Roy Gleason always looks forward to Opening Day and has since he was an outfield prospect for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1960s. The start of baseball’s 2011 season Thursday is no different.
But he also is anticipating an event the day before, part of a movement to give Vietnam soldiers the rightful celebrated return many were denied in the tumultuous 1960s and early 1970s: Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day.
“It is about time it happened,” says Gleason, who has been working for recognition of the day. “It will help heal the wounds that are internal.”
Both days connect Gleason to a crossroads that changed his life.
The only player with major league experience to see combat in Vietnam, Gleason earned “Special Congressional Recognition” for receiving a Purple Heart and a World Series ring and having a “perfect lifetime” major league batting average.
Gleason, 67, achieved his 1.000 batting average with one plate appearance — in September 1963 as a late-season call-up. Gleason was 20 years old, a young outfield prospect with speed.
“I was facing Dennis Bennett in Philly,” he says. “I had pretty good wheels, so I ran a single into a double.”
The Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in the 1963 World Series, and since Gleason had been on the roster — even for a short period of time — he received a World Series ring.
Gleason went back down to the minors and was on the brink of making the major league club in spring 1967 when he got a fateful letter.
“I got my draft letter, and I wasn’t supposed to be drafted,” he says. “I was the sole support for my mother, two sisters and one of my sister’s children.”
Gleason was told to apply for a hardship discharge, but by the time that paperwork was completed, the damage had been done. He was already deep into action in the Vietnam jungle when a shell exploded near him on July 24, 1968.
“I was walking point that day for the unit,” he says. “My left calf got blown up and was filled with shrapnel. It went through my wrist and broke a bone, and my left finger is still dead. But every day I wake up feeling fortunate to be where I am at. I will never forget my buddies who didn’t come back.”
His baseball career was over, though. Gleason was awarded a Purple Heart for his action but lost his World Series ring when he was taken from the battlefield. He lost his way once he got home as well, bouncing around different jobs.
“I was wasting my life with nothing to show for it,” he says. “I was depressed.”
But years later, he reconnected with the Dodgers and the game he loved. In 1993, he was invited to throw out the first pitch before a game against the San Francisco Giants. The entire Dodgers squad came out on the field and presented Gleason with a replacement 1963 World Series ring.
Gleason recently videotaped a message to President Obama, urging him to sign the resolution that both houses of Congress passed marking National Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day. He hopes that will be President Obama’s Opening Day pitch.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
