1999 Pacific Invincible #111 Doug Glanville

Following a release or a waiver, it's easy for me to click on the current Phillies roster in the sidebar of this blog and delete a player's name. I'm guilty of sometimes forgetting the players I'm deleting are real people with real families. The recently departed such as Brett Myers, Eric Bruntlett and Pedro Feliz not only have to find new employers for 2010, in some cases they'll need to find a new house, a new school for their kids, a new doctor's office, a new everything.

Doug Glanville found himself in a similar position following the 2002 season. He recently wrote a fascinating piece for the New York Times in which he discusses his last year with the Phillies and his ultimate decision to leave the team. I love reading stuff like this and it would have been great to have been a fly on the wall to hear the conversation between Glanville and his mentor, Garry Maddox. I'll try to keep the human element of this offseason in mind the next time I delete a player's name from the ever-evolving 40-man roster.

Postscript: Glanville did get the chance to start with the Rangers in 2003, but a hamstring injury caused him to miss half of April and all of May. At the July 31st trade deadline, he was dealt to the Cubs to assist with their stretch run as a bench player. He came back to the Phils for one more season, serving as Marlon Byrd's back-up in 2004. In 2005, after failing to make the Yankees out of Spring Training, he signed a one-day contract with the Phillies in order to retire as a member of his home-town team.