11
2010
Tom Glavine Officially Retires; Mets Fans Aren’t Devastated
An article by 
According to Mark Bowman at mlb.com, Tom Glavine has retired from baseball after 22 years in the major leagues. He will reportedly return to the Braves as a special assistant to team president John Schuerholz and will participate in Braves’ radio and television broadcasts.
To baseball fans, Glavine was one of the best pitchers of his generation. He won 305 games over his career, including five 20-win seasons. He finished in the top three in Cy Young Award balloting six times, winning the award twice (1991, 1998).
Mets fans might remember him for something different. Some will remember Glavine for picking up his 300th career victory in 2007 as a member of the Mets. Others will remember his outstanding 2006 campaign; a year in which he finished with a 15-7 record in the regular season and followed that up with two more victories in the postseason, which included a sparkling 1.59 ERA.
Some of us (myself included) will only remember Glavine for his final appearance in a Mets uniform. On September 30, 2007, just one day after John Maine pitched his near no-hitter against the Marlins to help the Mets tie the Phillies in the standings going into the regular season finale, Glavine was only able to record one out against Florida. Sandwiched around that out were seven runs by the Marlins. Coupled with the Phillies’ victory over the Washington Nationals, the Mets failed to repeat as division champions in 2007.
If his poor performance against the Marlins wasn’t enough to enrage Mets fans, his post-game comments surely managed to do the trick. After the season-ending loss, Glavine offered this tidbit to reporters.
“I’m not devastated. I’m disappointed, but devastation is for much greater things in life. I’m disappointed, obviously, in the way I wanted to pitch. I can’t say there is much more I would have done differently.”
As a baseball fan, I appreciate what Tom Glavine did on the baseball field. He will be a first ballot Hall of Famer (and since he threw his last pitch in the majors in 2008, he is eligible to be enshrined with former Braves teammate Greg Maddux in 2014). He was a quality postseason pitcher. He was not a cancer in the clubhouse. He also taught us (with the help of the aforementioned Maddux) that “chicks dig the longball”.
However, as a Mets fan, every time I think of the final 17 games of the 2007 season, instead of the frequent losses to the Nationals and Marlins, I think of Tom Glavine. Mets fans suffered a great deal as they watched their team lose the division title to the Phillies. We could not fathom that the Mets were part of an historic collapse. So when Tom Glavine did not echo the sentiments of Mets fans by saying he wasn’t devastated by his performance and the outcome of the game, it came as no surprise that Mets fans had had enough of Glavine.
Congratulations on your retirement, Mr. Glavine. I’m happy that you had a successful and lengthy career in the major leagues. Based on your career achievements, you deserve to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. I’m just not devastated to see you go.
About the Author: Ed Leyro
Ed Leyro was hatched in the Bronx, but spent most of his youth in Queens at Shea Stadium. Apparently, all that time spent at Mets games paid off as Ed met his wife (The Coop) for the first time at Citi Field during its inaugural season. Guess the 2009 season was good for something after all. In addition to his work at Mets Merized Online, Ed also owns, operates and is head janitor at Studious Metsimus, where he shares blogging duties with Joey Beartran. For those not in the know, Joey is a teddy bear dressed in a Mets hoodie. Clearly, Studious Metsimus is not your typical Mets blog.
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That tidbit was typical media crap. He was interviewed further after that came out and explained it and it was not nearly as aloof as it sounds.
He also said it was the worst game of his career and for the FIRST time in a career the outcome of the game effected his life for weeks to follow.
When he said he wasn’t devasted, he said that is unfair word to use. His wife works with terminally ill children and when a child dies THAT is devasting, and to compare a really bad game to it, is totally disrespectful.
Tom Glavine gave his all to this team, and his first few years, this was a really bad team. So all that gets lost.
Tom Glavine did his job here, except for ONE really bad game, and had the whole team done THEIR job leading up to that game it would not have even been a second thought.
Tom Glavine
I agree, I understood what Glavine meant even before Buddy H said that, but it makes it even more true. We are watching a game being played. Something that at times keeps our minds off of the real “Devastations” in life.
I remember that game Maine pitched, and after that, I almost felt completely insured that Glavine would help the Mets win the next day. I was wrong, in fact I was way off. But Glavine cannot be blamed for that horrible outting, and yea, if the whole team did thier job….
Glavine is a professional. He gets paid to pitch and record outs. If you read Living on the Black, you’d see that he was just a Brave in sheep’s clothing the entire time he was with the Mets and that he just poochied out that last game. I hate harping on the past, esp since it was more than that one game that cause the Mets’ collapse in 2007, but there were at least 4 other games he started that had he won would have been the difference in the remainder of the season. Glavine may be a HOFer and I respect him for that but he shouldn’t have been a Met, ever.
To pin mets past couple of yr meltdowns on glavine is rediculous. hes been around to long to let 1 tough loss break him down mentally. thats why he is a 300 gm winner. mets continually put themselves in positions to have no room for error. then blame it on 1 man. reacting to a loss like that and then carring that disapointment over to next season is recipe for failure. 08 proved that
Glavine is a very intelligent man. I think if anyone doesn’t get that impression through his interviews, as baseball fans they should surely understand how smart he must be because he won 300 games with a pedestrian assortment of pitches.
But in the moment of that quote, he wasn’t very smart because while he very astutely understood and appreciated the differences between the words “disappointed” and “devastated” he didn’t understand the different impact his choice of word in that moment would have on the fans of the team paying him millions of dollars to help put them over the top.
Clearly he understood it later, but by then it was too late. The damage was done.
Glavine will be a future HOFer.
That game by Glavine really was tough. I was there and he really looked bad. I blame Willie for that call. He seemed to learn nothing from Torre in terms of really managing a clinching game and not leaving it to one guy to lose. What a bad job managing in that game. The 40 year old, hall of fame, starting pitcher is not purposely getting rocked!
It wasn’t Willie’s fault that Glavine stunk. Nor is it the Wilpon’s fault that Tommy had a sense of entitlement when he was with the Mets.
As far as Glavine being “very intelligent,” I’d say his aloofness was misinterpreted.
Unfortunately, we got Glavine about a decade too late!
Given his great career and his outstanding season in 2006, I actually considered to buy his shirt to start 2007, but fortunately never did as it turned out. Nevertheless, he is a great professional, a future HOF’er, and deserving of the fan’s respect. We’re all aware that he is a Brave at heart, but he did compete as a Met for the time he was with us. We owe him respect as he awaits his entry into the HOF and, as fans, we fans we need to put that less than memorable game behind us. And we need to realize that he WILL be a former Met in the HOF, believe it or not.
I never embraced Glavine as a Met. I thought he was a mercenary biding his time with a club because the Braves didn’t want him.
His stats were ordinary, at best, during his time with the Mets. Steve Trascheal had basically the same stats as Glavine over a four year period. Of course, Glavine was paid to be a star – but he wasn’t.
He also had a penchant for giving up leads after getting them. It seemed that anytime the Mets took the lead in the 4th, 5th or 6th inning, Glavine would give it right back.
He was great in the first three or four innings but the third time around in the batting order would be his downfall.
Probably the best 4 and 2/3rd inning pitcher the Mets had during his stay – unfortunately you should have to pitch at least until the 7th.
I don’t dislike him – I just don’t think he contributed all that much to the Mets – and he certainly didn’t come close to earning the money he made.
Eric Gregg worked in the National League from 1975 to 1999. He was known as for his controversial home plate umpiring and his generous strike zone. With the huge Gregg strike zone, control pitchers like Glavine were rewarded for pitching outside the conventional strike zone but still getting strikes called.
Glavine had superior command and talent that was made Hall of Fame talent by umpires like Gregg. It was in some ways a travesty.
Keep in mind the money he made was money the mets were willing to give him. braves wernt willing to pay that. thats why he left. i commented on live atl tv at braves game when he was upset about his position as a brave last yr. i thought his feelings were a little hurt last yr. but our orginazation and b cox made a tough choice to put best availbe pitchers on roster. glavine wasnt good enough anymore. mets should have known that