Being a Tiger, Eating like Big Mac

Doug Glanville: Lessons from the Times

I know it is hard to see what has happened to some of our most famous athletes in the last couple of months. As if the drug investigation into baseball (Mitchell Report) didn’t expose enough about the greed, insecurity, and rampant drug culture in baseball, now we are looking at athletes that broke records or are knocking on record doors and wondering why their lives are such a mess.

Mark McGwire admitted to taking steroids at various times during his career, including the year that resulted in his breaking of the single-season homerun record. He genuinely seemed tormented by making this admission, one that most of us knew was eventually going to come, but even after hearing the news, all I thought was that this was another question mark about the legitimacy of baseball.

It goes back to the same idea. What are you willing to do to be the best? How far will you go to be a legend? Is it worth any price?

Well, I hope you have limits and boundaries that have been shaped by what you value in your life. Things that you will not compromise no matter what the promise. That is what it means to “stand for something.” This “something” is what you would never give up.

Yet everyone has different lines in the sand as to where to draw that wall. But no matter where your line is, once you give in to temptation and peer pressure to use steroids, it is hard to go back. Once you pop that first magic pill, it becomes part of you and you will now wonder who you would be without it. Now McGwire cannot separate the man on the juice and the man off the juice and that is a bad place to be.

Then we have Tiger Woods. Undoubtedly a force of nature and the greatest golfer on the circuit. He is dancing right up to legendary records set by Jack Nicklaus as a young man. So what happened? His “off the field” choices derailed him indefinitely. Is there lesson here?

There no doubt is a lesson. I still remember my days in high school and I understand how difficult it was to find your social life. You could be shy, you could be a late bloomer, you could be busy with other activities, you could just be scared. It is OK. I also remembered how nervous I was when I asked Christine Saunders to the prom. I barely could speak after she said yes. It is hard in high school.

So imagine you make it to the next level in baseball. Your confidence rises, you can now talk to all of those young ladies that used to scare you half to death. So you keep going, trying for a little cuter, trying to impress your teammates, trying to “one-up” yourself. But will you have the discipline to stop? Will you even want to stop as you keep going until you end up like Tiger Woods or many other pro athletes that have unlimited access to women all over the place. Maybe it sounds fun as a young man in high school. But it is important to pay attention to what has happened to Tiger Woods. It is important to separate ego from learning yourself and other people. Ego keeps score, measures conquests, compares to things that don’t really matter. Ego comes and goes, just like his career came and went in the blink of an eye. If you are rising in the world of baseball, congratulations, but make sure you keep a foot on the ground because there will be a lot of people telling you things and pumping you up, including in your new social circle, but they disappear when the music stops, leaving you solo. Just like Tiger is right now.

But there is always someone around in your life who is stable, who has your back, no matter what happens. Focus on them, listen to them, and stay close. It will help you when the attention gets addictive, the type of attention you may not have gotten in high school and are enjoying for the first time.

Opportunity will always be there socially, but the window for being a pro baseball players will not and even when you take advantage of it, it doesn’t last that long. I saw too many players fall apart from chasing the night life before they fulfilled the dream. The night life is just an illusion, people in that circle come and go, but will baseball be there?

McGwire, Woods, A-Rod, whoever. It matters how you do things on and off of the field. Treat people with respect no matter if you are hitting .400 or .200. Try and do an honest job, so you get honest results. Accept setbacks and struggles, it is how you grow. Have fun, but be smart about it. You can party from time to time and still get your rest.

Now that it is out, was it all worth it for McGwire and Tiger? Breaking a record by any means necessary or tallying up yet another woman is not a broken record at all, nor a score worth keeping. All you end up with is a broken soul and an empty scoreboard.



Doug Glanville joined the Baseball Factory as a Special Consultant at the end of 2007. Glanville 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. Glanville 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, Glanville 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. To review other articles from Doug Glanville, including his New York Times column, please click here.

Should I Walk-On?

Rob Naddelman: Through a Parent’s Eyes

I can’t tell you how many of our Baseball Factory parents and players have asked this question over the past 15 years. For anyone not familiar with the term “Walk On,” it is in reference to a player that decides to attend a college and earn a spot on the baseball roster without having a scholarship commitment, and in some instances, without even being recruited. It certainly is a very tough decision and there is no blanket answer to the above question. Each family and each baseball program is a unique circumstance.

The New York Times had a great article recently entitled, “For College Walk-Ons, a Road Less Traveled Makes All the Difference.” It detailed the stories of Brett Gardner (current CF for the NY Yankees), Ryan Howard (former MVP for the Philadelphia Phillies), and Eric Karros (former 1B for the LA Dodgers). All three of these players walked on to their college baseball programs and then turned into Major Leaguers. While these stories are very inspirational and are a testament to their hard work, it doesn’t mean that “walking on” is the right decision for each family. For every Brett Gardner success story, there are hundreds of players that get cut from their college program and never have a chance to pursue college baseball.

Kelly Kulina, our Senior Vice President of the Exclusive Program, has told me time and time again that when he was the Associate Head Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at the University of Maryland, they had 75-100 players each year that would try to walk on. The program might keep one or two of the players and the rest never had a chance to play college baseball. Kelly believes that the majority of these players could have been college baseball players, just not players at the University of Maryland. They were a better fit for smaller programs and not the right match for the rigors of playing Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) baseball. Most of these players probably didn’t market themselves to a variety of college programs or did not have any other college baseball coaches showing interest. With no other baseball options to consider, they most likely chose University of Maryland for academic or social reasons.

My advice to Baseball Factory families on this topic has always been consistent. Have as many options as possible before making a decision to walk-on. Your son may decide that he wants to try and walk-on, because in the end, there are just too many things about that particular school that he loves and can’t pass up. However, I would want that player to have to say “no thank you” to a number of other schools that have shown interest in him for baseball.

In my mind, if you explore all your options, and can make an informed decision one way or another, you can’t go wrong. It is only when you make a desperate move, or when you haven’t given the process 100% effort that regrets seem to set in.


Rob Naddelman is the President of Baseball Factory. Naddelman is a former two-time All Ivy League Third Baseman at the University of Pennsylvania, where he competed in a College World Series Regional. He has served as the President of Baseball Factory for the past 13 years, and also is the Executive Director of Baseball Factory's charitable arm The B.A.S.E. - H.I.T. Foundation. Naddelman and Steve Sclafani (CEO) have been featured in Business Week and CNN for their work in building Baseball Factory into the nation's leader in player development and college placement.