New York Times

THE NEW YORK TIMES
May 12, 2010
By Doug Glanville

As we all know, in the arid world of Arizona, political temperatures have been rising about a new law that makes it a crime to be without immigration papers, and relies heavily on “reasonable suspicion.” The reaction within the professional sports world would have been unheard of in my playing days, and underlines a real generational gap. In an unprecedented show of solidarity, players, owners and front-office personnel are uniting, disgusted by Arizona’s approach to addressing concerns over the undocumented.

The New York Times

May 6, 2010

by Doug Glanville

I get asked from time to time about how the game has changed since I played it. For me, it feels like yesterday that I was part of the inaugural season at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, and this has lulled me into believing that change, if any, would be subtle. But that is far from the truth. For one thing, something as glaringly new as instant replay for home runs cannot be ignored.

The New York Times

March 23, 2010

By Doug Glanville

Players know the truth of the adage that the only time you are healthy over a major league season is the morning you report to the first day of spring training.

From then on, it is a battle of attrition.

You ask yourself, “Will my mind go before my body, or the other way around?” If your mental discipline goes first, you become a puppet going through the motions. If your body goes
first, maybe through fatigue or injury, you have to find ways to dominate with your mind and instincts.

The New York Times

February 25, 2010

By Doug Glanville

It’s here again. Position players report to spring training this week (pitchers and catchers ...

But the players are also leaving something behind. Many have families who will have to hold down the fort back home. Their kids might be in school, their wives or girlfriends might have inflexible jobs. As players sprint toward that passion for all things baseball, intimate, person-to-person love becomes uncertain. Which is it going to be, “absence makes the heart grow fonder” or “out of sight, out of mind”?

The New York Time

February 13, 2010

By Doug Glanville

I remember the veteran pitcher Mike Jackson telling me that “by the time you finish with this ...

Not to be.

The New York Times

January 22, 2010

By Doug Glanville

Last week, after years of public curiosity about what was hidden behind Mark McGwire´s testimony ...

The New York Times

December 27, 2009

By Doug Glanville

No one would have accused me of having multiple ladies on each arm when I was in high school or college. ...

But something magical happened before I had to do much work. I signed a professional baseball contract as a junior in college and went away to my first spring training as a member of the Chicago Cubs organization.

The New York Times

December 12, 2009

By Doug Glanville

It is true: I am a New Jersey Nets fan, and it goes back a long time. Years ago, Buck Williams and ...

So far, this hasn´t been a season to remember, as the Nets set a record for most losses to start a season 18 although they have since improved to 2-21. It´s one thing to be a fan from the safety of far-away Chicago, but an entirely different spin comes into play when the head coach is a high school friend of mine.

The New York Times

November 21, 2009

By Doug Glanville

The baseball season is over, and now another game begins the game of free agency. And this is where ...

The New York Times

November 6, 2009

By Doug Glanville

Alex Rodriguez has sent at least one monkey off his tired shoulders for the time being. The nagging feeling of inadequacy over never having been a champion often follows great players for their entire careers, whispering or maybe even yelling in their ear that they are not as good as they think, or that no matter how many records they break they are still somehow a notch below the other guy, whose statistics are dwarfed by their own.