The parking lot down the street was full and the people flowed into the First African Baptist Church, on Clifton Ave. in Sharon Hill, to pay their final respects to one of the city’s greatest baseball players. William “Bill” W. Cash Sr., who played for the Philadelphia Stars of the Negro League, had his funeral services yesterday at the church. Cash died Sept. 12. He was 92 years old.

Cash had a sensational baseball career as a catcher in the National Negro Basketball League. He played for the Stars from 1943 to 1950. With the passing of Cash and Stanley Glenn over the summer, there are just two surviving members of the Stars — Mahlon Duckett and Harold Gould.

“I’m going to really miss him,” Duckett said. “He played years with us. I played with him until 1949. It’s been a tough year for the Stars. We lost him and Stanley Glenn. It’s just Harold and me now. We all played baseball together and were very close.”

Cash, an Overbrook High graduate, played winter ball in Mexico, Venezuela, Dominican Republic and Cuba. He also played for the farm teams in the Chicago White Sox organization and various other cities in the Midwest and Canada.

He received numerous awards and acknowledgements over the years. President Bill Clinton, at the White House in 1994; the City of Philadelphia; the National Baseball League, at Cooperstown, N.Y.; the African-American History Museum of Philadelphia; and the Philadelphia Phillies honored Cash and his fellow Negro League teammates. In 1981, he was inducted into the National Negro League Baseball Museum of History.

The NNLBM has a complete bio of Cash’s baseball career. The man nicknamed “Ready” batted .321 for the Stars in 1943. He also played on two all-star teams.

“Bill was a great player,” Duckett said. “He did a good job for us. I was fortunate to have an opportunity to play with him during my career.”

Contact staff writer Donald Hunt at (215) 893-5719 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .