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

Doug Glanville played outfield for the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, and Texas Rangers from 1996 through 2004. From 2008 to 2010, he wrote the online column “Heading Home” for The New York Times and provided baseball analysis for XM Radio's MLB Power Alley. In the spring of 2010 he joined ESPN as a baseball analyst, contributing to Baseball Tonight, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine. He serves on the executive board of Athletes Against Drugs, the fundraising committee for Boundless Readers, and advises high school student athletes as a special consultant to the Baseball Factory. Glanville grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. He lives with his family in Chicago.

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. 

The Washington Post - Dave Sheinin

If Jose Canseco's 2006 blockbuster, Juiced, with its tawdry depictions (and named names) of rampant steroids use and womanizing, was the template for the modern ballplayer memoir, Glanville's book is the polar opposite…Glanville…is a witty, insightful writer, and his detailed descriptions of the unseen banalities and secret vanities of the baseball life—how players pass the time during rain delays, the proper way to pack an equipment bag after you've been cut, the admission that players practice signing their autograph—are sometimes riveting and often amusing, even for those of us already intimately familiar with that life.

Introduction xi

1. Before the First Game 1

2. Preparing for the Game 22

3. During the Game 36

4. Respecting the Game 61

5. The Stresses of the Game 81

6. Relationships in the Game 98

7. Bridging Differences in the Game 125

8. Giants of the Game 155

9. The Integrity of the Game 180

10. Toward the Last Game 202

11. Reflections on the Game 223

Epilogue 247

Appendix: In the Book 251

Acknowledgments 259

Index 265