Doug Glanville: Wise Men at Their End - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

The name Doug Glanville probably inspires little in most baseball fans. At least to me, Glanville is one of those hazy fringe 90's ballplayers I'll always sort of remember, the way I remember Phil Collins' worst 90's efforts. (IIIII can't dance! IIIII can't talk!) They're there, in my brain, but rarely do they mean anything.

But Glanville's post-playing career is quickly becoming worth watching, most notably for his New York Times baseball column, which today contains some genuine wisdom about age and development and the difficulties -- and necessities -- of stepping aside:

These inspirational anomalies make us understand that experience and time are not one and the same. You could have sat in major league locker rooms for decades and still not have the impact of a one-person movement. And when that kind of universal and era-free player comes knocking, we have to answer the door and let him in.

So I came to understand - quickly - that Ryan [Howard] will do my old number justice. After you giving it your best shot and do [sic] all you can, it is easier to step aside when a force of nature is replacing you. In fact, in some cases, for the good of the game it would be selfish if you didn't.

It's impossible to expect every veteran that believes they can still contribute to step down the minute a young prospect replaces them. It's understandable that Juan Pierre would want to keep playing, that Corey Patterson is trying to do everything to keep Jay Bruce in Louisville for time immemorial. But it's also refreshing for Glanville to make clear that, yes, veterans and retirees get it. Sometimes experience stops being valuable. Sometimes the beauty of talent takes over, as it should.