Lots of former baseball players write books about their glory days as a player. And many of those books are as much about their off-field careers as what happened between the foul lines.
Womanizing, incessant drinking, shooting steroids, pranks, grudges—that’s Jim Bouton/Jose Canseco territory.
If that’s your idea of a baseball book, steer clear of Doug Glanville’s story, The Game from Where I Stand. His tale is more personal, more heartfelt and far more clear-eyed. But what would you expect from the first African American Ivy Leaguer to make it to the majors? Or one who wrote an online column for The New York Times after retiring from the game?
DOUG GLANVILLE podcast excerpt: “Photo Day is the day you take all these shots for the world, whether it’s a giant scoreboard shot or ESPN. You’ll go from station to station at 7 a.m. in full uniform. Rookies get there early. You have to take it seriously because this shot is going to memorialize you. And guys are paying attention. If you’re supposed to be an intimidating closer and you’re smiling like a Cheshire Cat, it’s not going to go over well.”
Doug Glanville is a different cat—scratch that; “cat” doesn’t seem the right reference. Let’s call him a gentleman.
I’ve got a lot of questions for this veteran of 15 seasons with the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies and Texas Rangers. But I’m going to start with this one: why does singer John Oates—that’s right, the second half of “Hall & Oates”—rate an entire paragraph in the acknowledgements of your book?
Doug Glanville Website • Facebook • Twitter • Order The Game From Where I Stand from Amazon.com
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