THE WORLD SERIES : MINNESOTA TWINS vs. ST. LOUIS CARDINALS : A WRENCHING MOMENT : Even Grand Slam Brings Little Reaction From Man Twins Call Wrench

MINNEAPOLIS —  Kent Hrbek took one look at Dan Gladden and was reminded of two things: Mr. Goodwrench of the TV commercials and a kid he went to high school with, who majored in study hall and mechanical arts. Hrbek took to calling him Gladwrench, then just Wrench.

Some of Hrbek’s Minnesota teammates took one look at Wrench and wondered if Wretch might be appropriate.

“Dan is a different breed,” Tom Brunansky was saying Saturday night. “I played against him in the minors and hated the way he played. He seemed arrogant. He didn’t seem to care how he went about it.

“He came over here with that deadpan expression, and people were afraid to approach him because they thought he’d bite their head off.”

What Brunansky meant is that Gladden seemed a misnomer. Sadden fitted his dour personality better. The Minnesota left fielder still presents that tough, hard-nosed exterior to the media and his opponents, but there’s been something of a transformation.

Amid what Brunansky calls the “good chemistry” of the Twins’ clubhouse, in response to the hazing and needling he has received, the man known as Wrench--”It still fits because his uniform is always dirty,” Hrbek said--has become one of the boys.

They laugh and call him goofy, claiming he is one of their leading practical jokers.

In fact, Clinton Daniel Gladden III played one on the St. Louis Cardinals in the first game of the World Series Saturday night. He hit a home run. The Metrodome roof didn’t collapse, but it wouldn’t have been surprising.

Leadoff man Dan Gladden has averaged a home run every 79 at-bats with 24 in 1,696 at-bats over five seasons. He hit 8 in 439 at-bats this year.

The ninth? Don’t call it just a home run. It was a grand slam. The 13th in World Series history, the first since 1970 when the equally unlikely Dave McNally, a pitcher, hit one. Gladden’s 386-foot drive to left field came off Bob Forsch and capped a seven-run fourth inning that propeled the Twins to a 10-1 rout.

The inmates in the Metrodome madhouse demanded a curtain call, and Gladden gave them two. He emerged from the dugout following his slam and waved his cap, then later slashed a double into the right- field corner, driving in a fifth run. Gladden ran out of innings or he might have tied Bobby Richardson’s World Series record of six RBIs in one game.

Exciting? Gladden laid his low-key style on the media later, eventually forcing one reporter to ask if he was ever going to smile.

“When you get to know me,” Gladden said, “you know I don’t smile much.

“This isn’t my style, but I guess you guys must need something to write about.”

Brunansky helped supply it, revealing that Gladden had returned to the bench, sat down next to him and said, “Did I just hit a grand slam?”

Then he was excited, Brunansky was asked?

“He was so high that I wondered if his feet would touch the bases,” Brunansky said. “I’d like to have a pool on what time he gets to sleep tonight.”

Reporters prodded Gladden. Had he really expressed amazement to Brunansky?

“Well,” he said sheepishly, “how many grand slams do you hit in a World Series? How many do I hit? You have to pinch yourself.”

Minnesota Manager Tom Kelly recalled that Gladden had struck out on three straight Frank Tanana breaking pitches with the bases loaded in Game 4 of the playoffs. Kelly thought it might have been a motivation for Gladden, who is now 9 for 24 in the postseason with 10 RBIs.

Was it?

“Might have been,” Gladden said, “but a lot of guys have struck out with the bases loaded. I was only trying to hit a sacrifice fly tonight. I was only looking for a pitch that was up, that I could get in the air. It was a breaking pitch. It was up. I didn’t know it was out until it cleared the fence. I don’t hit that many to have the feeling.”

Nor to have a home run trot.

“Yes,” he said, “I was excited, but I wanted to control my emotions. I thought about putting my flap down like Jeff Leonard, but I thought better about it. I knew it gave us a good cushion, and that was the best part of it. My biggest thrill? I still think my biggest is yet to come.”

The Twins traded three minor league pitchers to the San Francisco Giants for Gladden late in spring training. An injury early in the 1986 season and the development of Candy Maldonado had cost Gladden his right-field job. He went to camp in the spring of ’87 without a contract and without an offer from the Giants. He knew he would be traded.

“When I heard it was the Twins, I asked for a media guide to find out something about them,” Gladden said.

What did he learn?

“I found out they had nice uniforms and a lot of hitters who could put some numbers on the board,” he said. “I knew they wanted to move Kirby Puckett from leadoff to third in the batting order and that I’d have a good chance to score some runs batting at the top of this lineup.”

Gladden stole 25 bases, batted .249 and scored 69 runs in 120 games. He also provided some of the “fire and intensity” that Kelly said he was looking for in making the trade. Said Gladden:

“That’s the only way I know how to play. Hard. Aggressive. Tough for nine innings.”

He also mixes in a little fun now, too, calling teammates to a phone that has whipped cream in the ear piece or cutting holes in socks or any of a number of clubhouse pranks. The Giants wouldn’t know him. He said he regretted they weren’t here so that he could reintroduce himself.

“I was rooting for them,” he said of their playoff with the Cardinals. “I still have a lot of friends there. I saw those scenes of them sitting in the dugout and know how they felt. I’d been there with them.”

It was a wrench for Wrench, who obviously holds no bitterness.

“How can I be upset with the Giants when I’m here in the World Series,” he said.

If he was smiling, it was on the inside.