[1] Gray is best known as the player who hit the first home run in Los Angeles Dodgers' history[2] and the first to homer in their opening game at LA Memorial Coliseum.

[3] Born in Jefferson, Pennsylvania, Gray started playing sandlot ball at an early age with his neighborhood friends.

He attended Jefferson High School in Pennsylvania, where he formed part of the baseball, football and wrestling teams.

[4] At age 18, Gray attended a Brooklyn Dodgers' tryout camp at Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida, during 1949 spring training.

[4][5] But, like many baseball players, Gray had his career interrupted during the Korean War, missing two years after enlisting in the United States Army.

In the second inning of that game, Gray belted a two-run homer off Ramón Monzant to become the first player to hit a home run in Los Angeles Dodger history.

On June 15, 1959, after a slow start with Los Angeles, he was dealt to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for Chuck Essegian and Lloyd Merritt.

In 1960, Gray went hitless in eight early-season plate appearances with the Cardinals; then, on May 28, he was sent along with Vinegar Bend Mizell to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the same transaction that brought Ed Bauta and Julián Javier to St.

[1] Mizell won 13 games for Pittsburgh, helping them win the 1960 National League pennant en route to the world championship.

[5] Following his baseball career, Gray resided in Anaheim, California, with his wife Joanne and their three daughters: Catherine, Stacey and Nancy.