One-armed baseball player featured in childhood book.

A few years ago when former Major League Baseball pitcher Johnny VanderMeer died, I wrote a column on him.

VanderMeer, who pitched in the 1930s and 1940s, authored back-to-back no-hitters in 1938 for the Cincinnati Reds. He is the only pitcher ever to accomplish the feat.

VanderMeer was featured in a book called "Strange But True Baseball Stories" back in 1971.

The book -- a collection of inspirational tales and oddities -- was one of the first books I ever bought.

I purchased it for $1 in a school book club when I was in grade school.

Another story in the collection was the inspirational tale of Pete Gray, the only one-armed athlete to play in the Major Leagues.

Gray, lost his his right arm in a childhood accident, died Sunday at the age of 87 in Nanticoke, Pa.

Gray, born Peter Wyshner, appeared in 77 games for the St. Louis Browns in 1945.

At the time, disabled athletes often were regarded as sideshow oddities, according to a story by the Associated Press.

"If they insulted me, I didn't pay attention," Gray told The Citizens' Voice of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., in 1995. "I mostly kept to myself. That's why I got the reputation of being tough to get along with. But I've mellowed."

Gray was right-handed until he lost his right arm when he slipped while riding on the running board of a truck and the arm got caught in one of the wheels.

He learned to use his left hand and continued to play baseball.

A cobbler made a custom glove for him, with most of the padding removed so he could hold it loosely on his fingertips.

That allowed him to discard the glove quickly to field a softly hit ball with his bare hand or slide his hand fully into the fingers to catch a fly ball or field a line drive.

The glove now is in the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, N.Y.

In his season with the Browns, he had 51 hits, including six doubles and two triples, and a .218 batting average.

He had 13 RBIs and struck out just 11 times.

Gray was an accomplished bunter, doing so by planting the knob of the bat against his side before sliding his hand about a third of the way up the shaft.

Gray was profiled in a made-for-television movie in 1993 called "A Winner Never Quits."

Keith Carradine played Gray.

The movie also starred Dana Delany, famous for playing Nurse McMurphy on "China Beach" and for roles in "Tombstone," "Patty Hearst" and "Fly Away Home."

"A Winner Never Quits" was a bit sappy in places the way those type of movies are, but the most memorable part was him befriending another one-armed youngster who looked up to Gray as a hero and had his own dreams of playing Major League Baseball.

The stories from that magic book keep coming to life. Print isn't dead yet.

There are more stories like Pete Gray's in that book, which is collecting dust in a box at my parents' house.

I plan to find it and re-read it.

To this day, that is the best $1 I've ever spent on a book. (Associated Press contributed to this column.)

John J. Mesh is the sports editor of the McCook (Neb.) Daily Gazette. The book "Strange But True Baseball Stories" was written by legendary sports writer Furman Bisher.

One of the stories highlighted a struggling baseball player who was discovered by a Hollywood talent scout. The player's name was Chuck Connors.

The book also features Eddie Gaedel, the midget who got one at-bat in the Major Leagues.

You can e-mail John at sports@mccookgazette.com.