Eight or nine years ago, I befriended a woman in the local dog run whose son had grown up with Glanville, and I remember her having incredible things to say about him. He really is an excellent writer, and I’ve been enjoying his Times pieces tremendously. I didn’t experience this one as preachy, exactly. He did come awfully close a couple of times to using some of the cliches discussed in the Stupid Baseball Lingo thread, but he never quite did, and I read the piece all the way through without feeling like it was the least bit trite or phony.