(Tribune News Service) — A national veterans’ support organization will honor Birmingham baseball legend Bill Greason with a special ceremony at Rickwood Field on Sept. 3, Greason’s 100th birthday.

Greason, who pitched for the Birmingham Black Barons, St. Louis Cardinals and other professional clubs in the 1940s and 50s, is also a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and longtime pastor in Birmingham. He served in the Marines during both World War II and the Korean War, experiencing combat during the Battle of Iwo Jima as a 20-year-old in 1945.

“Bill Greason is a staggering American figure,” said Gerard Choucroun, Executive Director of the Heart and Armor Foundation for Veterans Health. “… We want to get all of these various communities that he represents and is ‘village elder’ to — baseball, Birmingham, the military, the spiritual community — and get everyone together and do something special for him on his 100th birthday.

“Not only in Birmingham, but nationally, we’d love to have him really feel as he turns 100 that his country loves him and that his country can come together cohesively and do something where his whole life’s journey is seen and understood, and reflected back to him as something of such consequential importance to all of us who care about it.”

Born Sept. 3, 1924, in Atlanta, Greason is the oldest living former Negro Leaguer and the only surviving player from the Black Barons’ 1948 Negro American League championship team following the death of his friend and former teammate Willie Mays in June. He is the second-oldest living former MLB player, behind only Art Schallock, a New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles pitcher in the 1950s who turned 100 in April.

Greason became the first Black pitcher (and second Black player) in the history of the Cardinals franchise when he appeared in four games during the 1954 season. He also pitched in Nashville, Tenn., Asheville, N.C., Oklahoma City, OK, Columbus, Ohio, Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico during a decade-long career in the majors and minors.

Greason was honored as part of festivities for the MLB at Rickwood Game between the Cardinals and San Francisco Giants (Mays’ old team) in June. He was joined on the field prior to the game by more than 50 other former Negro Leagues players, and threw out the ceremonial first pitch while being accompanied by Michael Mays (Willie’s son) and MLB legend Barry Bonds (Mays’ godson).

“We were introduced to Rev. Greason through Willie Mays, who was a veteran himself,” Choucroun said. “Even in his later years, (Mays) was very active with the veteran community, particularly young vets. He would speak to them and loved the connection. He came to a Memorial Day event one year and on his way out said, almost as a parting favor, ‘Here, we’ve got a phone number for you. Call this man.’ It was a 205 area code and it was Bill Greason. We were able to get him involved in our organization, even remotely from Birmingham.”

The Sept. 3 celebration, which is not open to the general public, will include representatives from the baseball, military and spiritual communities. San Francisco Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski and retired Marine Corps Major General J. Michael Myatt are part of the hosting committee for Heart and Armor, established in 2019 in California with a stated mission “to protect the health of veterans, and to connect civilians to the experience of military service members.” (Yastrzemski, grandson of Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, won’t be able to attend the Greason birthday event because the Giants have a game that day).

The event will utilize the four bases on Rickwood’s baseball diamond to represent the four “critical moments” of Greason’s life. First base will represent his joining the Marine Corps in 1943, second base his pitching the Black Barons to victory in Game 3 of the 1948 Negro Leagues World Series, third base his enrollment at Easonian Bible College in the early 1960s and home plate his 53 years of service to Bethel Baptist Church in the Berney Points neighborhood of Birmingham’s West End.

“The importance of someone like Sgt. Greason is hard to overstate,” Myatt said. “He was one of the first Black men to wear a Marine Corps uniform; Montford Point Marines like him changed everything — for the better. He fought on foreign soil at Iwo Jima. And he fought domestic barriers for others who wanted to experience the honor of serving their country in the Marines.

“We celebrate him to show our appreciation, but also to learn about our own history. And to shine a light on how much Marines care for each other, even 80 years after they serve. The bonds are real.”

Greason’s time in St. Louis came after his second stint in the Marines, during which he did not see combat action. But things were different at Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest battles in American military history.

More than 6,000 Americans and more than 17,000 Japanese were killed at Iwo Jima over the course of five weeks early in the war’s final year. A member of the all- Black 66th Supply Platoon, Greason said he witnessed the famous raising of the American flag atop Mount Suribachi by his fellow Marines on Feb. 23, 1945.

“I was blessed, because I was able to walk off rather than being brought off,” Greason told AL.com in June. “We had quite a few fellows that are still (buried) there. … It was five miles long, three miles wide, with a dead volcano on the end. You could dig, but that volcano ash would fall right back in there. Two of my best friends were killed there.

“War doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t pick out certain folks to take out. If you were in a position on a battlefield as I was, you’re just thankful to see another day. Don’t worry, because you don’t know which bullet your name is on. … I prayed that God would take care of me.”

Greason has made his permanent home in Birmingham since the mid-1950s and became pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in 1971. He remains the church’s senior pastor and continues to preach most Sundays.

To get involved with the Greason celebration or for more information about Heart and Armor, visit www.heartandarmor.org/greason or email greason100@heartandarmor.org.

@CregStephenson.

©2024 Advance Local Media LLC.

Visit al.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.