Retired Philadelphia Phillie Doug Glanville (who was the first African-American Ivy League grad* to play in the major leagues) has been writing a series of Op-Extra columns for the New York Times over the last couple of years.  They combine inside glimpses of the game with insights that can only be gleaned from lived experience.  I really admire Glanville’s cool, wry, thoughtful tone in these pieces.  The current one, posted yesterday, is “Sleepwalking Through September,” a meditation on how to mentally approach the game when you know your team can’t make the playoffs, yet you still have six weeks to play. 

And here’s a link to the entire series, which the Times is calling Heading Home. 

*Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, 1993.