Henry Greason (born September 3, 1924) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who years later became a Baptist minister in Birmingham, Alabama. Greason played for the Birmingham Black Barons in the Negro leagues from 1948 to 1951 and for the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League in 1954.

Greason is the last living player who played in the Negro Major Leagues.

Early life Greason was born in Atlanta, where, as he told a 2020 interviewer, "I grew up across the street from Martin Luther King Jr." Greason enlisted in the United States Marine Corps during World War II—one of the first black Marines —and completed his basic training at Montford Point. He embarked with the 66th Supply Platoon, an all-black unit, for the Pacific Theater of Operations and took part in the Battle of Iwo Jima.

Negro league career Greason was a , right-handed pitcher. After the war, he played professional baseball in the Negro leagues for the minor league Nashville Black Vols and Asheville Blues, and the major league Birmingham Black Barons,

National League career In 1952, Greason joined minor league baseball as a member of the Oklahoma City Indians of the Double-A Texas League, where he won nine of his ten decisions and posted a 2.14 earned run average.

Altogether, Greason allowed eight hits and six earned runs in four MLB innings pitched, with four bases on balls and two strikeouts. He spent the remainder of his professional baseball career in the upper levels of the minor leagues in the Cardinal farm system, retiring after the 1959 season.

Ministry and later life

After his playing days, Greason became a member of the 16th Street Baptist Church. After his church was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan on September 15, 1963, killing four children, he studied for the ministry at Birmingham Baptist Bible College and Samford University. In 1971, he became pastor of Birmingham's Bethel Baptist Church Southside (later Bethel Baptist Church - Berney Points) where he continued to preach into 2024.

In 2011, Greason was presented with a lifetime achievement award at the annual Alabama Black Achievement Awards Gala. In 2012, the Montford Point Marines, including Greason, were awarded a group Congressional Gold Medal.

On June 20, 2024, Greason threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the MLB at Rickwood Field game. He turned 100 in September 2024. Following Art Schallock's death on March 6, 2025, Greason became the oldest living former MLB player. On February 3, 2026, the death of Ron Teasley left Greason as the last living Negro League player.