A Gray day in St. Louis

Pete Gray in 1945 with the Str. Louis Browns

The remarkable Peter Wyshner – better known as Pete Gray – enjoys one of his best afternoons during his brief time in the major leagues 80 years ago today as he picks up four hits with two runs batted in during the St. Louis Browns’ doubleheader sweep of the New York Yankees at old Sportsman’s Park.

Gray, the one-armed outfielder from Nanticoke, Pa., reaches the major leagues after batting .333 for Memphis in 1944 and leading the Southern Association in hitting while also stealing 68 bases in 129 games.

Batting leadoff and playing left field 80 years ago today, Gray goes 3-for-5 with three singles and two RBIs as the Browns beat the Yankees 10-1 in the first game of the 1945 doubleheader in St. Louis.

Gray, again leading off and playing in left in the second game, is 1-for-3 with a walk in the second game, a 5-2 victory to complete the sweep of the Yankees before a Sunday afternoon crowd of 20,507 in St. Louis.

Gray spends only one, war-time season in the majors – 1945 – and bats .218 in 77 games for the Browns with six doubles and two triples among his 51 hits.

Gray starts the 1945 season well enough with 34 hits in his first 128 at-bats to lift his batting average as high as .266 on July 5 before picking up only 17 hits in his final 106 at-bats to drop his average 48 points to .218.

He then spends parts of another three seasons in the minors with Toledo in the American Association, Elmira of the Eastern League and Dallas of the Texas League before returning home to Nanticoke.

“He was kind of a loner,” Browns second baseman Don Gutteridge later tells the Chicago Tribune.

“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.”