Tom Glavine retires from Baseball

Posted on February 13, 2010

Tom Glavine of the Atlanta Braves in action during a game against the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California in 1999. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

Tom Glavine, one of the steadiest and craftiest lefties of my generation, announced his retirement on Thursday. Glavine always reminded me of Warren Spahn when he pitched with his style on the mound, and he will be joining the Boston and Milwaukee Braves great in Cooperstown in four years after he put together a stunning career that will become even more impressive as the years go by.

Glavine finished his career with a career record of 305-203 with a 3.54 ERA from 1987 through 2008. He spent 17 seasons with the Braves and 5 years with the Mets (where he won his 300th game). Glavine was a 10-time All-Star, won the NL Cy Young Award with Atlanta in 1991 and 1998 and helped the Braves win the 1995 World Series.

Glavine helped form one of the most dominant pitching staffs I have ever covered with the Braves in the mid-1990’s when he joined John Smoltz, Steve Avery and Greg Maddux. I remember when the Braves were awful in the late 1980’s and they had the three young starters (Glavine, Smoltz and Avery) in their rotation. They kept throwing them out there every fifth day, allowing them to take their lumps and learn the art of pitching. It really paid off a few years alter when they started their run of winning 14 consecutive division titles (WOW!). It all started with their great young pitching staff- led by Glavine.

By the time Maddux joined Glavine, Smoltz and Avery in 1993 in was not even fair. These guys were the consummate professionals, always trying to out duel each other on the mound and on the golf course (see above). Every time Glavine was pitching on television you just had to watch and marvel at his pin-point control that allowed him to get the outside strike called against right-handed batters when he was in his prime. Good thing for Glavine that Major League Baseball did not bring in the robotic QuesTec system for monitoring ball and strikes calls until the end of his career. Once they brought in this system in 2001 Glavine did not get the outside strike, and his effectiveness declined and he had to learn how to pitch differently.

The 43-year-old Glavine will now join the Braves front office staff as special assistant to Braves president John Schuerholz. Because he hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2008, Glavine will appear on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time in the same year that former teammate Greg Maddux becomes eligible. That will also be the same year Frank Thomas is eligible. 2013 should be an amazing class of newcomers to Cooperstown!