A Winner Never Quits

Print advertisement
Written by	Burt Prelutsky
Directed by	Mel Damski
Starring	Keith Carradine Mare Winningham G.W. Bailey Dennis Weaver Ed O'Neill
Theme music composer	Dana Kaproff
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Daniel H. Blatt Robert Singer James Keach
Cinematography	Joseph F. Biroc
Editor(s)	Michael A. Stevenson
Running time	96 min.
Distributor	Columbia Tri-Star Television Sony Pictures Television
Release
Original release	1986

A Winner Never Quits is a 1986 TV movie based on the true story of baseball player Pete Gray, the first one-armed man ever to play major league baseball, hired in 1943 as a "freak attraction" and wartime morale-booster by the Memphis Chicks, Class-A minor league ball club.

Though a success, Gray maintains a tough, defensive veneer, which is softened only by the love of his life Annie and the adulation of baseball fan Nelson Gary Jr., who has also lost an arm (and who would, in real life, become a top minor-league ballplayer himself). With the war depleting big-league baseball's manpower in 1945, Pete Gray finally achieves his goal of entering the Majors when he is hired by the St. Louis Browns.

Plot

Raised in the Northeastern Pennsylvania mining town of Nanticoke, Pete Gray loses his right arm while still a young boy. But through the encouragement of his immigrant parents, Antoinette and Peter Wyshner, Sr., and the constant coaching of his older brother Whitey, Gray never gives up on his dream of playing professional baseball. Driven by anger, he finally makes it to the big leagues. But it isn't until he agrees to meet handicapped youngster Nelson Gary, Jr., who idolizes him, that Gray finally comes to terms with several life realizations.

Cast

Actor	Role
Keith Carradine	Pete (Wyshner) Gray
Mare Winningham	Annie
G.W. Bailey	Tatum
Dennis Weaver	Mr. Wyshner
Huckleberry Fox	Nelson Gary, Jr.
Jack Kehoe	Bloom
Fionnula Flanagan	Mrs. Wyshner
Ed O'Neill	Whitey Wyshner
Dana Delany	Nora
Charles Hallahan	Nelson Gary Sr.
Mary Jo Deschanel	Mrs. Gary
Jeff McCracken	Sheldrake
Steve Rees	Young Pete Gray
Andrew Lubeskie	Young Whitey

Home media

A Winner Never Quits was released on VHS on August 18, 1993, by Columbia Tri-Star. There is no known DVD version of the film and the VHS version is long out of print.

External links

• A Winner Never Quits (1986 TV) at IMDb