There Is No Joy in Glanville

Those of you who frequent ESPN.com on your daily tour of the interweb may have came across former Major League Baseball player Doug Glanville’s stirring guest column on the website today.

If you haven’t, it’s certainly worth your time. Why?

For one, this is one of, if not the first example of a clean pedestrian player speaking out and lamenting the now public dishonest nature of the league he played an integral part in for nearly a decade. Sure, we’ve seen Curt Schilling’s thoughts on the issue, but he’s in the spotlight on a regular basis.

Glanville’s voice is unique and we identify with it because he isn’t superhuman. He describes himself as “a singles hitter with a good glove”, which is accurate. He wasn’t a flashy player or a slugging demigod. Doug Glanville, by all accounts (including his own), was an honest, hard-working, average Major League Baseball player. He also happens to be an Ivy League graduate, and his column is what one might expect from someone of his educational background.

With eloquence, passion and remorse, he provides a perspective that all members of society can understand.

Glanville served as the union representative for the Philadelphia Phillies and often volunteered his time to such charitable causes as the Corporate Alliance for Drug Education. But as he points out, he was never one to preach or villify a teammate for their choice. He points the finger not at the individual but at society as a whole.

So what can you take from it? Well, in the wake of the Mitchell Report, and with many of the game’s fallen heroes clutching to the “mistake” copout and clinging to nervous denials, it’s refreshing to hear a new point of view. One that doesn’t necessarily represent that of the common man (these are still millionaire professional athletes, remember), but that of an average baseball player questioning not just his former co-workers, but the culture in which he lives. While many of his peers resorted to banned substances and other equally unethical performance aids, Glanville stood by what he believed in. His message may come off as preachy or self-indulgent, but guess what? He has the right to be.

He says he played clean, and unlike all those fallen folk heroes who have fed you the same old party line, there’s something different about this voice.

You believe him.