Peter Gray (sometimes also given as Peter Grey) was born as Peter J. Wyshner in the mining town of Nanticoke, Pennsylvania on March 6, 1915. He was one of five children born to Lithuanian immigrants Antoinette and Peter Wyshner. Pete\'s father worked in the coal mines of northeastern Pennsylvania to support his family. His older brother was a boxer in the middleweight division and went under the name Whitey Gray (boxed 1921–1928). During his time as a boxer Whitey Gray won 6 matches by KO, lost 5 (3 of which were KO\'s), had 3 newspaper decision wins, and 2 newspaper decision draws. In total, Whitey had 16 bouts with a 37.5% KO rate and boxed a total of 45 rounds.\n', '

Pete was right-handed until he lost his right arm at age seven or eight, when he got into a wagon accident in 1923. The arm had to be amputated above the elbow. He never could remember exactly how it happened and several versions of the story have emerged throughout the years. One of the final versions had it that Peter was sitting on a truck with friends and fell off, and his arm got stuck in the spokes of the old fashioned wheels. After the accident the driver dropped him on his family\'s porch and ran off. Gray\'s enthusiasm for baseball led him to learn to bat and field one-handed, catching the ball in his glove and then quickly removing his glove and transferring the ball to his hand in one motion.\n', '

Seven years after his accident he completed his formal education and began working as a water boy at the Truesdale Colliery at the age of 13. Life would not be easy for him and he would not take being treated with sympathy or being treated differently than others. One story that was told about his frustration with being treated differently was while a young man playing in sandlot. He ran home and crashed into the catcher, which helped knock the baseball out of the catcher\'s glove. This resulted in Peter being safe at home plate. The catcher was very upset and told Peter that he would hit him, if only he had two arms. Peter didn\'t take this well and got into the face of the catcher and told him to go ahead and try.\n', '

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