69th Birthday

Happy sixty-ninth birthday to Waseca native and former Twins third base coach Gene Glynn, who celebrated his birthday on Tuesday, Sept. 23. 

 

Fun Fact: Glynn received Minnesota’s first-ever “Mr. Basketball” award his senior year at Waseca, and handed the award off to Basketball Hall of Famer Kevin McHale (of Hibbing) the following year.

 

Glynn was an all-time great at Mankato State in both base- ball and basketball, and still holds school basketball records in assists in a game (16, 1976), season (221, 1977), and career (772). The second baseman also once held the school record with 81 career stolen bases.

 

After earning his degree in Physical Education in 1979, Glynn was signed as an amateur free agent by Montreal Expos scout Bob Gebhard (who is a Minnesota native, played for the Twins, and later served in the Twins' front office during both World Championship seasons before becoming the first general manager of the Colorado Rockies). Glynn played seven seasons in the Expos’ farm system, including  parts of four seasons at Triple A. He began his coaching ca- reer in 1986 as a manager in the Expos farm system. Bob Gebhard brought him into the Rockies organization in 1992 and he got his first major league job as manager as Don Baylor‘s first base coach in 1994 and third base coach from 1995 to  ’98. Glynn has mentioned 1996 as one of his most memorable seasons, when the Rockies hit 221 home runs and  stole 201 bases (and still finished third in the NL West).

 

Glynn then coached third base for the Expos in 1999, Chicago Cubs from 2000 to 2003, and San Francisco Giants from 2003 to 2006. He would have greeted Sammy Sosa on 163 home run trots in his three seasons in Chicago, and Barry Bonds on 121 trots over four seasons.

 

He was then a scout in the Tampa Bay Rays organization from 2007 to 2011. He was hired by the Twins to manage the triple-A Rochester Red Wings in 2012. He interviewed for the major league manager job after Ron Gardenhire’s dismissal in 2014. That job ultimately went to Paul Molitor but Glynn was named the Twins’ third base coach, a role in which he  served for four seasons until Molitor was dismissed as manager.