A Gray day in baseball

Pete Gray with the St. Louis Browns in 1945

Pete Gray, the one-armed outfielder and pride of Nanticoke, Pa., makes his major league debut 80 years ago today during the St. Louis Browns’ 7-1 victory over Detroit before a Tuesday afternoon crowd of 4,167 at Sportsman's Park.

Gray – batting second and playing left field for the Browns – goes hitless with a groundout, strikeout and flyout in his first three at-bats off future Hall of Famer Hal Newhouser before picking up an infield single in the seventh inning off reliever Les Mueller.

The 30-year-old Gray finishes the 1945 season with 50 more hits for a .218 batting average over 77 games.

That becomes Gray’s one and only season in the majors as the opportunity that arises with so many regular major leaguers in the military service during World War II ends when the war ends late in the 1945 season.

Pete Gray in 1944 at Memphis

Lest you believe Gray is a fluke, consider this: His .333 batting average the summer before in 1944 is among the best in the Southern Association.

Gray, though, earns a reputation for being cantankerous and often keeping to himself – perceptions that follow him for the rest of his life.

“He was kind of a loner,” Don Gutteridge, the Browns’ second baseman in 1945 tells the Chicago Tribune in 1989.

“He wanted to be known as a ballplayer, not a one-armed ballplayer.,” Gutteridge says. “He didn’t want to be exploited because he had one arm.”

Gray’s stay in the majors, though, ends in 1946 as the major leaguers serving in the military return from overseas.

Gray was “ornery as hell,” Browns infielder Ellis Clary later tells the Chicago Tribune.

“The first time you met him you felt sorry for him,” Clary says, “but two hours later, you hated his guts. He was all right, I guess, but he was a strange guy. He didn’t want anyone feeling sorry for him.”

Back in the minors in 1946, Gray hits .250 in 48 games for the Browns’ top farm team in Toledo.

Gray then sits out the 1947 season, reportedly suspended after a squabble over a new contract.

He spends that summer back home in Nanticoke, playing in local leagues under an alias before returning in 1948 with Elmira in the then-Class A Eastern League.

After hitting .290 in 82 games for Elmira, Gray – by then closing in on his 34th birthday – drifts in 1949 to Class AA Dallas, where he mostly is a pinch-hitter in 45 games there with an overall batting average of just .214.

Gray then retires from pro baseball and spends another four seasons playing for barnstorming teams before finally retiring in 1953.

He spends the rest of his life in Nanticoke, dying there in 2002 at the age of 87.