User:GhostRiver/glanville

Early life

During his senior year in 1988, Glanville batted .525 with six home runs, eight doubles, and one triple while also going 15-for-15 in stolen base attempts.

College career

Although he was open to the possibility of playing professional baseball, Glanville primarily wanted to attend college and study engineering. As a result, he turned down offers to play college baseball for high profile programs like the Miami Hurricanes in favor of exploring his options in the Ivy League. He ultimately chose to attend the University of Pennsylvania, studying systems engineering while playing for the Quakers.

Professional career

Draft and minor leagues

Glanville was selected 12th overall in the 1991 MLB Draft by the Chicago Cubs, who were in need of a leadoff hitter and strong defender. Glanville rejected his initial $260,000 contract, however, and negotiations dragged on between the team and player over his signing bonus. He eventually signed with the team on July 21 for a $325,000 bonus and was assigned to the Class A Short-Season Geneva Cubs of the New York–Penn League. He adjusted quickly to the new level of play, reaching base safely in nine of his first 10 games with three doubles, one home run, and four RBIs. He played in 36 games for Geneva, batting .303 with eight doubles, two home runs, and 12 RBIs in 152 at bats, as well as 17 stolen bases in 20 attempts.

Glanville appeared at spring training with the Cubs in 1992 before opening the season with the Class A Winston-Salem Spirits of the Carolina League. Although he was batting only .204 through his first 27 games, Glanville was reluctant to say that he was struggling at the plate, preferring to think of it as "bad luck". He had no difficulty making contact with pitches, but would often line out rather than get on base. Glanville spent most of the season with a shoulder injury that caused him to bat only .258 for the year, with 32 stolen bases and 72 runs in 120 games.

Completely healed from his shoulder injury and with a strong display in spring training, Glanville was disappointed when he began the 1993 season with the Class A Daytona Beach Cubs of the Florida State League. Although he showed strength at the plate, with eight RBIs and five stolen bases through the first 30 games of the season, Glanville began to struggle defensively in Daytona, committing four errors in that same timeframe.

• 1993 Daytona Cubs
• 1993 Orlando Cubs
• 1994 Orlando Cubs
• 1995 Iowa Cubs
• 1996 Iowa Cubs

First stint with Chicago Cubs (1996–1997)

Glanville was promoted to the Cubs on June 8 as part of a larger roster shuffle: he, catcher Mike Hubbard, and infielder Terry Shumpert were all promoted from Iowa, while Todd Haney and Ozzie Timmons were optioned to the minor leagues and Brian Dorsett was designated for assignment. He made his MLB debut the following day, starting in left field for the Cubs' 4–2 victory over the Montreal Expos. Although he went hitless in all four at bats, Glanville established himself in the outfield with his diving, back-handed catch of a line drive from Mark Grudzielanek in the sixth inning, preserving the Cubs' 1–0 lead. Glanville's first major league hit and RBI, meanwhile, came the next day, when he singled José Hernández home in the third inning of a 2–1 victory over Glanville's hometown team, the Philadelphia Phillies. Although he batted well after his call-up, Glanville was rarely asked to start games for the Cubs, as manager Jim Riggleman was reluctant to replace one of his regular outfielders, such as Sammy Sosa. At the end of July, Riggleman optioned Glanville back to Iowa to continue his development, saying, "We just haven't been able to get him enough at bats" in Chicago. When the Iowa Cubs' season came to an end, Glanville, who batted .308 in 90 Triple-A games, was a September call-up for the Cubs. Glanville's first major league home run came on September 11, when he broke open the scoring for both parties in a 2–1 loss to Montreal. The Cubs finished their 1996 season fourth place in the NL Central with a final record of 76–86. Glanville, who appeared in 49 games, batted .241 with one home run and 10 RBI in 83 major league at bats.

After competing for a spot in Riggleman's left-field platoon system during spring training, Glanville was named Brant Brown's position partner for the Cubs' 1997 season. The Cubs lost their first eight games of the season, and Brooks Kieschnick was promoted from Iowa on April 11 to bolster a struggling offense, which in turn put Glanville's outfield position in jeopardy. Instead, Brown was optioned to Iowa the following week, and Kieschnick became the other half of Glanville's platoon. By the end of May, Glanville, who had previously started in games against left-handed pitchers, was beginning to see games against right-handed pitching, while Kiesechnick and Brown switched places once more. Riggleman also told reporters that, should Glanville become the full-time left fielder during the season, he would consider making Glanville the Cubs' leadoff hitter in place of center fielder Brian McRae. Glanville began leadoff hitting for the Cubs at the end of June, shortly before Riggleman sent Brown back down to Iowa and declared Glanville the team's everyday left fielder. He proved successful in the role, batting .304 with 27 runs scored and 19 infield hits in his first 35 starts as the leadoff hitter. He played in 146 games for the Cubs in 1998, batting .300 with four home runs, 35 RBI, and 19 stolen bases in 474 at bats.

First stint with Philadelphia Phillies (1998–2002)

The Cubs acquired Henry Rodríguez from the Expos on December 12, 1997, making Glanville a trade target. Glanville was traded on December 23, joining the Philadelphia Phillies as a center fielder and leadoff hitter in exchange for second baseman Mickey Morandini.

• 1998
• 1999
• 2000
• 2001
• 2002

Texas Rangers (2003)

Although the Phillies offered Glanville a lucrative contract for the 2003 season, he chose to sign a one-year, $1 million contract with the Texas Rangers on December 19, 2002, instead. Philadelphia had informed Glanville that he would likely be a backup player for rookie outfielder Marlon Byrd, whereas Texas offered him at least a semi-regular starting role. He filled in the same role with the new team that he had for the Phillies, playing in center field while batting leadoff. On April 14, however, only two weeks into the 2003 season, Glanville injured his hamstring while attempting to run out a ground ball in a game against the Anaheim Angels, and Ryan Christenson was called up from the Triple-A Oklahoma RedHawks in his place. Although the Rangers did not originally consider Glanville's injury serious, they placed him on the 15-day disabled list as a precaution, and later medical testing revealed a ruptured tendon behind his right knee, similar to the injury that had previously affected Rangers player Ricky Ledee, as well as Dallas Cowboys football player Quincy Carter. He underwent knee surgery on April 23 and was expected to miss another month of the season rehabilitating. Glanville was activated on June 7, returning to his usual offensive and defensive positions and effectively sending Christenson back down to Oklahoma. Upon his return, however, manager Buck Showalter noticed that Glanville was slower, with a limited outfield range, and he batted only .190 in the first three weeks after his activation. He regained his strength and effectiveness in July, however, with multiple four-hit games in the final stretch of the month. In 195 at bats for Texas, Glanville batted .272 with four home runs and 14 RBI, and he stole 25 bases in 52 games.

Second stint with Chicago Cubs (2003)

At the July 30 trading deadline, the Rangers sent Glanville back to the Cubs in exchange for cash and a catching prospect, a decision that he stated later he "wasn't exactly thrilled about". The Cubs, who added an additional $2 million to their payroll at the trade deadline in preparation for a pennant race, now had two Ivy League graduates on their roster: in addition to Glanville, Mike Remlinger played for the Dartmouth Big Green.

• 2003

Second stint with Philadelphia Phillies (2004)

On January 12, 2004, Glanville signed a one-year, $550,000 contract to return to the Phillies as a backup outfielder for starters Bobby Abreu, Pat Burrell, and Marlon Byrd.

On June 21, a struggling Byrd was optioned to the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders to work on his batting mechanics, and the Phillies chose to rotate Glanville, Ricky Ledee, and Jason Michaels in center field, with Glanville given the edge when Philadelphia was in need of a late-inning defensive boost.

• 2004

Retirement

After the conclusion of the 2004 season, Glanville had not decided whether he would continue his MLB career, where both the Phillies and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays had shown interest in signing him, or if he would pursue extra-athletic career options. That February, he signed a minor league contract with the New York Yankees, which included a non-roster invitation to spring training. There, he was competing with Bubba Crosby for a position as the center field bench player, backing up Bernie Williams. On March 27, shortly before the start of the 2005 MLB season, the Yankees released Glanville, who was disinterested in playing for the Triple-A Columbus Clippers. His final at bat was a single against his former team, the Phillies. That June, Glanville signed a ceremonial one-day contract with the Phillies, enabling him to formally retire as a member of that team. In nine MLB seasons, Glanville batted a career .277, with 59 home runs and 333 RBIs in 3,964 at bats over 1,115 games.

Post-retirement career

Business interests

Immediately after his retirement, Glanville began work at Metropolitan Development Group in Chicago, a company that rebuilds deprecated properties into luxury homes.

Academic career

Glanville returned to his alma mater for the spring semester of 2018 to teach "Communication, Sports, and Social Justice" at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. The following year, he adapted the lecture format of his Penn class to teach a 20-person seminar titled "Athletes, Activisim, Public Policy and the Media" for the political science department of Yale University. In 2019, Glanville became an adjunct professor at the Neag School of Education of the University of Connecticut, teaching an undergraduate course on sports and society.

Personal life

Glanville married his wife Tiffany, a fellow University of Pennsylvania alumna and an attorney for the law firm of Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, in October 2005. The couple have four children together, and moved to Hartford, Connecticut in 2012, whereupon Tiffany joined the local Board of Education.