Baltimore Orioles Pete Gray Has Excellent Double Header

As Major League Baseball continued during World War Two, there were quite a few players that may not have gotten another look otherwise. One of those, Pete Gray, who played on the St. Louis Browns before they became the Baltimore Orioles, had quite the performance on this day in 1945.

Pete Gray was quite the inspirational story. He had lost his arm at the age of six when it needed to be amputated after it was stuck in the spokes of a truck, but still managed to be a professional baseball player, even making his way to the Major Leagues during World War Two. While this was due, in part, to the number of players in the service, Gray performed well in the minors and was deserving of his chance.

Gray spent one year in the majors, playing for the St. Louis Browns during the 1945 season. While is overall numbers, a .218/.259/.261 batting line with eight extra base hits, may not seem impressive, he produced at with only the one arm. Even more impressively, Gray only struck out eleven times in 253 plate appearances that year.

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On this day in 1945, Gray had perhaps the best day of his major league career. Playing a double header against the New York Yankees, Gray had several excellent grabs while having a productive day at the plate. Batting leadoff in both games, Gray was 3-5 with two RBI and a run scored in the first game, and went 1-3 with a walk and a run scored in the second meeting.

It was certainly an impressive performance. While players in major league history had played with various disabilities, such as missing several fingers like Three Finger Brown or, over forty years later, missing a hand like Jim Abbott, few had to deal with the same issues that Gray had.

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He may not have had a chance in the Majors if not for World War Two, but Pete Gray proved that he was a pretty good baseball player in the minors. On this day in 1945, he had what may have been the best game of his brief career.