Note: This is a guest post from Dan Leritz
I grew up in Northern Minnesota in a small mining town called Mountain Iron (about an hour from Duluth). I grew up a big Twins fan and attended my first game was in 1982 when I was just 3 years old.
For the next 4 years, there wasn’t much to root for but I didn’t care. The 3 hours plus drive from the Iron Range to the Twin cities was always exciting especially if you knew a Twins game was part of the trip. We went to 3-5 games a year and I cherished each one as if it was the first. The team was not very good but they were ours.
In 1987 the Twins had a slight makeover to their roster. Gone were fan favorites such as Ron Washington and Mickey Hatcher. Replacing them was new closer Jeff Reardon utility infielder Al Newman and an old school left fielder from San Francisco named Dan Gladden.
I can’t explain why Gladden became my favorite Twin and not established stars like Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaetti or Kirby Puckett. We all loved and adored those guys and others, but individually Dan Gladden just resonated with me from opening day. It could be we share the same first name (only to find out later that Daniel was his middle name) or that he batted leadoff. Who knows, I don’t really care to know. What I do remember is my new favorite number was 32 and I grew my hair out so it could flow from my cap like his. My mom even embroidered 32 on a Twins jersey for me.
The Twins caught fire in August and won the division. Then beat the Tigers in 5 games and eventually won the World Series in 7 games against the Cardinals. My hero got a hit in every game including a grand slam in Game 1. I went as him for Halloween that year.
Fast forward to 1991 and the Twins are in it again. They knocked off the Blue Jays in 5 and beat the Atlanta Braves in one of the most memorable World Series ever. It was Dan Gladden who led off the 10th with a hustle double and would score the series-winning run on Gene Larkin’s walk off single. In 1990 I was able to get Dans autograph at spring training but was too star struck to speak.
Fast forward to 2010 and the Twins winter caravan is making a stop at the school where I taught. Gladden, Matt Tolbert, and Danny Velancia were the Twins who showed up that day and since it was their last stop the principal allowed them to hang out with the kids for the last 2 hours of the day.
I got a chance to talk to Dan and I showed him a scrapbook my aunt made of the 1987 playoff run. In the back cover was my picture from that Halloween dressed as him. Dan was speechless. He went through every page of that book and spent close to a half hour reminiscing about that time. It was a super cool moment, to say the least.
The highlight was actually when he asked me a trivia question about the 91 World Series and I actually questioned his memory. His response was perfect Gladden.
“I was on 3rd base, where were you?” he asked. He signed the scrapbook and posed for a nice picture.
ABOUT DAN LERTIZ: Dan is still teaching but just a few miles east of Minnesota.
He’s been teaching in Kuwait for the past four years and also coaching baseball, umpiring and giving private lessons.
