Jeffrey Edward Gray (born April 10, 1963) is a former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as inclement weat ...

who played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds in 1988 and for the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

in 1990 and 1991. Listed at and , Gray batted and threw right-handed. He was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1984 out of Florida State University.

Playing career

forkball The forkball is a type of pitch in baseball. Related to the split-finger fastball, the forkball is held between the first two fingers and thrown hard, snapping the wrist. The forkball differs from the split-fingered fastball, however, in th ...

specialist, Gray started his professional career in 1984 in the Philadelphia Phillies'

minor-league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in No ...

system, pitching for two years before joining the Cincinnati Reds organization. In 1986, he posted a 14–2 record with a 2.35

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

and 15 saves for the Double-A

Vermont Reds The Vermont Reds are a defunct minor league baseball team. They played in the Eastern League at Centennial Field in Burlington, Vermont from 1984 to 1987. They were affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds. The team won the Eastern League Champions ...

. Gray played in Triple-A for the Nashville Sounds in 1987, compiling a 4.86 ERA in 53 appearances. Returning to Nashville in 1988, he went 8–5 with five saves and a 1.97 in 42 appearances, and was promoted to the Reds during midseason. He recorded a 3.86 ERA in five MLB games and did not have a decision. He returned to Triple-A Nashville for the 1989 season, logging a 3.66 ERA in 44 games. Gray rejoined the Phillies organization before the 1990 season. At the end of spring training, he was told by the Phillies that he had not made the major-league roster; they asked him to go to Double-A

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

. Gray rejected the offer and signed with the

organization. After starting the season in Triple-A with the

Pawtucket Red Sox The Pawtucket Red Sox, known colloquially as the PawSox, were a professional minor league baseball club based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. From 1973 to 2020, the team was a member of the International League and served as the Triple-A affiliate ...

, he was promoted to Boston mid-season a become a significant contributor to the

American League East The American League East is one of Major League Baseball's six divisions. MLB consists of an East, Central, and West division for each of its two 15-team leagues, the American League (AL) and National League (NL). This division was created before ...

division winners. Gray collected nine saves, and seven of them came in seven chances from August 19 through September 10 as he filled in for injured closer

Jeff Reardon Jeffrey James Reardon (born October 1, 1955) is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1979–1994 with the New York Mets, Montreal Expos, Minnesota Twins, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta B ...

. In the postseason, Boston was eliminated by the Oakland Athletics in the American League Championship Series; Gray made two appearances, allowing two runs (one earned) in innings pitched. Gray returned to Boston for the 1991 season, where he made 50 relief appearances through late July. One of the best middle relievers of the league at this time, he had allowed only 39 hits in innings, with a 2.34 ERA. Opposing batters had a .181

batting average against In baseball statistics, batting average against (denoted by BAA or AVG), also known as opponents' batting average (denoted by OBA), is a statistic that measures a pitcher's ability to prevent hits during official at bats. It can alternatively be ...

him (

left-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subject ...

.200,

right-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

.161).

Injury

On July 30, 1991, Gray was preparing to go out onto the field for his daily routine. He never made it, as his right side went numb, and he suffered what was later diagnosed as a kind of stroke, ending what had been a brilliant season. Gray missed the rest of the 1991 and 1992 seasons while recuperating from the stroke. He attempted to return to baseball over the following two seasons, but had lost a lot of velocity on his fastballGrossman, Leigh, ''The Red Sox Fan's Handbook'', 2004, p.146. and was never able to return to the majors. In a three-season major-league career, Gray posted a 4–7 record with a 3.33 ERA and 10 saves in 96 appearances, including a 3.31 strikeout-to-walk ratio (96-to-29) in innings pitched.

Post-playing career

Gray returned to the game as a pitching coach. As of 2003, he was the pitching coach for the

Gulf Coast League The Florida Complex League (FCL) is a rookie-level Minor League Baseball league that operates in Florida, United States. Before 2021, it was known as the Gulf Coast League (GCL). Together with the Arizona Complex League (ACL), it forms the l ...

Reds Reds may refer to: General * Red (political adjective), supporters of Communism or socialism * Reds (January Uprising), a faction of the Polish insurrectionists during the January Uprising in 1863 * USSR (or, to a lesser extent, China) during th ...

. He was also the co-owner of a

Beef O'Brady's Beef O'Brady's (styled as Beef 'O' Brady's Family Sports Restaurant) is an American restaurant franchise, established in 1985 by Jim Mellody in Brandon, Florida, and headquartered in Tampa. History Jim Mellody moved from his native Pennsylvania ...

restaurant in

Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sou ...

, along with former Red Sox teammate

Jody Reed Jody may refer to: *Jody (given name), a list of people with the given name *Jody (singer), French singer, real name Julie Erikssen * "Jody" (song), 1986 single by Jermaine Stewart *"Jody", a 1982 song by America from ''View from the Ground'' *"Jod ...

References

Sources

*''The Scouting Report: 1992'', STATS, INC./John Dewan and Don Zminda editors, HarperPerennial Publishers.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Jeff 1963 births Living people Boston Red Sox players Cincinnati Reds players Major League Baseball pitchers Pawtucket Red Sox players Florida State Seminoles baseball players Baseball players from Richmond, Virginia Nashville Sounds players Vermont Reds players Miami Southridge Senior High School alumni Clearwater Phillies players Florida Complex League Phillies players