The Grays were a professional independent

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

team. They were a

traveling team Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel c ...

which played in the

Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball The Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball, commonly known as the Can-Am League, was a professional, independent baseball league with teams in the Northeast United States and Eastern Canada, founded in 2005 as a reorganization of ...

, an independent league not affiliated with

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), ...

. The team started play in the 2005 season due to an uneven number of teams in the Can-Am League after the disbanding of the

Bangor Lumberjacks The Bangor Lumberjacks were an independent minor league baseball team in the Northeast League that was based in Bangor, Maine. Prior to 2003, the Lumberjacks played in Glens Falls, New York and were known as the Adirondack Lumberjacks. The team ...

, and were disbanded after the season. The Grays rejoined the league along with the

Atlantic City Surf The Atlantic City Surf were a professional minor league baseball team based in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Surf was most recently a member of the Can-Am League, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball. The Surf played its home games ...

for 2007 to maintain an even number of teams, but were disbanded again following the year. A third incarnation, called the Garden State Grays, played during the 2015 season, to maintain schedule balance after a touring team of players from Japan's

Shikoku Island League Plus The is an independent professional baseball league on the island of Shikoku in Japan. (None of the teams in Nippon Professional Baseball are based in Shikoku.) The league currently has four teams, and has its league headquarters in Takamatsu. Th ...

finished their early season tour of the league. The team played both home and away games but, since they were a traveling team with no home base, their "home" games were played in the opposing team's stadium with the Grays batting last.

History

The Grays came into existence in April 2005, when the Can-Am League terminated the membership of the

, who had said they did not have the resources to operate for the season. The team's roster at the time became the roster for the Grays (unlike the year before when the Aces, who replaced the

Allentown Ambassadors The Allentown Ambassadors were an independent baseball team that competed in the Northeast League and the Northern League from 1997 until 2003. They played their home games at Bicentennial Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania. History In 1996, Al ...

, were not able to keep their team intact), and Chris Carminucci was hired as their manager. Playing in a 96-game split season, the Grays were competitive in the first half, finishing with an even 23–23 record and placing 7 games behind the front running

Quebec Capitales Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirteen p ...

. However, the bottom fell out in the second half, and the Grays finished with a 10–36 second-half record, 19 games out of first place. The Grays were disbanded in the 2005–2006 offseason, with part of its roster being absorbed by the expansion

Sussex Skyhawks The Sussex Skyhawks were a professional baseball team that played at Skylands Park in Augusta, New Jersey. The team was part of the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball, an independent minor baseball league also referred to as t ...

. The Grays were one of two teams to fold that offseason (the Elmira Pioneers was the other; Sussex and the Atlantic League's

Nashua Pride The Nashua Pride was a professional baseball team based in Nashua, New Hampshire, in the United States, not affiliated with Major League Baseball. They played home games at Holman Stadium from 1998 through 2008, when they were sold and renamed ...

joined the league in their places). Along with the

, the Grays were part of the Can-Am League's expansion in 2007. The team failed once again to make the playoffs, and after the season the team joined the New Haven County Cutters and

North Shore Spirit The North Shore Spirit was a minor-league baseball team based in Lynn, Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007. The Spirit played in the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball (the "Can-Am League," also known as the Northeast League), an ...

in suspending operations and made their players available in a dispersal draft. The Grays did not return in 2009 despite further contraction of the Can-Am League which left an uneven number of teams in the league. {{Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball League Defunct minor league baseball teams Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball