Ask Doug : Introduction

Baseball Factory

March 20, 2008

By Doug Glanville
 

Doug Glanville is working with the Baseball Factory and Team One Baseball as a Special Consultant. He will be writing articles and looking for your feedback and questions. If you have a question that you would like Doug to talk about please email them to him at askdoug@baseballfactory.com

Doug Glanville: Doug attended and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Systems Science and Engineering. Glanville was drafted 12th overall by the Chicago Cubs in the 1991 amateur draft. Doug played nine seasons in the Majors, getting his break with the Cubs. He also spent six seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies and a portion of the 2003 season with the Texas Rangers. In 1999, Doug batted .325 with 204 hits, 101 runs, six homeruns, 73 runs batted in and 34 stolen bases. He led the league in singles with 149 that year. Doug joined the Baseball Factory as a Special Consultant at the end of 2007.

Ask Doug
I had the good fortune of enjoying a 15-year professional baseball career and I saw a lot of things along the way. Since I have connected with Baseball Factory I have had the opportunity to meet with high school players and their parents and I have found that the issues facing these players are getting more and more complex. I hope I will be an asset to Baseball Factory in helping young players work through these issues.

I attended the Under Armour Pre-Season All-America Tournament in Tucson this year and it was eye-opening to see the level of preparation and focus required of these young players. When I was in high school, I was fighting the snow to get to the hardwood floor of my high school basketball court just to throw the baseball around; players today are entering full scale tournaments anywhere in the world with some of the best players in the country.

The competition is fierce and players have to be prepared for it at a younger and younger age each year. So how do you compete with the best for a small amount of spots and still maintain balance as a student -athlete? I argue that players can do it in the same way that allows them to be successful in life.

As we have learned from the problems with performance enhancing drugs in baseball, it should matter how much you are willing to give up to succeed or to be the best you can be. Success achieved by selling your soul is not success. Maybe you make more money or hit more homeruns, but you also have to wake up every morning, wondering who really did those things. You or you on drugs?

I am not a Hall of Famer, I did not set any major records, but I did show up every day with everything I had for that day. You win some, you lose some, but it is better when it is real and not artificial. It is amazing that when you cut one corner, it becomes a lot easier to cut another corner and pretty soon, you are just standing in the same spot cutting off your nose to spite your face.

You need to bring who you are to everything you do because as my Dad used to tell me “How you do one thing, is how you do everything.” Tell me how hard you work at home or in school, and I could tell you about how you handle your business on the baseball field. In the end, you can’t fool everyone, especially yourself.

Being successful should be about being the best person you can be. Yet, I understand the stakes are getting higher and higher for young players. Everyone is looking for an edge, but even in my day, only a few survive and can make a living out of it, so it only makes sense that you still should prepare yourself for everything life has to offer. Just in case, your first dream doesn’t come true in the way that you would like.

What you will find is that you can give an honest effort and get results that are real without sacrificing opportunity. I promise that with this approach, things will work out fine and benefit you everywhere in your life because you can look in the mirror and know that what you see is a person that came with the truth. In the end, that is what really matters.

Results are important, but not to the point where they overshadow everything else that is important. It does matter how you win that trophy as much as if you won that trophy. It does matter how you treat the umpires, it does matter if you respect your parents or your sister. In the end, even if you are blessed with talent as big as A-Rod’s, you still will have to leave this game at a young age and it will be important that you took the rest of your life seriously too.

I look forward to sharing a lot of stories. I hope to help parents and players see the inside of the baseball world in a way the gives balance and honesty. I also hope to get a lot of questions so we can open up the communication and talk for real. Hope to hear from you soon!

Doug Glanville

Baseball Factory/Team One Consultant

Republished from The Baseball Factory