After nine seasons in Major League Baseball, 1,115 career games and 3,964 at bats, Doug Glanville has hung up his cleats.
Glanville was the 12th overall pick in the 1991 draft, taken by the Chicago Cubs, after he completed his junior year at Penn.
Beating the odds and the stereotypes that Ivy League baseball players endure, Glanville had a successful career at the Major League level. He amassed a career .277 batting average. In 1999 he earned a career high .325 batting average, led the National League with 628 at-bats, and was first in the league in singles with 149 one-basers.
Glanville spent time with the Cubs, the Texas Rangers, and the Philadelphia Phillies. In fact, the outfielder hit the first walk-off homerun in Citizens' Bank Park history in 2004. While there always may be a soft spot in the heart of Philadelphians for the swift center fielder ? who finished his career with 293 consecutive errorless games ? he may be best remembered for his heroics in a Cubs' jersey.
In a critical Game Three of the 2003 National League Championship Series, Glanville was called upon by Cubs manager Dusty Baker to pinch hit for the Cubs in the top of the eleventh. With Kenny Lofton on first and one out, Glanville hit a liner past the Marlins' Mike Mordecai for a game-winning triple. It was Glanville's first triple of the season.
Glanville grew up a lifelong Phillies fan despite growing up in Hackensack, N.J., deep in the heart of Yankees territory. Glanville accomplished his dream of playing for the Phillies, playing in the Phillies' outfield from 1998 to 2002 and in 2004. Last week, he also got the chance to end his career with them.
After signing a minor league contract with the Yankees this past winter, Glanville spent the spring fighting for a spot behind Bernie Williams on the major league roster. However, Glanville was waived at the end of spring training and was not picked up by another team. In a classy gesture, Phillies general manager Ed Wade signed Glanville to a one day contract with the Double-A Reading Phillies so that he could officially retire as a Phillie.
However, unlike many other Major League Baseball players, Glanville will not be depending on the salary he earned playing baseball or on MLB's pension to provide for himself after his retirement from baseball.
Rather, Glanville, who is set to marry his fiance Tiffany in October, has put his Penn engineering degree to good use. He runs a real estate company called Metropolitan Development outside of Chicago. His company specializes in purchasing run-down properties and transforming them into condominiums and custom homes before reselling the properties. He also currently sits on the Engineering School's Board of Overseers.
Glanville's success at the collegiate and professional level is still a point of pride for his Penn coach, Bob Seddon.
Seddon still recalls his recruiting visit to Glanville's Bergen County home.
"He wanted an urban environment," Seddon said, even though "Princeton in the worst way wanted him."
Glanville's career helped Seddon's recruitment campaign.
"He is the first of all the players that I coached that made it to the Major Leagues," Seddon said.
His play helped put Penn and Ivy League baseball on the map. Furthermore, his example served as encouragement for some players who would not have necessarily played at Penn otherwise.
Glanville has enough experience, connections, intelligence, and a degree on top of it all to continue to provide for himself. He has publicly stated that he may consider a future in baseball either through broadcasting or through a position in the Phillies front office.
Glanville's retirement leaves only one Penn baseball player on a Major League roster. That player is Mark DeRosa who currently plays for the Texas Rangers.
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