William Denton "Dolly" Gray (December 4, 1878 – April 4, 1956) was a left-handed professional baseball pitcher who played from 1909 to 1911 for the Washington Senators. One source says he was born in

Ishpeming, Michigan Ishpeming ( ) is a city in Marquette County in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 6,470 at the 2010 census, less than it was in the 1950s and 1960s when the iron ore mines employed more workers. A statue of a ...

Robert Groom-Dolly Gray, Washington Nationals, baseball card portrait LCCN2008678524 (cropped)

Before the big leagues

Dolly Gray began his professional career during or before the 1902 season. In 1902, he pitched for the

Los Angeles Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team h ...

of the old California League. Following the 1902 season, the

Angels In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles incl ...

joined to the Pacific Coast League, and in 1903 they had one of the greatest seasons in minor league baseball history, with 133 wins against 78 losses. Gray went 23–20 with a 3.55 ERA that season. In 1904, Gray went 24–26, in 1905, he went 30–16, in 1906, he went 7–2 (during the 1906 season, Gray and many other West Coast players left to play on the East Coast after the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake), in 1907 he went 32–14 and in 1908 he went 26–11. He played in one game in 1909, winning it. In 1905 and 1907, he led the league in winning percentage. For his success in the minors, Gray is a member of the

Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

Major league baseball

A 30-year-old rookie, Gray made his major league debut on April 13, 1909. He made 36 appearances in his rookie season, starting 26 of those games. He we 5–19 with 19 complete games. That year, he led the league in earned runs allowed (87), was third in losses, seventh in walks allowed (77) and eighth in appearances. Gray gave up

Tris Speaker Tristram Edgar Speaker (April 4, 1888 – December 8, 1958), nicknamed "the Gray Eagle", was an American professional baseball player. Considered one of the greatest players in the history of Major League Baseball (MLB), he compiled a career ba ...

's first big league home run on May 3 of that year, and on August 28 of that year, he set the major league record for most walks allowed in an inning, when he walked eight batters in the second inning. He also set the record for most consecutive walks in an inning, when he walked seven batters in a row. In total, Gray allowed 11 walks that game, giving up six runs and earning the loss in the process. Had he had better control, he may very well have won the game – he threw a one-hitter. In 1910, Gray went 8–19 with a 2.63 ERA. He was second in the league in losses that year, fifth in wild pitches (9), ninth in earned runs allowed (67) and ninth in hit batsmen (10). On April 12, 1911, Gray threw the very first pitch in

Griffith Stadium Griffith Stadium stood in Washington, D.C., from 1911 to 1965, between Georgia Avenue and 5th Street (left field), and between W Street and Florida Avenue NW. The site was once home to a wooden baseball park. Built in 1891, it was called Boundar ...

history. He also won the game that day, beating opposing pitcher

Smoky Joe Wood Howard Ellsworth "Smoky Joe" Wood (October 25, 1889 – July 27, 1985) was an American professional baseball player for 14 years. He played for the Boston Red Sox from 1908 to 1915, where he was primarily a pitcher, and for the Cleveland Indi ...

. That would be one of only two wins for Gray in 1912 – overall that season, he went 2–13 with a 5.06 ERA. His ten wild pitches that season were fourth most in the league, and his ten games finished were eighth most in the league. Gray played in his final major league game on September 29, 1911. Gray went 15–51 with a 3.52 ERA in his three-year career. His .227 winning percentage is one of the worst all-time among pitchers with at least 50 career decisions. As a batter, Gray was pretty solid for a pitcher – he hit .202 in 218 big league at bats. Statistically, Gray is most similar to

Blondie Purcell William Aloysius "Blondie" Purcell (born March 16, 1854) was an American Major League Baseball player born in Paterson, New Jersey. He played for nine different major league teams from 1879 to 1890. Purcell played mainly as an outfielder, and he ...

, according to the Similarity Scores at Baseball-Reference.com.

Post-big league career

Following his major league career, Gray pitched in the Pacific Coast league from 1912 to 1913, retiring after the 1913 season. He played for the

Vernon Tigers The Vernon Tigers were a Minor League Baseball team that represented Vernon, California in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) from 1909 to 1925. The team won back-to-back PCL pennants in 1919 and 1920. The Tigers, together with the Sacramento Solons ...

and Oakland Oaks in that time. Following his death, he was buried in Sutter Cemetery in Sutter, California.''The Baseball Necrology''
/ref> In 2008, Gray was inducted into the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame, along with

Wheezer Dell William George "Wheezer" Dell (June 11, 1886 – August 24, 1966) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher in 1912 and 1915–17. Dell pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals and Brooklyn Robins. He was the first Nevada-born player in major leag ...

Casey Stengel Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel (; July 30, 1890 – September 29, 1975) was an American Major League Baseball right fielder and manager, best known as the manager of the championship New York Yankees of the 1950s and later, the expansion New Y ...

and Lee Susman.

The nickname

Gray got his nickname Dolly from the 19th century song Nellie Gray, composed by

Benjamin Hanby Benjamin Russell Hanby (July 22, 1833 – March 16, 1867), also given as Benjamin Russel Hanby, was an American composer, educator, pastor, and abolitionist who wrote approximately 80 songs. The most famous are "Darling Nelly Gray" and the ...

. One line in the song goes ''darling Nellie Gray, they have taken you away''. His teammates mangled and distorted it ''darling'' and it became "Dolly." Another source says his nickname came from the song "

Goodbye, Dolly Gray "Goodbye, Dolly Gray" is a music hall song, with lyrics by American Will D. Cobb and music by American Paul Barnes, first published in 1897 by the Morse Music Publishing Company ( Theodore F. Morse). The song was the publishers' first hit. His ...

Notes

References

Dolly Gray
- Baseballbiography.com

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Dolly Major League Baseball pitchers Washington Senators (1901–1960) players Los Angeles Angels (minor league) players Vernon Tigers players Venice Tigers players Oakland Oaks (baseball) players Baseball players from Michigan People from Houghton, Michigan 1878 births 1956 deaths