THE ONE-ARMED WONDER

Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The daily newsletter that loves baseball as much as Donnie Baseball loved his mullet in ‘91.

Let’s dive in.

Today’s story is about a one-armed outfielder who got a chance in the big leagues.

About a week or so ago, we covered the debut of Joe Nuxhall, a 15-year-old kid who was brought up by the Reds in ‘44.

During WWII, ballplayers were in short supply since thousands had gone to help in the war effort overseas.

Baseball was down bad back in those days, but there was a few bright spots.

The “market conditions” for talent during this period opened up the door for a lot of guys who probably wouldn’t have gotten a chance otherwise, and one of those players was Pete Gray.

At the age of six, Pete had a freak accident and he lost his right arm.

Basically, he was trying to jump onto a produce truck, the driver stopped suddenly, and Pete got his right arm caught in the spokes of the wheel.

His arm was a complete loss and had to be amputated above the elbow.

Prior to the accident, Gray had been right-handed, but afterwards he learned how to do everything lefty - including hitting a baseball.

He never used his disability as an excuse, and Pete put in a ton of reps every day with a rock and a stick to develop a quick wrist.

He became a pretty decent hitter - that was definitely the easiest part of the game for him.

Playing the outfield with one arm though, was a bit tougher to learn, and a lot harder to execute.

“I’d catch the ball in my glove and stick it under the stub of my right arm. Then I’d squeeze the ball out of my glove with my arm and it would roll across my chest and drop to my stomach. The ball would drop right into my hand and my small, crooked finger prevented it from bouncing away.”

- Pete Gray

Eventually, he learned how to transfer the ball from his glove to his throwing hand in one swift motion.

Pete always wanted to be a big leaguer, but in ‘32, he got the extra juice he needed to make a real run at it.

That year, he hitchhiked to the World Series, and while attending Game 3, he witnessed the Bambino’s Called Shot.

The unshakable confidence and bravado of the Babe inspired Pete to believe in himself even more and keep pursuing his dream.

In ’34, Gray started playing for his church team, the Lithuanian Knights - who eventually became a semipro team named the Hanover Lits, and they were a lot more legit than you might think.

These guys were drawing 2,000-3,000 fans per game.

Pete played center and hit third in the lineup.

Homie also swung a 38-ounce bat.

After a bit though, Pete got bored with the local leagues- he wanted to level up.

He attended workouts for the Cardinals and the Athletics but was dismissed from both.

Connie Mack said to him “Son, I’ve got men with two arms who can’t play this game.”

He finally got a proper tryout with the Brooklyn Bushwicks, a legendary semipro club.

The owner, Max Rosner, thought Pete’s tryout request was a joke, but Gray gave him $10 and promised that if he was no good, Rosner could keep it.

That day, Gray played in front of 10,000 fans and had two hits, one being a home run - Rosner broke him off $25.

Pete played with the Bushwicks for two seasons and racked up a .350 batting average, then he signed to the Three Rivers club, a team in the Canadian-American League.

His debut couldn’t have been any better.

Down 1-0 in the ninth, Gray came up with the base loaded and clutched up - hitting a single.

As the runners scored, the fans literally threw money on the field.

Pete was worth every dollar too.

Due to the combination of his disability and unbelievable athletic skill, he drew huge crowds at home and on the road.

By ‘44, he was on the radar of almost every big league scout.

At the time, he was playing with Memphis, and the St Louis Browns acquired his contract for $20,000 - the largest sum paid for a Southern League player to that date.

The Browns needed to raise attendance during the ‘45 season, and they were hoping Gray could help them, but after opening the year with just 3 hits in his first 21 AB’s he was benched, and his playing time started to get sporadic.

It was a tough road, even though Gray had streaks of success, he started to get exploited at the big league level.

Pitcher’s knew he had a tougher time hitting breaking balls and low outside pitches, so that’s all he started to get.

Ultimately, his time in the show was short lived.

When the war was over and the rest of the ballplayers came back to the states, there was no room for Pete on the roster, and he got sent down to the minors.

He played for various minor and semipro teams throughout the rest of his career, but never made it back to the MLB.

Still, Gray’s story has served as inspiration to many.

In 1986, there was a TV movie made about his life and almost a decade later, William Kashatus released his book: One-Armed Wonder.

BIG LEAGUE DEALS

From time to time, our friends at Steiner Sports run some pretty good discounts, and some of these deals today are insane.

At the moment, pretty much the entire website is up to 25% off.

Even this autographed photo of Pete Gray is on sale.

Here's a few other things you might like:

And there's a lot more where that came from...

STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

Unlike actual cabbage, Trey does not stink.

We haven’t actually confirmed if he smells like rotten eggs or not, but he got called up the other day and has been fun to watch so far.

Just the other night, he scored the winning run in a walk off against the Astros.

Added bonus: the kid has a great head of hair.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

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