The Game from Where I Stand: A Ballplayer's Inside View

by Doug Glanville

An insider's revealing look at the hidden world of major league baseball

Doug Glanville, a former major league outfielder and Ivy League graduate, draws on his nine seasons in the big leagues to reveal the human side of the game and of the men who play it.

In The Game from Where I Stand, Glanville shows us how players prepare for games, deal with race and family issues, cope with streaks and slumps, respond to trades and injuries, and learn the joyful and painful lessons the game imparts. We see the flashpoints that cause misunderstandings and friction between players, and the imaginative ways they work to find common ground. And Glanville tells us with insight and humor what he learned from Jimmy Rollins, Alex Rodriguez, Randy Johnson, Barry Bonds, Curt Schilling, and other legendary and controversial stars.

In his professional career, Glanville experienced every aspect of being a player—the first-round pick, the prospect, the disappointment, the can't-miss, the cornerstone, the veteran, the traded, the injured, the comeback kid. His eye-opening book gives fans a new level of understanding of day-to-day life in the big leagues. 

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir, History

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Desiree Koh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally, a non-fiction book about baseball that wasn't written by an idiot (yeah, I'm looking at Canseco), not about glory days and most importantly, written by the ballplayer himself. That's right - you could be the most eloquent sound bite spouter on TV and radio, but can you write a decent paragraph, let alone a book? Well, it's apt that Doug Glanville has done it then, possibly for the first time since Yogi Berra, the quintessential lead-off man himself.

The guy comes with pedigree - an Ivy League engineering degree and an online column for the "New York Times". Glanville does nothing to hog the spotlight for himself - the book is about the game, the love of the game, the playing of the game. Without giving away too many clubhouse secrets, it's the book you'd want to read as a baseball fan, if you've ever wondered what happens when a team travels together, after a game, in the manager's office and why there is a need for a professional athlete to soup up his Range Rover.

More importantly, Glanville is one of the few gentlemen in the game over the last two decades, and regardless of content, it's gratifying to know that not all ballplayers are inarticulate meatheads. Sure, his craft isn't completely polished, but it's good enough for his book that he writes like an amateur sportswriter, peppered with funny, realistic analogies that bring scenes, people and emotions to life. The analogy - the smarter and wittier, the better - is a sportswriter's calling card, his bread and butter, his serve and volley, his fake and dunk. It's obvious that Glanville has also made it his hit and run.

Glanville doesn't expound much on his career. He tells the narrative of his professional baseball years, but they serve more of a framework for sharing his anecdotes and opinions of the game, not to self-serve and elevate himself, ego included. Even his achievements seem pedestrian, because the game always comes first. Like the ivy on the Wrigley outfield, he tells it like he seems them, and he's got a great view from centerfield. With humility, Glanville writes the way baseball should be played, more respectful than anything else - I would rather read this book than Alex Rodriguez's memoirs, and it so makes up for everything Jose Canseco has ever swilled out. At times, it can get a bit draggy, like a long lazy afternoon at the ballpark when the Cubs are losing big time, and Glanville begins to sound like your grandfather telling stories of the old time. But, isn't that what baseball is all about? The lore of before holding up the screen of modernity, gritty history and standard issue superstition under the flashy spikes, the generational passing of the torch.

And that's what it is. They don't make many ballplayers like they used to. But as long as there are still some of them about who were as classy as Lou Gehrig and Cal Ripken, Jr., baseball will be OK.

[an infinite number of monkeys · Rating 2 out of 5]

Doug Glanville has an Ivy League education and was a union representative for part of his playing days. Those two factors should contribute to the writing of a pretty good book about baseball and the issues it faces today. The Game from Where I Stand is not that book. Glanville evidently wrote this book in a corn field in Iowa, it's so nice and so unwilling to see problems in the game or its players. Most of the book is made up of Glanville's pleasant recollections of his playing days. Even if he recalls an unpleasant incident, it serves to show how the author's hard work overcame an obstacle like one of his minor league managers. The many anecdotes about happenings in the dugout or on the field are cute – but that's not really a compliment. Funny things happen, no one gets into much trouble, unless it's with the crazy women that are in every major league city, or one crosses the den mother of players' wives. Oh, and marriages fail, but that just happens. There's a lot of pressure applied to major league players and their families and Glanville wants us to feel bad about that. That players are handsomely paid and can choose another profession isn't addressed. Glanville's experience with the players' union taught him to believe that Don Fehr's a nice guy. And nothing else, it seems. The chapter entitled “The Integrity of the Game” is a master class in side-stepping. Glanville's in favor of keeping steroid users out of the Hall of Fame, but he's against finding out who used. He also tries to make the case that non-users like himself are not complicit because they didn't know what was going on. But he also doesn't want to appear to be that stupid and so he says that he knew something was up with Sammy Sosa and Jason Giambi. Ultimately, he hides behind the code that says that players are brothers and brothers don't rat each other out, and tries to bury the not-so-distant past as something that happened, not something anyone did.

Doug Glanville is able to spin a nice yarn, using a lot of words to make nice, sound smart (but not too smart), dodge controversy, praise his family, avoid being pinned down, and proclaim his loyalty to his clan. I'll bet his next book is political. He'll make an excellent candidate.

[Liz De Coster · Rating 4 out of 5]

A personal and insightful look at baseball from a player who has been in and around the game for a long time. I checked out this book based on my enjoyment of his regular NYT contributions and wasn't disappointed - though I was disappointed by his admiration of A-Rod and affection for flavored sunflower seeds. I'm not sure this would convert non-baseball-lovers, but that's not what it needs to do; highly recommended for baseball enjoyers of all strips.

[Rob Neyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read a gazillion books by Major League Baseball players, but this is quite likely the best I've read about BEING a major leaguer. All the nitty-gritty and the nuts-and-bolts about a professional player's everyday existence, from progressing through the minor leagues to reaching the major leagues, becoming an established major leaguer, and then navigating the (usually) involuntary end of one's playing career. I hope Glanville writes another book about all the changes he's seen in the game over the last 15 years.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a book I'd recommend to most people -- I think this one is for die-hard baseball fans. It was an enjoyable read, and I liked some of the insights of life as a baseball player, the codes they follow, etc. I was impressed with Glanville's candor -- he doesn't gloss over the truth or make nice with everyone he writes about. There were two things that really stuck out at me. First was the transition from ball player to retired ball player and how difficult that transition could be. This is a guy with an engineering degree from Penn, yet he spent his first 13 years after graduation playing baseball, not using his degree. He wasn't exactly qualified or prepared to head to an engineering firm after retirement! And he points out how much better off he was than other players who are drafted straight out of high school and have never done anything else but play ball. Second was how little he talked about the Phillies, where he played for most of his big league career. He talked a lot about life with the Cubs, who drafted him and that was understandable, but I felt that he focused more on his couple of months with Texas than he did with his 6 or so years in Philly. I thought that was odd. And of course, that's what I was most interested in hearing about!

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Doug Glanville, a former Major League Baseball player, shares his unique perspective on the game, going full circle from life as a highly touted rookie, through the emotions of getting traded, all the way to what it is like as his career begins to fade.

Although there were some interesting insights along the way, such as how Big Leaguers go about finding a place to live and how much fun Montreal was on a road trip, the book at times is a hard read. The largest stumbling block is the writing itself. The book is broken into chapters, but each chapter is nothing more than a series of vignettes. By the time you are 50 pages in, you realize that there is little rhyme or reason why each vignette was placed where it was, because frankly they are all interchangeable. The end result feels like someone is telling you their life story over the phone, jumping all around and going back when they forget things. At the end you get it, but you know something got lost in the translation.

If you like Doug Glanville or the Phillies, it is a good read, but there are better baseball books out there.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

An overall enjoyable read as Glanville walks us through his relatively journeyman playing career, focusing on life within the game, with more attention spent on the life of major league players away from the field than on game highlights. He spends time on the day-to-day as well as on the longer term career aspects of professional baseball players' lives, the benefits and detriments of life as a major leaguer, and gives an apt sounding description of the problems inherent in, and after the fact stemming from, the abnormal life of professional baseball players.

The book feels a bit dry in the sense that I couldn't help feeling it had been sanitized, that aspects of his observations were being held back out of deference, from loyalty, to his fellow ballplayers and the game itself.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baseball has been very good to me.

It provides me with something to cheer about with my co-workers (we are all Giants fans). It gives me soothing numbers to consider. It gives me characters to quote, and it has given me a great many books to enjoy. My next stitching project is even baseball themed.

Doug Glanville's book about his years in baseball was yet another winner. One moment that I especially loved was his description of how his hit in the postseason, could not actually beat the feeling of hitting his first homerun in Little League. And that is what the game is, or should be about.

[Andrea Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good but he plays it pretty safe. Not bad. Peruse it at your library.

[Susan Lorenz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read for serious baseball fans. Was a favorite of mine when he played for the Cubs. He's a classy guy.

[Mark Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doug Glanville’s “The Game From Where I Stand” offers a winning combination—a likable narrator and tons of colorful details about life off the field and inside the game of baseball.

Minor leagues. Opening days. Glove selection. Coaches. Stress. Anxiety. Relationships. Autographs. Game preparation. Contracts. Money. Retirement. Winter ball. Dealing with reporters. Spring training. Hitting. Traveling. I’m hard-pressed to think of a subject Glanville doesn’t cover and he does it all with an appealing style. What does it feel like to be a professional baseball player? Glanville puts the reader solidly in one player’s cleats.

Glanville, who has written columns for The New York Times and other outlets, comes across as likable and easy-going. Glanville played in the majors from 1996 to 2004, primarily with the Philadelphia Phillies. He also also had two stints with the Chicago Cubs and one year with the Texas Rangers. This book was published in 2010 and, well, my only wish is for a more current account that includes how a player views the heavy-duty use of analytics in the game today.

What Glanville does explore, however, seems relatively timeless—particularly the kinds of attitudes ball players develop in order to survive. Glanville did not take being a major leaguer for granted. He played worried. He played with the daily concern that either performance or injury might lead to being demoted or traded. “One team’s trash is another’s treasure,” writes Glanville “I can say I have been both, and either way you slice it, you can’t help but feel like property, even if only for a moment.”

Glanville thanks Jimmy Rollins, who was his protégé, for a poignant piece of advice: Do it afraid. “A healthy amount of fear can lead to great results, to people pushing themselves to the brink of their capabilities … Yes, baseball players are afraid. A player’s career is always a blink in a stare. I retired at the ripe old age of thirty-four following a season of sunflower seeds and only 162 at bats. I had been a starter the year before. In this game, change happens fast.”

Coming up behind every major leaguer is a new crop of players who are younger, faster, stranger (and don’t cost as much). “There is a tipping point in a player’s career where he goes from chasing the dream to running from a nightmare. At that point, ambition is replaced by anxiety; passion is replaced with survival. It is a downhill run, and it spares no one.”

Glanville makes it clear that being a major league baseball player requires living inside a bubble. Glanville is particularly blunt here about the focus and dedication required—as well as the fallout from that level of commitment. “No one keeps statistics for DFP (Depressed Former Players) or DAR (Divorces After Retirement), but I assure you they are plentiful … Behind the bluster and bravado, they are as uncertain and fragile as any other human beings.”

That’s the over-arching flavor of this account, a real human being living a life inside the game. Glanville’s details are terrific—like seeing Randy Johnson eating breakfast at iHOP or his warm-hearted tales from playing winter ball in Puerto Rico—and his reactions at every turn seem genuine. He’s not afraid to reveal how he misplayed a ball that could have kept a no-hitter intact, for instance, and he gives a thoughtful analysis of the whole Steve Bartman alleged interference debacle (Glanville was with the Cubs at the time).

Unlike so many others, Glanville did not become another DFP or DAR stat. He had a level head and open eyes about every phase of the game—and the same thing applied when it came time for Glanville to plan his post-career life (which from all accounts has been successful both in broadcasting and business). Like baseball itself, this book is very much about the game and, of course, it’s about everything else, too. Baseball is life.

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doug Glanville doesn’t write an autobiography or a history, but rather a personal account of baseball’s steroid era from the perspective of someone who was both a star and a journeyman, a leader and a follower, a success and a failure.

He divides the book by the periods of a major leaguer’s career. In the early stages, he sinks into anonymity, often speaking more on the general experience of ballplayers than his individual journey. Punctuated by the loss of his father, interpersonal disputes, and a trade to his hometown Phillies, he tells his own story.

This fall, I made a pilgrimage to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Given the delay between retirement and ballot eligibility, the Hall hasn’t fully reckoned with the steroid era. In Chapter 9 “The Integrity of the Game,” Glanville the best account of the steroid era I’ve ever read. Framed through his experience as a player representative to the union and in the collective bargaining experience, he explains the monumental impact of steroids on baseball. He walks readers through the not-so-secretive secrets of users, the reputational damage - or acceptance - of usage, and Glanville’s personal choice not to use performance-enhancing drugs.

This book is more relevant now than ever; Mr. Glanville has re-entered the national conversation through his long-form sports writing for The Athletic, beat coverage of the Chicago Cubs, and, most recently, as a target of a potentially racist hand gesture during a post-game interview. The Game From Where I Stand gives readers a chance to understand Glanville’s perspective and experiences while contextualizing the state of race in baseball, cuing the public into Glanville’s current role post-playing career.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book excels in humanizing these athletes, delving into not just the physical but also the mental and emotional challenges they face, from the thrill of victory and the camaraderie amongst teammates to the struggles with injuries, the pressures of performance, and the alienation of life on the road. It also addresses the significant identity crisis many athletes encounter upon retiring, providing insights into resilience and adaptation. With engaging, witty writing and a critical eye on the sports industry, this book appeals to a wide audience, encapsulating the author's profound love for baseball while offering a thoughtful critique of its culture and practices.

[Tim Timberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not a gritty tell-all, nor was it an insightful critique of major league baseball when Glanville played. Instead, it was a rather complete look at life as a major league baseball player. Glanville wrote at length about the various aspects of the game as a player, including the thrill of Opening Day, learning the unwritten rules of the game, and, eventually, coping with your body as it ages. I think this book would be great for a middle school or high school student who wants to know more about major league life.

[Keith Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a Penn grad and hearing about this author while he was playing at Penn and then later on in his pro career, this was such a fun read for me. Also being a Philly baseball fan from the sixties it was so nice to hear so much positive commentary about that particular organization. Also I thought he did a really good job analyzing the life of a baseball player, from picking out baseball gloves to dealing with so many social issues that being a fan you would never really think about but they are there.

[Robert Pondiscio · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've long admired Doug Glanville's columns in the New York Times. I was unaware that he'd written a book and eagerly sought out a copy when I heard about it. He's a thoughtful writer and pleasant company for a reader. That said he struggles a bit to maintain momentum at book length and he seems reluctant to bare his teeth. One gets the sense that he knows a little more than he's willing to say in about the culture of the game.

[Anthony Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charming, light, if somewhat meandering tour through Doug Glanville's big league career. Glanville is a thoughtful and self deprecating presence, and the book often reads as though you were chatting with a very self-aware person who happened to make the major leagues. It doesn't have much structure, however, so its best read in little chunks.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun, quick read from a well-known former major-league ballplayer turned columnist and broadcaster. This is not a hard-hitting or truth-telling memoir but instead a fun glimpse into the life in both the majors and minors.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoughtful book from a thoughtful ballplayer. Who knew.

[Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting book about the inside of baseball from a different voice, covering many topics, including steroids (et al.) from the viewpoint of someone who never bulked up. Good stuff!

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty cool to read a book about a person you know. If you are a baseball fan, this book is for you.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is completely appropriate for Glanville: competent and unremarkable.

[Martha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightful! What a great way to gear up for opening day.

[Greg Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read with a good mix of stories and reflection from Glanville's time as a major leaguer. An interesting guy with a thoughtful writing style.

[Sean Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite all time baseball books. Glanville gives the average fan what it's like to live through the day to day grind.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a little gem that I only recently discovered. Very glad I did. Lots of interesting stuff about the fleeting MLB life.

[Samantha Klowas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feel-good read about baseball

[Mark Ahrens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doug Glanville, ex-Major League player for the Phillies, Cubs, and Rangers, has penned a new book -- The Game From Where I Stand: A Ballplayer's Inside View. Glanville was an outfielder for 9+ seasons in The Show and, with the exception of 1999 when he batted .325, enjoyed a largely workmanlike career (.277 BA). However, Glanville's keen observations of the game, brought out vividly in his new book, are far more impressive.

Glanville was raised in Teaneck, NJ, a diverse and inclusive neighborhood, by parents who taught him respect and integrity. This upbringing gives Glanville a unique vantage point from which to view his baseball experience. It enabled him to deal effectively (if not perfectly) to the celebrity and spoils that come with being a Major Leaguer and to move on to see the game for what it truly is (and is not).

The Game is at its best when it brings a fresh perspective to our overheated rhetoric around PEDs. Glanville understands the temptations that players were under and the choices they made, but doesn't condone them. He calls out some of baseball's more iconic players, such as Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, and Clemens but also laments that, at the time, nobody really knew who was using and who wasn't. In the end, he stopped short of eviscerating these superstars; instead taking the reasoned response that he would not have chosen the same road they did.

Glanville's talent for observation also allows him to talk eloquently about baseball minutiae such as sign stealing, the process that traded veterans go through to retain their old jersey number, and baseball's infamous kangaroo courts. Not to worry though, these details are enjoyable and eminently entertaining.

Clubhouse justice makes everyone aware of the possible consequences of brain freezes. Of course, there are some legends of the court who, despite extensive fines and constant trips to the docket, are just absentminded professors dresse in baseball uniforms. These repeat offenders cannot be helped by any system of justice, but they serve the team well by providing comic relief during the marathon of a long season.

The Game is a most satisfying new entrant in a new genre of baseball books that take a humanistic, cerebral view of the game. The Complete Game by Ron Darling and The Bullpen Gospels by Dirk Hayhurst are others of this ilk. These books take a nuanced view of the "game within the game" or explore the human side of ball players. They serve as a welcome counterpoint to the "kiss and tell" or rah, rah pulp found in many of today's sports books.

BooksonBaseball Rating: Home Run (gain a new appreciation of the game's subtleties from a keen observer and writer)

Glanville has taken his writing chops to new media outlets as well. He has just ended a run with the New York Times as a columnist and has recently moved to ESPN.com. Below is an excerpt from his most recent ESPN article--on the rising, like the phoenix, of Dback Kelly Johnson.

There are not many places hotter than Arizona in the summer. The sun is relentless. It's not unusual for bodies to overheat and minds to suffer the kind of delirium that is an incubator for bad decision-making. Even though it was December when the Diamondbacks signed free agent Kelly Johnson to a one-year deal, many fans and pundits wondered whether the team's front office had been in the sun too long. Were the D-backs seeing in him a figment of their imagination, an optical illusion of possibility?

I thoroughly enjoy Glanville's writing and am looking forward to his ESPN.com column.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Glanville seems a natural to write a baseball book like this one. He had a very successful career, tallying over 1000 hits in 9 seasons, but is also a good writer, a graduate of Penn (systems engineering) and a color commentator for ESPN. He also seems to be a very well-grounded human being who understands that the life of a professional baseball player is a peculiar one. And while he was very successful, staying in the league for so long, he also wasn't so good that he doesn't fully appreciate the tenuous situation most pro athletes face in order to stay on top.

So I'm a bit sorry to say I wasn't as drawn in as I hoped to be in reading this book. I started it during the season last summer, set it down at some point, and never finished until I found some time during the off season. Oddly enough, Glanville's greatest strength – that he is thoughtful, sensible, understanding, and always diplomatic – makes the book a little dull. I'd still rather read what he has to say over what Jose Canseco has to say.

And he does have a unique perspective, dealing with the stereotype that comes with being highly educated in a world that doesn't necessarily admire that quality. He's observant enough to write things like, "I spent a lot of my minor league career shaking off the exhausted 'black athlete' labels of laziness, natural talent, and nonchalance." Or "our uniform is our patch on the arm, a badge that becomes our ticket to social acceptance, fame, financial security (maybe) and admission to an elite club of 'success.' But it's also a ticket into the theater of self-doubt. A doubt that turns most players into awkward Clark Kents without their Superman costumes." It's not exactly rocket science, but it's not the sort of thing you would see most ballplayers write or perhaps think.

The best parts of the book are probably where he cares to offer insight into how the social and professional life of a single ballplayer can be dramatic or lonely, rewarding or difficult. Above all, Glanville is a stand up guy who offers some nice insight into what it's like to live an existence in that strangely privileged and highly competitive universe.