George Greer Honored By Winston-Salem Warthogs
12/19/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Dec. 19, 2001
The Winston-Salem Warthogs, the Chicago White Sox Class A Carolina League affiliate, are proud to announce that Wake Forest head baseball coach George Greer will be honored with the 8th Annual Bill Slack Community Service Award Monday, January 14 at the Winston-Salem Baseball Charity Hot Stove Banquet and Sports Memorabilia Silent Auction. Past recipients of the award include Bill Slack, Nelson Petree, Alfred Mitchell, Marvin Crater, Mary Garber, Dan Collins, and Bobby L. Cox.
Greer has been head coach at Wake Forest University for 14 seasons, and has led the program to a recent surge in national and regional prominence. By capturing the 2001 Atlantic Coast Conference Championship, the Demon Deacons and Coach Greer earned their third conference title in four years. No other current ACC coach has won three championships. Last year's Deacons won 44 games, the second most in school history, and reached the NCAA tournament for the fourth straight season.
Greer has won at least 30 games in 13 of his 14 seasons with Wake, including 40-plus wins in each of the last four seasons. In 1998 Greer led the Deacons to a 43-23 record and tied the school record with 13 ACC wins. The Deacons had the ACC's leading batter in Jon Palmieri and the conference's winningest pitcher and ACC Tournament MVP in John Hendricks. The Demon Deacons improved in 1999, winning a school record 16 ACC contests and a second place conference finish, the school's best regular season finish since 1979. The Deacs offense was the one of the best in the ACC, batting .329 as a team and scoring a school record 8.7 runs per game. Wake Forest won a school record 47 games and earned a Top-10 national ranking. Three of Greer's players, Palmieri, Mike MacDougal, and Danny Borrell, earned All-America honors and MacDougal became the second first round pick in school history when he was selected 21st by the Kansas City Royals. Andrew Riepe was named the ACC Tournament's MVP. In 2000 the Deacons again passed the 40-win mark, backed by first team All-ACC selection Scott Siemon, freshman All-America Ben Clayton, and Borrell, who was a second round pick of the New York Yankees.
In all, Greer has produced 19 All-Americas in his tenure at Wake Forest. Billy Masse (1988), Warren Sawkiw (1989), John Hendricks (1998), Jon Palmieri (1999), Mike MacDougal (1999), and Cory Sullivan (2001) were first-team choices, while Chris Kowilicik (1992), Brett Wagner (1994), Palmieri (1998), Danny Borrell (1999), and Sullivan (2000) earned second team honors. David Bush was a third team All-America (2001). Dave Lardieri earned Academic All-America honors in 1997. Pat Malloy (1996), Palmieri (1996), MacDougal (1997), Borrell (1998), Corey Slavik (1998), Ben Clayton (2000), Jamie D'Antona (2001), Kyle Sleeth (2001), Adam Hanson (2001), Steve LeFaivre (2001) and Josh Hansen (2001) were freshman All-Americas. In addition, Jamie D'Antona was named Collegiate Baseball's National Freshman of the Year in 2001.
Greer already owns the distinction of being a member of three Halls of Fame. He is a 1999 inductee into the George Whitfield Hall of Fame, a member of the inaugural class of the Westerly (R.I.) High School Hall of Fame in 2000, and the inaugural class of the University of Connecticut-Avery Point Hall of Fame in 2001.
Greer's playing career took off during his days at the University of Connecticut in the late 1960's. He led the Yankee conference in batting with a .403 average his sophomore year, and earned All-America status as both a junior and a senior. Greer captained the USA's gold medal winning team in the 1967 Pan Am Games. After graduating from Connecticut in 1968, Greer was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals and spent five seasons in the minors, concluding as a player-coach at Single-A Modesto in 1973.
Greer will enter his 15th season at the helm of the Demon Deacons this spring. He is the winningest coach in school history with a career record of 515-312-3 with the Deacons, and has compiled an overall record of 621-434-7 throughout 20 years of collegiate coaching. Greer's accomplishments have him ranked fourth all-time in the Atlantic Coast Conference in wins.
The award will be presented at the 8h annual Winston-Sale Charity Hot Stove Banquet on January 14 at the LJVM coliseum. The banquet begins at 6:00 p.m., with the program beginning at 7:30 p.m. The banquet also includes New York Yankee legend Bill "Moose" Skowron, a silent memorabilia auction, and the induction of the 2002 class of the Greater Winston-Salem Professional Baseball Hall of Fame.