photograph courtesy national baseball hall of fame and museum
Pete Gray at Russwood Park in the 1940s.
In the 1940s, Memphians jammed Russwood Park to see one of the most remarkable players in the history of baseball. Pete Gray batted and fielded despite a handicap that would have kept most men and women off the field; he had only one arm.
Peter Wyshner was born in 1915 in the little coal-mining town of Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, the son of a Lithuanian immigrant. At age 6, he fell under a farm wagon, and the spokes mangled his right arm, which had to be amputated.
Even so, Gray — who had changed his name as a teenager “to avoid prejudice” — was determined to play baseball. According to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, he got his chance in 1942, by offering $10 to the manager of the semi-pro Brooklyn Bushwicks, telling him, “Keep it if I don’t make good.” Well, he hit a home run in his first game, so he stayed with that team two years before moving up to the minor-league Trois-Rivieres Renards team in the Canadian-American League.
photograph courtesy national baseball hall of fame and museum
Using only one arm, Gray developing a special technique for catching and then throwing the ball. That’s his glove, tossed into the air, at the right.
Gray batted by swinging with just one arm, which wasn’t easy, yet still managed 61 base hits that first year. In the outfield, he developed a method of catching the ball in his glove, tucking the glove under his armpit, rolling the ball across his chest, then throwing it back to the infield.
In 1943, he headed south and played for the Memphis Chicks, where he became quite a sensation here. Actually, an inspiration would be a better word, especially for young kids who had suffered similar misfortunes, as well as veterans injured during the war, and he often visited hospitals to encourage the patients there.
In his Memphis Baseball Encyclopedia, local sports authority John Guinozzo wrote: “While World War II was raging around the globe, one-armed sensation Pete Gray continued to amaze the sports world with his style of play. The lanky outfielder hit .333 and led the league in stolen bases with 58.” As a result, says Guinozzo, Gray was named the Most Valuable Player of the Southern Association.
His achievements here weren’t overlooked by his home state. The Philadelphia Sporting Writers Association named him the “Most Courageous Athlete” of 1943, presenting him with a nice plaque, noting, “With Less, He Achieved More.”
The New York Times observed that “his achievement was viewed as an extraordinary testament to his determination and athleticism, and it resonated beyond the sports world.”
Gray so impressed the scouts that he was called up to the big leagues in 1945, where he joined the St. Louis Browns as a left fielder and played in 77 games. But not all fairy tales have a happy ending. Professional teams are playing for money, so they won’t lob you an easy hit because you happen to be missing an arm. Opposing pitchers soon figured out Gray couldn’t change his swing as quickly as someone with two arms, so they struck him out with curve balls. His batting average dropped to .218, and team owners decided that wasn’t good enough for the majors.
Another factor was the war — or the end of it. During World War II, most able-bodied players joined the armed forces. To keep the game alive, team managers hired people they might normally not consider. When the war ended and better players came home, Gray was sent back to the minor leagues. He played one year for the Toledo Mud Hens, one year for the Elmira (New York) Pioneers, and then one year for the Dallas Eagles before hanging up his cap and glove and returning home to Pennsylvania.
After retirement in 1949, he spent a quiet life in his hometown of Nanticoke, refusing interviews. Gray passed away in 2002 at the age of 87. He’s buried in St. Mary Cemetery in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where the inscription on his gravestone remembers him as “The One-Armed Wonder.”
He hadn’t been completely forgotten after all these years. The New York Times published a long obituary, observing that “his achievement was viewed as an extraordinary testament to his determination and athleticism, and it resonated beyond the sports world.” His glove is on display in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
