Bill Grevell pitched in five games for the 1919 Philadelphia Athletics.
William Joseph Grevell, Jr., was born March 5, 1898, in
Williamstown, New Jersey, to William Sr. and Mary Morgan Grevell. He had two
older sisters, Louisa (born 1890) and Bertha (born 1892). Mary passed away at
age 34 on April 25, 1900. Several weeks later, in June, the US census was
taken, and William Sr. was counted in two different places: one was with Louisa
and Bertha in the home of Mary’s mother Anna and her second husband, Frank
Downs, in Monroe, New Jersey, and the other was with William Jr. as boarders
with Emma Peterman in Royersford, Pennsylvania. His occupation was given as
glassblower in both instances.
In the 1910 census all four Grevells are living with Frank
and Anna Downs on Railroad Avenue in Monroe. William Sr. is a glassworker in a
bottle factory; Louisa is 19, Bertha is 17, and William Jr. is 12. By the 1915
New Jersey state census William Jr., a 17-year-old student at Glassboro High,
is living with the Flexon family in Monroe.
In the spring of 1916 Bill got his first newspaper
attention, as a pitcher for Glassboro High. That summer and fall he pitched for
a variety of local town teams, including on August 10 when he pitched for
Pitman against “the Chinese” at a grange picnic. From the Woodbury Daily
Times, September 15:
CLAYTON AT WEST END TOMORROW
…Grevell, their [Clayton] wonderful twirler, will be in the box and expects to show the champs something about that art. Grevell has only lost two games out of twenty eight this year and is in fine form at present so tomorrow’s game will no doubt be a pitcher’s battle between Doppy and the young fellow.
…Grevell and Mason have been keeping in fine physical condition during the winter months by their work outs with the Dun & Co. team, now the leaders of the West Philadelphia Basketball League, and will be the premier moundsmen of the Dun team.
Bill pitched for Dun & Co. most of the summer, including
two complete games on July 4 and a four-hit, 13-strikeout shutout on August 10,
and also pitched some for Wildwood. On September 8 the Philadelphia Inquirer
reported on his shutout for Dun & Co. in the first game of the Main Line
championship series:
…It was a splendidly played game and won chiefly on the effective pitching of Grevell. It was the efficient twirling of this speed ball phenom that credited the Commercial Raters with the first half of the season and he once more demonstrated that he is without a doubt the “pitching ace” of the Main Line this season.
On September 27 Bill appeared in the Inquirer in a
team photo of the Wildwood team. Meanwhile, on the 12th, he had
filled out his draft registration card, on which he gave his address as 555
Locust Avenue in Philadelphia, his nearest relative as his father, at the same
address, his occupation as “repairer” for R.G. Dunn Co. (presumably the same
“Dun & Co.” that he was pitching for), and his appearance as tall, slender,
brown eyes, dark hair.
In early 1919 it was announced that Bill had been invited to
spring training by Connie Mack of the Philadelphia Athletics. The As’
exhibition season lasted from April 2 through April 21, Bill pitched in at
least six of the games, and he made the team. He didn’t get into a regular
season game until May 14 in St. Louis (and while he was waiting, his father
died on April 28), when he came into the game to start the bottom of the sixth
with the Athletics down 4-0. He faced four batters and walked three of them and
then was relieved, and all three scored as the Browns went on to win 11-0.
Bill’s next appearance was a start, on June 3 at home
against the Yankees. He allowed four runs on six hits and six walks in 5 1/3
innings, but didn’t get the loss as the A’s later took the lead before losing
10-9. On June 15 he pitched the first four innings of an exhibition game
against Mack’s son Earle’s Merchant Ship team. On July 1 he got the start in a
home game against the Red Sox, but only lasted 2 1/3 innings before being
removed; he allowed two runs on four walks and one hit, but the A’s came from
behind to win 7-4. The Philadelphia Public Ledger reported the next day:
Bill Grevell, the youngster from out Germantown way, started on the pitching tee for Mr. Mack, but wild William didn’t last long. He proved that he has a number of qualifications necessary for a big league pitcher, but his curve balls found anything but the plate…
Bill’s next game was in relief in Chicago on July 10, when
he pitched the last two innings and allowed the last two runs in a 9-2 loss. Then
he sat until July 26, when he again pitched the last two innings of a loss,
though in this one he gave up nine runs on six hits, four walks and a hit
batter. The Washington Herald reported:
But Naylor was given the shower call to allow a youngster by the name of Grevell to perform. This new find of Mack’s showed a perfect delivery but had nothing on the ball when he managed to get it near the plate which resulted in the local clan going crazy with the heat and punching through eight big runs in the final innings.
The Washington Times added: "J. Roleine Naylor, usually effective here, was a drooping violet and his successor, Grevell, was awful, puffectly awful."
After this game Bill went home, though I don’t know if he
was released; as we will see he will be back with the A’s for spring training
1920. But this was his last regular season major league game, at the age of 21;
his final stats included a 14.25 ERA in 12 innings, with 15 hits, 18 walks, and
three strikeouts. He pitched for a number of local teams in August and
September, including Dunn & Co., J. & J. Dobson, Norristown, and
Parkesburg.
As foreshadowed in the previous paragraph, Bill went to
spring training in Lake Charles, Louisiana, with Philadelphia in 1920. Their
first exhibition game was on February 29 against a Lake Charles semi-pro team;
the opponents only had eight players so the A’s loaned them pitchers, including
Bill. On March 5 there was an intrasquad game between the Regulars and the
Yannigans, and Bill surprisingly started for the Regulars. He was still on the
team when the regular season began on April 14, but he had not appeared in a
game when, on April 28, he was sent to the Jersey City Skeeters of the Class AA
International League.
Bill was a starter for Jersey City. On May 26 he lost 7-5 to
Syracuse, the New York Tribune reporting that “Weird pitching by Grevell
gave the Stars a five-run lead in the first inning.” On August 4 the Davenport
Daily Times reported:
PLOW BOYS GET NEW PITCHER
President Warren Giles of the Moline Three-I league club received word today from Connie Mack that Pitcher Grevell will report to the Plow Boys Friday. Grevell belongs to Connie and has been going at an excellent pace with Jersey City this season. This gift is one of the results of Connie’s recent trip to Moline.
Bill’s “excellent pace” included a 4-14 record and a 4.37
ERA in 136 innings in 19 games, with 78 walks, which is why he was sent from AA
to Class B. He pitched five games with Moline and had a 1-2 record. He does not
show up in a search of the 1920 census.
On February 26, 1921, the Reading Times reported that
“Bill Grevell, who refused to report to Jersey City last year, apparently is
back in the good graces of the Macks, and will go to Chattanooga, of the
Southern Association.
I don’t know what they mean about him refusing to report, as
he obviously reported, though 20 days did pass between when he was sent down
and the first game I found him pitching, so maybe he refused for a while.
I found no evidence of Bill doing any pitching for
Chattanooga. By early June he was in Philadelphia, pitching for a team from the
Bridesburg neighborhood. On June 7 he and Bridesburg lost 4-1 to an
African-American team, the Norfolk Stars. On June 26 he somehow started an
exhibition game for the A’s, in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, against a team of
players from Holy Cross College. From the Five Mile Beach Weekly Journal
of Wildwood, New Jersey, July 29:
Some Oldtimers
“Bill” Grevell, who was Wildwood’s best bet on the pitching peak three years ago, is seldom heard of any more. Grevell had a great drop—one of the best it has ever been my privilege to witness. That drop gained him a tryout with Connie Mack. He stayed a year and got in a game occasionally. Then Connie shipped him to Jersey City for seasoning. But he didn’t last, and after leaving Jersey City wandered about from place to place until he appears to have wandered almost out of baseball. Grevell was good, no disputing that. It looked as though he had a great future. Then something went wrong with him, though what that something was I have never been able to determine. He is yet young, perhaps he will come back and make good after all. Anyway, I’m for him. Grevell hails from Williamstown.
In 1922, still just 24, Bill pitched for Bridesburg,
Nativity, Glassboro of the West Jersey League, Spring City, Minersville, St.
Barnabas Catholic Club, Ambler of the Montgomery County League, Philadelphia
Pro, the South Philadelphians, and Ocean City. From the Sporting News,
June 28, 1923:
Grevell, Former Athletic, Dies.
PHILADELPHIA, Pa., June 26.—William Grevell, a pitcher who was with the Athletics for two seasons, and previous to that had made a reputation in independent baseball in Philadelphia and suburbs, died of pneumonia at a sanitorium and was buried Monday at Williamstown, N.J.
Bill’s death certificate shows that he actually died of
tuberculosis, on June 21. He had spent the last thirteen days of his life at
the Chestnut Hill Home For Consumptives, in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania. The
informant was given as S.L. Conrad of 555 Locust Avenue, which seems to have
been either sister Louisa or her husband Claude Conrad.
https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/G/Pgrevb101.htm
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/grevebi01.shtml
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