The otherwise excellent obituary "Pete Gray, Major Leaguer With One Arm, Dies at 87," by Richard Goldstein, published in today's New York Times, repeats the commonly made but erroneous claim that "Gray made his minor league debut in 1942 with Three Rivers of the Canadian-American League, batting .381."
In fact, that was not even Gray's first season with Three Rivers, better known in Quebec as Trois Rivieres.
Gray actually made his professional baseball debut with Trois Rivieres of the Quebec Provincial League in 1938, collecting 17 hits, 7 runs scored, 8 runs batted in, one home run, no doubles, and no triples, in 60 at-bats, for a .283 batting average.
Gray one-handed his single home run out of the park, against Sorel.
His whereabouts in 1939-1941, before Trois Rivieres brought him back in 1942, are not recorded.
Trois Rivieres had switched leagues after the 1940 season, as the Provincial League suspended play until 1944.
Gray's 1938 performance was overlooked by later biographers because the Provincial League, though fully professional from 1935 through 1939, was (along with many other minor leagues of that era) not part of the structure of Organized Baseball, and Provincial League statistics therefore were not included in the Sporting News guides. The Provincial League joined Organized Baseball in 1940, was independent again from 1944 through 1949, rejoined from 1950 through 1955, and had another independent revival from 1958 to 1971.
I discovered Gray's Provincial League record in 1982 and published it in Disorganized Baseball, volume I, the first part of my three-part history of outlaw professional baseball in Quebec and Vermont, 1884-1971.
The 1938 stat line that I discovered was at last added to Gray's complete professional record in The Minor League Register, published by Baseball America in 1994.
» More submissions
Posted July 8, 2002.
BALLPLAYERS | TEAMS | CHRONOLOGY | TODAY | BOOKS | NEWSLETTER | ERRATA | FAQ
