Roy Gleason has the sort of statistical line that makes you look twice.
He was was 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds. At age 20, he appeared in eight games for the L.A. Dodgers team that would go on to sweep the Yankees in the World Series. He never played the field and only batted once, which means he pinch-ran a lot, an interesting job for a guy built like a power forward. In his only at-bat, he doubled.
And he never played again after 1963.
The ever-useful retrosheet.org fills in some of the details. He was a late-season call-up who pinch-ran five times for Moose Skowron and twice for Frank Howard, two very fine hitters who were not very fine runners. Howard was even bigger than Gleason, and Skowron was, well, a moose. On the next-to-last day of the season, Walt Alston sent him up to pinch-hit for pitcher Phil Ortega. Gleason doubled off of Phillies lefty Dennis Bennett and eventually scored.
Here's what baseballreference.com and retrosheet.org don't tell you about Roy Gleason:
He was a hometown boy from suburban L.A. (Temecula, to be precise) who signed for a big bonus. He was not eligible for the World Series in 1963, and even if he was, he would not have made the postseason roster on this powerhouse team. But he was given a World Series ring just the same.
He went back to the minors, and while he seems to have been a decent hitter, there is nothing in his minor-league stats that suggest he was destined for stardom, or even for an extended major-league career in the outfield. He had some power, but he struck out a lot and didn't hit for a high average. If he was especially fast, his statistical line doesn't reflect it.
Near the end of spring training in 1967, he was informed by Selective Service that he had been reclassified from 3A (sole financial provider to his single mother) to 1A, and that he had been drafted. He was sent to Vietnam as an Army sergeant, and on July 24, 1968, he was seriously injured when he took a bunch of shrapnel in his arms and legs.
He was shipped home with nothing but the uniform on his back. Among the items left behind in his foot locker in the jungle was his 1963 World Series ring. He is the last major-league player to have received the Purple Heart.
After recuperating, he tried to resume his career, but in 1969 he batted just .187 in 101 games at Single-A Bakersfield and Double-A Alburquerque. His baseball career was over.
Fast-forward about three decades. Roy Gleason is selling cars. One day, a customer recognizes him as the former L.A. prep star who played briefly for the Dodgers. They chat. The guy is a writer. He ends up writing a book, "Lost in the Sun: Roy Gleason's Oddysey from the Outfield to the Battlefield."
In September 2003, Gleason was invited to throw out the first pitch at a Dodgers game. After he threw his pitch, he started to leave, but Vin Scully came on the P.A. and asked him to stay on the field for a moment. The entire Dodgers team came out of the dugout to shake Gleason's hand, and manager Jim Tracy presented him with a replica of his 1963 World Series ring.
He was was 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds. At age 20, he appeared in eight games for the L.A. Dodgers team that would go on to sweep the Yankees in the World Series. He never played the field and only batted once, which means he pinch-ran a lot, an interesting job for a guy built like a power forward. In his only at-bat, he doubled.
And he never played again after 1963.
The ever-useful retrosheet.org fills in some of the details. He was a late-season call-up who pinch-ran five times for Moose Skowron and twice for Frank Howard, two very fine hitters who were not very fine runners. Howard was even bigger than Gleason, and Skowron was, well, a moose. On the next-to-last day of the season, Walt Alston sent him up to pinch-hit for pitcher Phil Ortega. Gleason doubled off of Phillies lefty Dennis Bennett and eventually scored.
Here's what baseballreference.com and retrosheet.org don't tell you about Roy Gleason:
He was a hometown boy from suburban L.A. (Temecula, to be precise) who signed for a big bonus. He was not eligible for the World Series in 1963, and even if he was, he would not have made the postseason roster on this powerhouse team. But he was given a World Series ring just the same.
He went back to the minors, and while he seems to have been a decent hitter, there is nothing in his minor-league stats that suggest he was destined for stardom, or even for an extended major-league career in the outfield. He had some power, but he struck out a lot and didn't hit for a high average. If he was especially fast, his statistical line doesn't reflect it.
Near the end of spring training in 1967, he was informed by Selective Service that he had been reclassified from 3A (sole financial provider to his single mother) to 1A, and that he had been drafted. He was sent to Vietnam as an Army sergeant, and on July 24, 1968, he was seriously injured when he took a bunch of shrapnel in his arms and legs.
He was shipped home with nothing but the uniform on his back. Among the items left behind in his foot locker in the jungle was his 1963 World Series ring. He is the last major-league player to have received the Purple Heart.
After recuperating, he tried to resume his career, but in 1969 he batted just .187 in 101 games at Single-A Bakersfield and Double-A Alburquerque. His baseball career was over.
Fast-forward about three decades. Roy Gleason is selling cars. One day, a customer recognizes him as the former L.A. prep star who played briefly for the Dodgers. They chat. The guy is a writer. He ends up writing a book, "Lost in the Sun: Roy Gleason's Oddysey from the Outfield to the Battlefield."
In September 2003, Gleason was invited to throw out the first pitch at a Dodgers game. After he threw his pitch, he started to leave, but Vin Scully came on the P.A. and asked him to stay on the field for a moment. The entire Dodgers team came out of the dugout to shake Gleason's hand, and manager Jim Tracy presented him with a replica of his 1963 World Series ring.
Roy Gleason didn't make the roster of the "RG: Ray Gateses."
But we wanted to tell his story just the same.
But we wanted to tell his story just the same.
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