1942-1944

Bill Conroy was born in Bloomington, Illinois on February 26, 1915. He attended Trinity High School, and a year and a half at Illinois Wesleyan University. He’d never played baseball at all until he was a sophomore in high school, but played basketball and football.

He was actually given the job of catching batting practice for the American League All-Stars in the very first All-Star Game after a tryout.

He spent the 1933 and 1934 seasons traveling with the Philadelphia Athletics as a batting practice catcher and signed with the team for 1935 and joined them for spring training in Fort Myers. He was placed with Class-C Portsmouth (Ohio).

Still just 20 years old, he was invited to join the A's in September, and caught in one game, in Washington at Griffith Stadium in September. In 1936 he again appeared in one game, but this time it was at the start of the season, in April, when the A’s hosted the New York Yankees at Shibe Park. In May he was optioned to Houston in the Texas League (Class A1).

Bill was with the big-league club for 1937, and even caught their exhibition games in Mexico City. But just before the regular season began, Connie Mack decided he didn’t need to carry three catchers, so Bill was optioned to Williamsport. He was called up in time to get into a game in June. Then in November he was one of a reported five players who were sent to the Pacific Coast League’s Oakland Oaks, where he played until 1941,

In the September 1941, major-league draft, the Boston Red Sox selected Bill. At the very end of February, the Sox got the news that their catcher Frankie Pytlak, had been classified 1-A in the draft, and could be selected at any time and enlisted in the Navy in April. This gave Bill an opening and he showed pretty well in spring training, but he only hit for a .200 average for the season.

Roy Partee took over as first-string catcher in 1943. Bill appeared in 39 games, every one of which came in either a blowout or a loss, and hit .180. In 1944 he appeared in 19 games, driving in only four runs while batting .213.

In January, Bill was called to military service and taken into the Navy at San Diego. After the war, he spent the ’46 season back in the Pacific Coast League with Sacramento. In 1947 and 1948, he played in the American Association, was traded to the Columbus Red Birds and given his unconditional release in October. 

He worked as a supervisor of the driver salesmen of the Howatt Beverage Company in Alameda, California, and later as a technician for the Alameda County School District. 

Bill Conroy died of congestive heart failure from complications associated with diabetes, on November 13, 1997, at age 82, in Citrus Heights, California.