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Pete Gray Remembered: One Witness" Perspective

I saw Pete Gray play for the Memphis Chicks (AA class) WW II years before he went up to the majors. I was always in awe at how a spunky, young man with only one arm could play the outfield and compete at that level. He fielded the ball with the only hand he had, and in a fluid motion, tucked the glove under the stub of his other arm (it only went just below the shoulder), extracted the ball from the glove, and fired the ball in as quickly and accurately as any other outfielder in the Southern Association at the time.


At bat, he was very dependable for a base hit when needed, albeit more likely a single, or maybe a double, than a homerun. And, at Memphis, he was as big a threat on the bases as anyone, leading in steals most of the time and driving the pitchers crazy for fear of another steal.


Yeah, he was a hero to me and many other kids my age who could not help but admire how he dealt with a major handicap. He did what we could only dream of doing, even though we had all our limbs and were physically fit. He was a hero at a time when most of our sports heroes were in military service, defending the freedom to have baseball games and heroes like Pete Gray, and those others playing during those dark war-time days.


He was a great guy and a real inspiration to teen-agers such as myself to work hard to do things we did not think we could do. After all, if Pete could play with one arm, surely we could do more than we had thought we could.



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