William Edgar Reeder (February 20, 1922 – March 12, 2001) was an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

who appeared in one season and 21 games in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

for the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

."Bill Reeder Statistics and History"
''baseball-reference.com''. Retrieved December 14, 2010. A

right-hander In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

who was listed as tall and , he was born in

Dike, Texas Dike is an unincorporated community in Hopkins County, Texas, United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily locate ...

, an unincorporated community in Hopkins County. Reeder's pro career began in 1940 in the Class C

East Texas League The East Texas League was a Texas–based minor league baseball league that existed between 1916 to 1950. The East Texas League played as a Class D level league in 1916 and from 1923 to 1926. The league became a Class C level league from 1936 ...

, and was interrupted by three years of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

service in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

. ''

Baseball in Wartime Gary Bedingfield (born 20 January 1963) is a British historian of baseball. He is a native of England and developed an interest in baseball as a youth. As a catcher, he played in competitive league baseball for over twenty years with the Enfield ...

'' reports that, as a member of the 381st Infantry Regiment of the 96th Infantry Division, Reeder saw combat at the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. With his unit under sustained attack from Japanese Army mortar fire, the pre-war minor league pitcher successfully called upon his arm strength to hurl

hand grenades A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade ge ...

at the enemy emplacement, silencing the mortars. For his action, Reeder was awarded a Silver Star. Reeder resumed his baseball career in 1946 and was acquired by the Cardinals in that autumn's minor league draft. In 1948, he won 19 games for Triple-A

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

, earning him a major-league trial with the 1949 Cardinals. He was a member of the Redbird pitching staff for the full 1949 campaign, splitting two decisions with no saves and a 5.08

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

in 21 appearances, 20 of them in

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

. He permitted 33 hits and 30 bases on balls, with 21 strikeouts, in 33

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

innings pitched. In his lone assignment as a starting pitcher, he went 2 innings against the New York Giants on May 22 at

Sportsman's Park Sportsman's Park was the name of several former Major League Baseball ballpark structures in St. Louis, Missouri. All but one of these were located on the same piece of land, at the northwest corner of Grand Boulevard and Dodier Street, on th ...

, allowing four hits, four bases on balls, and four

earned run In baseball, an earned run is any run that was fully enabled by the offensive team's production in the face of competent play from the defensive team. Conversely, an unearned run is a run that would not have been scored without the aid of an erro ...

s to take the loss, as the Giants defeated the Cardinals, 13–4. One month to the day later, Reeder earned his only

victory against the same team, throwing three

shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

frames in relief against the Giants to enable the Redbirds to erase an 8–4 deficit and come back to win, 11–8. Reeder's professional career ended after the 1952 minor-league season. He died in

Sulphur Springs, Texas Sulphur Springs is a city in and the county seat of Hopkins County, Texas, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 15,449. Sulphur Springs is located along the western edge of Northeast Texas. History Sulphur Springs was named ...

, at 79 on March 12, 2001.

References

External links

Biography
from

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reeder, Bill 1922 births 2001 deaths Alexandria Aces players Baseball players from Texas Houston Buffaloes players Major League Baseball pitchers Marshall Tigers players Meridian Eagles players Monroe White Sox players Sportspeople from Hopkins County, Texas Recipients of the Silver Star Rochester Red Wings players St. Louis Cardinals players San Francisco Seals (baseball) players Shreveport Sports players Tyler East Texans players United States Army personnel of World War II