Baked in Time: From Rookie To Cookie
UNBOXED with Doug Glanville
Shortly after my career ended, I became edible when Max & Benny’s, a Chicago-area bakery, chose to put my face on a cookie as part of their 25th anniversary celebration. At the time, I was in the midst of a fragile transition to my second career in media, so it took me a while to fully appreciate the honor of being preserved with baked permanence. But as the years passed after my nine-season MLB career, I came to realize that this was a uniquely creative way to commemorate my time in the game—something I still carry with me today. Against all odds, this cookie, carefully wrapped in plastic, has survived the test of time as a memento from my baseball career.
Making it to the big leagues was a journey beyond imagination. Not because I did not think it was possible, but because the scale and scope of it were massive. Finally landing at Wrigley Field for my debut on June 9, 1996 felt true to the metaphor—it was like climbing a mountain to get there. But what was equally true was how difficult it was to stay in that lineup once my name was on it. Every day felt like survival, a constant tug of war between the immediate need to adapt and the imminent risk of falling off of the scorecard. There were only so many spaces on that active roster, and it was far too easy for a manager to erase someone’s name or cross it out with an indelible marker. I felt like I had to rewrite my name every single day.
I often wonder if the cookie creator intuitively understood what was at stake for a big league player—the fragility of it all—and the parallels from rookie to veteran. Just how easily you could crumble under the heat of the game. How you could disintegrate because you did not have the right ingredients, or because you had not been properly trained to put those ingredients together in the right combinations. In theory, when a team calls you up to the show, it means you are ready, you fill a need that they require. The egg timer set by the organization goes off, and you are now deemed a finished product.
But are you? Are you underbaked? Too hard? Too chewy? You will not know until you step into that batter’s box or get on the mound for that first pitch.