One-Armed Major Leaguer Pete Gray Dies at 87

Associated Press via Yahoo! Sports ^ | 30 June 2002 | Unknown

[BluesDuke]

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One-armed major-leaguer Pete Gray dies at 87

June 30, 2002

NANTICOKE, Pa. (AP) -- Pete Gray, who became a major league ballplayer despite losing his right arm in a childhood accident, died Sunday. He was 87.

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Gray was born with the name Peter Wyshner, but took the name Gray when he entered organized baseball. He played one season in the majors, hitting .218 in 77 games with the St. Louis Browns in 1945.

At the time Gray played, disabled athletes were often regarded as sideshow oddities. Frequently, there were taunts and insults.

``If they insulted me, I didn't pay attention,'' Gray told The Citizens' Voice of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., in a 1995 interview. ``I mostly kept to myself. That's why I got the reputation of being tough to get along with. But, I've mellowed.''

Gray was right-handed until he lost his right arm when he slipped while riding on the running board of a truck and the arm got caught in one of the wheels. He learned to use his left hand and continued to play baseball.

A cobbler made a custom glove for him, with most of the padding removed so he could hold it loosely on his fingertips. That allowed him to discard the glove quickly to field a softly hit ball with his bare hand or slide his hand fully into the fingers to catch a fly ball or field a line drive.

The glove is now in the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, N.Y.

In his season with the Browns, he had 51 hits, including six doubles and two triples. He had 13 RBIs and struck out just 11 times.

Gray was an accomplished bunter. In order to bunt, he would plant the knob of the bat against his side. Then he would slide his hand about a third of the way up the shaft.

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updated at Sun Jun 30 20:00:23 2002 PT

[BluesDuke]

Peter Golenbock, in his charming book The Spirit of St. Louis, a history of St. Louis baseball, has a very nicely told section devoted to Pete Gray - who had actually been named the American Association's most valuable player one season, if I'm not mistaken, while he played for the minor league Memphis Chicks.

Whatever the circumstances which brought them there, major league baseball has been enriched by the presence of such as Pete Gray. He wanted to earn his way to the Show...and he did. That he did anything at all his season in the Show says something ennobling about us. (I was amazed to learn, for that matter, that his trick for fielding and throwing would in due course be used in a variation by California Angels pitcher Jim Abbott, he of the missing right hand - I had seen Abbott's little technique of flipping the ball up from his glove and tucking it under his arm as he caught the ball with his pitching hand and then threw to a fielder. I hadn't realised that was Gray's technique, too.)

Some years ago, Keith Carradine portrayed Gray in a television film about the player. I'm given to understand that Carradine's edgy portrait of Gray was a little more edgy than even Gray himself, who had some reason to be bitter, had actually been. Gray seems to have asked nothing more than that he be accepted as he was, and not patronised or freakified. Not an unreasonable request, that. Nowadays, they'd make a political cause out of him, and that would have been the one thing he couldn't have abided.

Godspeed, Pete Gray.

[Cagey]

[BluesDuke]

Historic BUMP

[Cagey]

Excellent commentary, BD. No matter what anyone says, Baseball truly is America's game. It's woven with tens of thousands of stories like this one. Thanks for posting it.

[BluesDuke]

Some other disabled players...

Three-Finger Brown - Nickname said it all. Hall of Famer, mostly for the Chicago Cubs.

Lew Brissie - Leg blown to bits in World War II (he was the only survivor of his infantry unit) and surgically reconstructed, though slightly shorter than his good leg. Tried out for Philadelphia Athletics (he'd met Connie Mack before the war and Mack had been impressed with his arm, inviting him for a postwar tryout) and actually made the team. Went 16-11 in his rookie season (and also batted .267, remarkable for a pitcher); pitched for the A's and the Cleveland Indians for seven seasons, later becoming an effective enough middle reliever (we'd call him that today). Most memorable for taking a screaming liner from Ted Williams off his rebuilt leg, going down in a heap on the mound, with both teams surrounding him to see if he could make it back up, and barking at Williams, "Goddammit, Ted, why didn't you hit the ball to right field like you're supposed to do?"

Monty Stratton - Chicago White Sox pitcher lost his leg in a hunting accident. Pitched with an artificial leg in an exhibition game to prove he could do it; the exhibition was put on to raise money for his medical care. The White Sox signed him to a minor league contract after he'd become a coach for awhile, and he actually went 18-8 pitching in the Texas League. Yes, that was James Stewart you saw playing him in The Monty Stratton Story (June Allyson played his wife).

[BluesDuke]

We try every way we can think of to kill this game, but for some reason nothing nobody does never hurts it. - Sparky Anderson.

[goodieD]

I always loved watching Jim Abbott, this guy could do more with one hand than I could if I had 5.

[Charles Henrickson]

Carlos May - White Sox, early '70s. Had his thumb blown off in a military reserve accident. Came back and was still a pretty good hitter.

[Charles Henrickson]

Dummy Hoy (old-timer) and Curtis Pride (recent): Deaf.

[Charles Henrickson]

Walt "No-Neck" Williams: Just kidding. This White Sox outfielder from the early '70s only looked like he had no neck. :-)

[BluesDuke]

If you're going to be a smart@$$ with Walt Williams, how about Kirk Gibson? He looked like he had hip-length leg braces on his legs, the way he ran out that World Series walkoff homer. (Come to think of it, Mo Vaughn runs that way on healthy legs - the man moves like a dump truck with two flat tires.)

You made some good catches. Don't forget Dummy Taylor, the deaf-mute pitcher whose handicap may (don't quote me on this, but I think it may be so) have prompted his catcher to develop the finger signs for pitches that have long since remained in use.

On the other hand (no pun intended), I remember George Bamberger (a pretty good pitching coach and a guy who was known, pitching in the minors, for throwing what you might call the Staten Island sinker - read: spitter) once saying, after claiming the split-fingered fastball had such movement as to suggest it was actually a legal spitter: "Suppose I cut off my middle finger? I bet you I'd have one hell of a split-fingered fastball."