Albersheim's 2015 January Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/24/2015
Bill Greason played professional baseball in the Negro Leagues for the Nashville Black Vols, Asheville Blues and Birmingham Black Barons, where he was a teammate of Willie Mays. In 1952, he 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 sparkling 2.14 earned run average. Another successful year at Oklahoma City in 1953 led to his acquisition by the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball, where he would become the team's second African-American player, after Tom Alston.
Pero Zorrilla (D. 1981) was the owner of the Santurce Crabbers baseball club and also a scout for the Giants from 1956 to 1975. His most notable signing was Orlando Cepeda. He also signed Jose Pagan and Coco Laboy out of Puerto Rico, and thanks to Alfonso Gerard, who became one of Pedrín's bird dogs, he found Julio Navarro and José Morales in the Virgin Islands. Three other players signed by Pedrin to their first professional contract with the Santurce Cangrejeros were Rubén Gómez, Roberto Clemente and Juan Pizarro.
Zorrilla helped open the doors in the major leagues to players of African descent (both American and Caribbean). Right from the beginning the Santurce Cangrejeros in the winter of 1939-40, Zorrilla secured the services of first-rank Negro Leaguers such as Josh Gibson. Other negro leagues with the team were Billy Byrd, Roy Campanella, Dick Seay, Ray Dandridge, Raymond Brown, Willard Brown, Bob Thurman, Buster Clarkson, Earl Taborn, John Ford Smith, Satchel Paige, Sam Jones, Bill Greason, George Crowe, Leon Day, Dan Bankhead, and the great Willie Mays
We offer his 1956-57 Puerto Rican Winter League baseball contract for Greason to play for the Santurce Crabbers Baseball Club. The contract has been signed by Greason, the club president, Pedro Zorilla (twice) , Carlos Gracia de la Noceda - the league president.
Letter of Authenticity from Richard Albersheim.