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Home > Jeff Schultz > Archives > 2008 > May > 20
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Glavine still has Mets’ number
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In hopes of shifting the balance of power in the National League, the New York Mets signed Tom Glavine in 2003, paid him $50 million over the next five seasons and somehow hoped that Flushing would morph into the Caribbean.
Never quite happened. Glavine went from mediocre to pretty good to Wile E. Coyote at the bottom of the canyon. The Mets won one division and little else, starring in one of the greatest collapses in baseball history.
Should we be surprised at what happened Tuesday?
Glavine looked like a premier starting pitcher again.
Of course.
He was pitching against the Mets.
He allowed only a run and three hits over six innings. He retired the last 17 batters he faced. Bobby Cox took him out after the seventh inning, I’m guessing because he doesn’t have the SEC-stomp-on-them-until-they-ooze-death gene.
The Braves won the first game of a doubleheader 6-1. More important, Glavine proved again he’s got a little something left, off-season obituaries notwithstanding.
“There’s always a drive to prove people wrong,” he said later. “There were a lot of naysayers about me coming back and pitching again after the way the year ended. But I felt like I could still pitch. I feel good.”
Welcome to the Mets’ perfect little nightmare.
The Braves gave Glavine $8 million for one season, ostensibly because they believed he could still chew up innings as a third or fourth starter. He has done just that — he’s third on the staff in innings — and with the exception of a couple of bumps, he’s also been pretty effective. This makes two straight wins after a string of no decisions and one loss. His ERA: a hardly horrific 3.98, most of the damage coming in single innings of two starts against Cincinnati and Philadelphia.
The Mets touched him for a run in the first inning but left the bases loaded. Then it was all over.
“He’s not overpowering,” said David Wright, who struck out looking in the sixth. “But it’s frustrating facing him when he’s like that — hitting his spots, black to black, up and down. He knows what he’s doing.”
Glavine is now 17-7 with a 2.82 ERA against the Mets.
He was 4-11 with a 5.15 ERA against the Braves.
Excuse New Yorkers if this take this a little personally.
“Well, it’s only one [this year],” Glavine said after his first start against the Mets since his return. “I pitched well against the Mets for some reason before I left here. I didn’t pitch well against the Braves when I was there. I don’t know why. There’s a different feeling pitching against a team you were with for 16 years vs. one you were with for five.”
Last season, he saw the best and worst of being a New York athlete. The city embraced him when he won his 300th career game and he started the year 13-6. Then somebody pulled the plug and everybody circled the drain. The Mets held a seven-game lead on Sept. 12 but lost 12 of their last 17. Glavine led the collapse. He went 0-2 with a no-decision in three dreadful starts (composite ERA: 14.82).
In the final game of the regular season against Florida, Glavine was drilled for seven runs in one-third of an inning. The Mets lost 8-1. Philadelphia won the East by a game. Glavine boarded a plane and never came back — if for no other reason than his own safety.
If Tuesday somehow qualified as payback, it probably wasn’t what Mets fans had envisioned.
“It gives me bragging rights for one game,” Glavine said.
He struggled early. His right knee had been bothering him since he woke up Tuesday and the soreness lingered during warm-ups. He said he “felt out of sorts,” and admitted: “Probably some of it was the adrenaline of facing these guys.”
But he survived the first inning. The rest seemed easy. We shouldn’t be surprised.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment | Categories: Braves/MLB
The Tuesday Countdown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
10: NFL owners are opting out of the Collective Bargaining Agreement early. Because CBAs can be convoluted, confusing and boring, let me bring this down a level everybody that can understand. Owners: Oink.
9: I know professional athletes tend to get thrust to the front of the Pig Line by a lot of people. But players are so a distant second to owners in the NFL. According to deep research, which took, like, two minutes of Googling, CBS, Fox, NBC and ESPN pay the NFL a combined 3.735 BILLION (that’s with a “b”) per year. That equates to $116.7 million per year per team. That’s before any owner sells a sponsorship, ticket, a luxury suite, a jersey, a $7 program, a $12 beer or a $20 parking space. And what do the owners want? More.
8: They have created the NFL Network, which is fine, it’s good business, but they’ve put increasing restrictions on - and squeezing out - non-NFL electronic media outlets. Now, they are opting out of the current CBA because they believe they’re giving the players too big a piece of the pie. You’re going to hear other issues from them that cloud the issue, but that’s really what this is all about.
7: How much pie can 32 billionaires eat!?! Unlike basketball, baseball and to a certain degree hockey (which has split contacts), NFL contracts are not guaranteed (except for the signing bonus). That’s why I never have a problem when a football player wants to hold out. The owners have a hard salary cap with non-guaranteed contracts. They already live in CBA nirvana. They want a rookie pay scale. Know what? I have no problem with that. More importantly, neither would veterans. But does anybody really believe players are going to make up the lost salary on the back end of their career?
6: Owners are upset that they pay the players about 60 percent of the pie. But Suits: They are the product. Yes, the NFL is the most successful, most powerful entity in pro sports on the globe. But didn’t owners discover who was really important several years ago when they played games during a strike with replacement players? Remember? Nobody came. Nobody cared. And if set the tone for another work stoppage, don’t look this way for support.
5: Andruw Jones reportedly has torn cartilage in his right knee. His personal trainer has suggested he start cramming the cheeseburgers in his left cheek instead of his right, in hopes of shifting the weight and alleviate the pressure.
4: I wish I could’ve seen the look on Bill Parcells’ face when Jason Taylor - part-time football player, full-time dance star - said he hopes he’s known for something other than football in 10 years.
3: All’s quiet on the Hawks’ hiring front, but Sacramento’s Geoff Petrie did not deny to a Sacramento Bee reporter that he was contacted about the front office opening. “My commitment is to the Kings,” he said. “It always has been ever since I’ve been here, and nothing has changed.”
2: Went to Sugarloaf over the weekend. I asked Stewart Cink a few questions about golf. He asked me several about the Thrashers. I think we agreed the franchise was over par.
1: Question for Odell Thurman: Why would you expect anybody to give you the benefit of the doubt now?
Permalink | Comments (41) | Post your comment | Categories: Braves/MLB, Falcons/NFL, Hawks/NBA
