Well, finally discovered by me anyway. I had no idea Doug Glanville had been writing for the New York Times for several months. You may remember (or not) that I made a big hoo-ha when Glanville penned a somewhat touching editorial for the NYT back in January. Glanville played several years for the Cubs, Phillies and Rangers, and as the Times likes to point out (for fear that it’s readership wouldn’t read something written by a baseball player) he has a degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

I read through all the articles I’d missed in order to bring you a handy guide. Glanville is the best athlete writer I’ve come across in a while. Even better than Paul Shirley. Very down to Earth, isn’t afraid to show his sensitive side, and is even a little on the melancholy side. The column is called Heading Home and the topics range from baseball brawls (”most players are really just lovers, not fighters”) to his most recent piece, a wonderful tale of going through his closet and answering 15-year-old fan mail.

But I think my favorite is Way Inside from April 11, which is mostly about Roger Clemens and his near-rabid inability to admit he’s wrong, but also in the abstract about the idea that professional baseball athletes believe in themselves to such a degree that they lose the ability to listen to anyone else not fully in tune with their experience.

That is where things get a little weird. Bravado kicks in, and inevitably you end up only listening to your own voice or the voices of the ordained elite, those you’ve given the key to get inside. It becomes an alternate reality where even though you think you are saying things that make sense to the outside world, most of your true thoughts and ideas just bounce off the inside coating and end up right back where they started. To make matters worse, as with most catered-to athletes, your inner-circle is probably not giving you opinions substantive enough to allow you to assess yourself honestly.

There are seven or eight Glanville articles in all, and I’m still hoping someone gets him a book deal at some point.