Bill Grevell

Bill Grevell was a semipro pitcher from Philadelphia whose scatter-armed stint with the talent-parched 1919 Athletics indicated that he was not ready for the majors. After parts of two seasons in the minor leagues, he returned to the sandlots until illness ended his life at age 25.

William Joseph Grevell Jr. was born on March 5, 1898, in Williamstown, New Jersey, roughly 25 miles from Philadelphia. He was the youngest of three children and the only son of William Grevell Sr. and Mary (Morgan) Grevell, who died two years after his birth.1 The 1900 US Census found William Sr. and Jr. living together as boarders, with no mention of William Jr.’s sisters Louisa and Bertha; apparently the family was temporarily divided following Mary’s death. By 1905, William Sr. and the children were living together again in New Jersey. William Sr.’s occupation during his son’s youth was variously listed as a glassblower and a glassworker in a bottle factory.2

By 1915, 17-year-old William Jr. was listed as attending Glassboro High School, about seven miles from Williamstown, and living apart from his father.3 He was one of 40 students to graduate from Glassboro High the following June.4 Shortly afterward, a pitcher named Grevell began to be mentioned in the Philadelphia Inquirer’s coverage of semipro and local baseball in New Jersey. (Although the pitcher’s first name was not specified, we assume it was Bill. The team for which Grevell appeared was based in Clayton, New Jersey, only about six miles from Bill’s birthplace of Williamstown.)

On July 8, 1916, Grevell pitched a complete-game three-hit win for the Clayton team over a team from nearby Ewan.5 And in mid-September, described as “the boy wonder of South Jersey,” Grevell pitched seven innings of no-hit ball and yielded only six hits in 13⅓ innings. Unfortunately, he lost the pitchers’ duel, 1-0.6

Grevell made his way to Philadelphia, where new professional and recreational opportunities awaited. He landed a job as a reporter with R.G. Dun & Company, a credit-rating firm that was one of the predecessors of the global business data company Dun & Bradstreet.7

R.G. Dun sponsored a team in the local Main Line League, and by June 1918 the 20-year-old Grevell was being hailed as “the premier moundsman of the Commercial Raters.” In one start, he held a team from the Autocar Club to three hits and one run, moving R.G. Dun into first place. He was praised for his “hook ball and speed.”8 In another he lost a 1-0 heartbreaker with two outs in the 11th inning, striking out 13 hitters and walking three while yielding only four hits. The game’s only run was set up by a fluke double that dropped between two outfielders.9

By September Grevell had pitched R.G. Dun into the league championship playoffs against Autocar. He won the first game with a five-hit shutout, striking out eight while walking only one. The “speed ball phenom,” as the Inquirer called him, “once more demonstrated that he is without a doubt the ‘pitching ace’ of the Main Line this season.”10 Later that month he won the clinching game of the series, throwing another three-hitter in a 2-1 pitchers’ duel.11

As if those successes weren’t enough, Grevell was simultaneously pitching that summer for a team in the New Jersey Shore resort community of Wildwood. Like R.G. Dun, the Wildwood team won the championship of its league. In a team photo, Grevell stood proudly at the center.12

Grevell’s rise in Philadelphia semipro circles coincided with a rough stretch in the fortunes of the major-league Philadelphia Athletics. Between 1910 and 1914, manager and co-owner Connie Mack’s team won four American League pennants and three World Series. But after the team’s upset loss to the Boston Braves in the 1914 Series, Mack sold off some of his stars, while others jumped to the rival Federal League. Mack’s decimated team sank immediately to the AL cellar, losing 109, 117, 98, and 76 games from 1915 to 1918.13 The Athletics were not truly competitive again until 1925, when they won 88 games and finished in second place.

Annual attendance at Athletics games, as high as 674,915 in 1909, dropped below 200,000 in three of the four years between 1915 and 1918.14 Working on a limited budget, Mack attempted to rebuild by bringing in a slew of players fresh out of college – a method that did not yield winning results.15

Semipro players offered another source of potential talent, with the added incentive that players who had already made local or regional names for themselves might draw a few more fans into Shibe Park. Grevell signed with the Athletics in February 1919.16 Other semipros signed by Mack who played for the A’s during this fallow period included Main Line League catcher Johnny Berger; pitcher Bob Pepper of DuBois, Pennsylvania; pitcher Tom Knowlson of Ridgway, Pennsylvania; pitcher Chick Holmes of Charleston, New Jersey; pitcher Charlie Eckert of Philadelphia; pitcher Bill Knowlton of Philadelphia; and pinch-hitter Teddy Kearns of Trenton, New Jersey.17

Right-hander Grevell and left-hander Dan Gullman were cited in the spring of 1919 as two local semipro stars bidding for spots on Mack’s pitching staff.18 A pair of news items from April 13, 10 days before the start of the season, show how their paths diverged. Gullman, who never reached the majors, started for the Athletics’ reserves against a Main Line League team while Grevell pitched for the Athletics’ starters against the University of Pennsylvania. Grevell pitched five shutout innings, surrendering two hits, striking out five, and walking none. The Inquirer described him as “the right hand local boy who shows every indication of becoming a big league star in the near future.”19 (Grevell’s listed height and weight, incidentally, were 5-feet-11 and 170 pounds.)20

Just before the start of the season, Grevell also earned positive notice for his work in a series of games against the crosstown rival Philadelphia Phillies of the National League.21 Just as Grevell was poised to break into the majors, he suffered a personal loss: His father died on April 28 at the Philadelphia home of one of Bill’s sisters.22

The Athletics had played 11 games with a 3-8 record when Mack called on Grevell for the first time, bringing him in on May 14 to pitch the sixth inning of a game the A’s were losing, 4-0, to the St. Louis Browns. Grevell walked three batters and threw a wild pitch, though he was credited with an out when the Browns’ Josh Billings was thrown out trying to move to second on the wild pitch. Grevell was replaced by Mule Watson, who allowed all three inherited runners to score, temporarily saddling Grevell with an ERA of 54.00. The Athletics lost 11-0.

This debut set the tone for Grevell’s future appearances. In 12 major-league innings, he walked 18 hitters, hit another, and threw one wild pitch, while striking out only three. Nothing in Grevell’s semipro performances hinted at this loss of control in the majors. Contemporary news accounts did not attempt to explain his wildness, so we can only guess where Grevell’s control went. Perhaps he was throwing too hard in an attempt to impress, maybe AL umpires called a tighter and more disciplined strike zone than their Main Line League peers – or quite simply, he may have been nervous.

On June 3, with the A’s a rancid 6-22, Mack gave Grevell a start against the New York Yankees. At 5⅔ innings, it was the longest stint of his career. Four innings in, he was in position to win with a 3-2 lead, but he couldn’t hold it, surrendering a pair of runs in the fifth. He was pulled in the sixth after a double and two walks loaded the bases; this time, reliever Bob Geary bailed him out, getting Roger Peckinpaugh to foul out to left. Philadelphia held an 8-5 lead after seven innings but coughed it up and lost 10-9, leading to harsh commentary from Inquirer sportswriter “Jim Nasium”: “When you can’t win with nine runs the answer isn’t very far ahead. Our solution would be to take the pitching that requires more than that number of runs to win with and do it all up in a nice large parcel and bury it so all-fired deep in the bushes that it could never find its way out again.”23

Grevell’s final three appearances came the following month. On July 1 he started against the Boston Red Sox, being pulled with one out in the third inning after walking the bases loaded.24 On July 10 he pitched two mop-up innings against the Chicago White Sox, surrendering two runs in a game Philadelphia lost 9-2.

Grevell closed his major-league career on a low note in the second game of a doubleheader in Washington on July 26. Once again assigned to pitch the final two innings of a game the Athletics were losing, Grevell surrendered six hits, four walks, and nine runs, all earned, as Washington pulled away to a 14-2 romp on a steamy day. The Senators sent 12 men to the plate in the eight-run eighth inning. “It was plain murder,” the Inquirer summarized, while a Washington newspaper wrote: “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.”25

The final line for Grevell’s five-game career included no wins or losses and a 14.25 ERA. At the plate he was hitless in five at-bats, including four strikeouts. In the field, he committed no errors and was credited with six assists. The Athletics went 36-104 for the season, finishing 52 games behind the first-place White Sox.

Available sources do not make specific mention of Grevell’s departure from the majors. He simply disappears from sports reports after July 26,26 only to show up pitching semipro ball late in the season. In September and October, he helped pitch another Main Line League team, J.&J. Dobson, to the league championship. On October 4 he was pitching as if he’d never left the semipro ranks, working 13 innings of five-hit shutout ball as J.&J. Dobson beat a team from Souderton, Pennsylvania.27

Grevell went to spring training with the Athletics in 1920 but pitched unevenly.28 He was shipped to Jersey City in the Double-A International League, one level below the majors.29 There he slumped to a 4-14 record30 and a 4.37 ERA in 19 games, walking 78 in 136 innings while striking out 55. It was later reported that Grevell had opposed the transfer.31 Sent to Moline in the Class B Illinois-Indiana-Iowa (Three-I) League, Grevell posted a 1-2 record in five games. Several stories about his Moline appearances commented on both his excellent curveball and his control problems.32 He was one of 11 ballplayers called to join the Athletics in September but did not play.33

Grevell gave pro ball a final try in 1921, being sent to the Suffolk (Virginia) Wildcats of the Class B Virginia League.34 He seems to have pitched effectively: In one start he yielded just three hits and a run over six innings, walking none, in a game that ended 1-1 because of darkness.35 By the start of June, though, the Suffolk team had taken to using him in the outfield.36 This might not have sat well with Grevell; by June 9 he was reported to be back on the semipro scene in Philadelphia.37

After that, he continued to turn up with a rotating series of Pennsylvania and New Jersey teams with names like Nativity, Spring City, the South Philadelphias, Bridesburg, Monmouth, and Ocean City.38 (Unlike the R.G. Dun team, these teams appear to have been affiliated with local athletic clubs, not employers.) In some of these games, he pitched well. In others he succumbed to wildness and was less effective. Starting for the South Philadelphias against Chester in August 1922, Grevell was yanked in the second inning after giving up four runs on four walks and two hits. “Umpire Smith heaved a sigh of relief as Grevell left the box,” one scribe wrote. “He had been side-stepping low balls all the time the ex-Mackman was serving them up, and he saw a chance to rest his feet.”39

A sportswriter in Grevell’s old stamping grounds of Wildwood, New Jersey, noted that the pitcher – once gifted with one of the best “drop balls” he’d ever seen – had faded from the scene and seemed to have lost his way. The author voiced his support for a potential rebound: “Perhaps he will come back and make good after all. Anyway, I’m for him.”40

Grevell, unfortunately, was not headed for a comeback. He is not mentioned in Philadelphia or New Jersey sports news in spring 1923; it’s possible that, by the time the baseball season started, he was already too ill to pitch.41 He was taken to a sanitarium for tuberculosis patients near Philadelphia in mid-June and died there of pneumonia on June 21.42 One of his former teams, Nativity, had planned a benefit game for him to be played June 30.43

Grevell, who never married,44 was buried in Williamstown Methodist Cemetery in his New Jersey hometown following services there.45

Acknowledgments

This story was reviewed by Rory Costello and Len Levin and checked for accuracy by SABR’s fact-checking team.

Sources and photo credit

In addition to the sources credited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for background information on players, teams, and seasons.

Photo from the Philadelphia Inquirer, September 27, 1918: 14.

Notes

1 Familysearch.org page on William Grevell Jr., accessed May 2024, https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/MNHD-6PN; “Grevell” (death notice), Philadelphia Inquirer, April 28, 1900: 15.

2 1900 US Census listing (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M3Q5-CKZ) and 1910 US Census listing (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MGQT-FQP) for William Grevell Sr. and Jr. and 1905 New Jersey state census listing (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KM4B-SL6) for “Greville” family, accessed via Familysearch.org in May 2024. The author found no clear indication of how the Grevell family pronounced its name, but the “Greville” misspelling may provide a clue.

3 1915 New Jersey state census listings for William Grevell Sr. (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV9Q-DD4K), and William Grevell Jr. (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV9Q-DDJ8) accessed via Familysearch.org in May 2024.

4 “Glassboro High Graduates,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 8, 1916: 3.

5 “Pitman Beats Gerard,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 9, 1916: Sports: 3. Another article on the same page spotlights four college players Connie Mack had recruited as part of the same prolonged rebuild that later included Grevell’s stint with the Athletics.

6 Box score and brief description of West End vs. Clayton game, Philadelphia Inquirer, September 17, 1916: Sports: 2.

7 World War I draft registration card for William J. Grevell Jr., accessed via Familysearch.org in May 2024, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-G1V9-BZH?i=1153&cc=1968530&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AK6KQ-25G; “Our History,” Dun & Bradstreet corporate website, accessed May 2024, https://www.dnb.com/about-us/company/history.html. Incidentally, the author of this biography found no indication that Bill Grevell served in the military during World War I; numerous box scores and game reports place him in Philadelphia and New Jersey throughout the summer and fall of 1918.

8 “Dun & Co. Jumps Into First Place,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 16, 1918: 16.

9 “Kohler Now in Hall of Fame,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 11, 1918: 18.

10 “Dun Gets First Leg on Pennant,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 8, 1918: 18.

11 “Dun & Co. Lands Main Line Title,” Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, September 23, 1918: 14.

12 “Wildwood Club Had Successful Year on Diamond,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 27, 1918: 14; Howe Evers, “Athletically Speaking,” Wildwood (New Jersey) Five Mile Beach Journal, July 29, 1921: 6, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90063041/1921-07-29/ed-1/seq-6/. A box score of Grevell pitching a two-hit shutout for the Wildwood team can be seen in “Roxborough Blanked,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 23, 1918: 12.

13 The 1918 season was shortened by World War I, as baseball was deemed nonessential and athletes were given a “work or fight” order. The Athletics played only 130 games, rather than the then-standard 154. Had they maintained their .406 winning percentage for a full 154-game season, the 1918 team would have lost about 91 games.

14 The Athletics drew 146,223 fans in 1915; 184,471 in 1916; 221,432 in 1917; and 177,926 in the shortened 1918 season. They had the AL’s lowest attendance in 1915 and its second-lowest in 1916 and 1918.

15 The author of this biography previously summarized Mack’s college recruiting efforts, including a list of college players who joined the Athletics, in the biography of one of those players, former University of Maine infielder Harland Rowe. Doug Skipper’s SABR Biography Project article on Mack is also worth reading for more information on the decline of the Athletics: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/connie-mack/.

16 “Bill Grevel [sic] Signs with A’s,” Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, February 10, 1919: 14.

17 Berger: Edwin J. Pollock, “Fine Weather for Mackmen,” Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, March 25, 1919: 17; Pepper: “Macks Play Indians in Cleveland Today,” Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, July 23, 1915: 10;  Knowlson: “Strong Array of Recruits Now With Athletics,” Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, July 27, 1915: 11; Holmes: “Disston Moves Up to Second Place,” Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, August 4, 1919: 16; Eckert: Jim Nasium, “Smith Ruined Eckert’s Debut,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 19, 1919: 14; Knowlton: Jim Nasium, “Baldwin Flinger Chased by Senators,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 4, 1920: 14; Kearns: “Close Race in Delaware River League,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 24, 1919: 19. The author of this story found other short-tenured Athletics from this period who were described as “local” players, but was unable to firmly establish that they’d played for area semipro teams.

18 “Striving for Regular Job on Athletics’ Pitching Staff,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 26, 1919: 14.

19 “Penn Failed to Get a Run Over” and “Mack’s Second String Men Beat Dobson,” both Philadelphia Inquirer, April 13, 1919: 21.

20 Baseball-Reference and Retrosheet listed Grevell with this height and weight in May 2024. His Sporting News contract card presents him as slimmer: 5-feet-11 and 155 pounds. https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll3/id/79091/rec/1.

21 Jim Nasium, “Macks Win Despite Crippled Line Up,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 20, 1919: 20; Jim Nasium, “Macks Go Runless as Phils Triumph,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 22, 1919: 16.

22 “Grevell” (death listing), Philadelphia Daily Evening Ledger, April 30, 1919: 24. On his draft card, cited above, Bill Grevell listed his father as his closest relative.

23 Jim Nasium, “Macks Let Yankees Take It Right Away,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 4, 1919: 14. “Jim Nasium,” a play on the word “gymnasium,” was the pen name of sportswriter Edgar Wolfe.

24 In Babe Ruth’s only at-bat against Grevell, Ruth singled but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double.

25 “Macks and Senators Divide Twin Bill,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 27, 1919: 20; “Macks Divide with Griffmen,” Washington Herald, July 27, 1919: 10.

26 As of May 2024, Baseball-Reference had no record of Grevell making any minor-league appearances in 1919, nor did searches of Newspapers.com, The Sporting News, and other archives turn up any print references to his appearing for any minor-league teams.

27 “Chambers to Oppose Grevell in Big Game,” Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, September 27, 1919: 17; “Dobson Gets Edge on Title Series,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 5, 1919: 21.

28 For instance, Grevell pitched against the Athletics on March 1, being loaned for the day to a local team from Lake Charles, Louisiana, and was pounded for eight runs. “Younger Mackmen Trip Lake Charles,” Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, March 1, 1920: 15.

29 “Toronto Here To-morrow to Start Series with Jersey City,” Hudson Observer (Jersey City, New Jersey), April 28, 1920: 12.

30 Baseball-Reference assigned Grevell a 4-14 record as of May 2024. His record with Jersey City is listed as 4-11 in “Final Records of the New International League for 1920,” Baltimore Sun, September 26, 1920: 18.

31 The Sporting News, “Caught on the Fly,”

32 “Rally in Ninth Gives Plowmen Win over Evas,” Moline (Illinois) Daily Dispatch, August 9, 1920: 12; “Plows Win First from Rox, 6 to 3; Game Protested,” Moline Daily Dispatch, August 20, 1920: 18.

33 Grevell was one of four players named in the article who did not appear in a regular-season game for the 1920 Athletics. “Many Macks to Return,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 12, 1920: 17.

34 “Pitcher Grevell Reports for Duty,” Norfolk (Virginia) Ledger-Dispatch, May 17, 1921: 14. As of May 2024, Baseball-Reference did not have a statistical record of Grevell’s brief time with the Suffolk team.

35 “Bugs Win One and Tie Second,” Norfolk (Virginia) Virginian-Pilot and Norfolk Landmark, May 26, 1921: 12.

36 “Newport News Builders Defeat Suffolk in 13th,” Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch, June 1, 1921: 8; “Suffolk Captures Game from Richmond Colts,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 3, 1921: 8.

37 “Tesreau’s Bears Are Here Today,” Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, June 9, 1921: 19.

38 A few citations: “Tesreau’s Bears Are Here Today”; “Triple Play Stars Nativity Victory,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 24, 1922: 18; “Nativity Cops Game from Spring City,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 15, 1922: 6; “South Phils Bow to Chester, 13-11,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 22, 1922: 16; “Monmouth Club Secures Gravell [sic],” Camden (New Jersey) Courier-Post, September 17, 1921: 15; “Ocean City Scores Double Victory,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 5, 1922: 20.

39 “Chester Begs Pardon of South Phil Fans; Trims Rudolphians,” Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, August 22, 1922: 18.

40 Evers, “Athletically Speaking.”

41 In addition to Newspapers.com, the author searched the digitized newspapers made available at the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America website, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/.

42 Grevell’s Pennsylvania certification of death, accessed in May 2024 via Thedeadballera.com, does not give a cause of death. The Washington Evening Star listed pneumonia as the cause in “Sidelights on Game,” June 23, 1922: 22, and The Sporting News reported the same in “Grevell, Former Athletic, Dies,” June 28, 1923: 1. (His Sporting News contract card, cited above, also lists pneumonia as his cause of death, but lists an incorrect date of June 20.) The death certification lists the site of Grevell’s passing as the Home for Consumptives in Springfield Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. “Consumption” is an obsolete term for tuberculosis.

43 “Bill Grevell, Famous Athletic Hurler, Dead,” Camden (New Jersey) Daily Courier, June 23, 1923: 19.

44 Bill Grevell certification of death, cited above.

45 Findagrave.com entry for Bill Grevell, accessed May 2024. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/46960662/william-joseph-grevell; “Grevell” (death listing), Philadelphia Inquirer, June 24, 1923: 18.