Nov 08 2008
Can’t count on Glavine to return in 2009
By Bud L. Ellis
braves.today.com
ATLANTA — It had all the makings of a true Hollywood story, one where the longtime member of a winning team comes back home to help his old franchise return to prominence.
Yeah, that is what all of us had in mine when Tom Glavine left the New York Mets and signed a one-year deal with the Atlanta Braves last offseason. After all, Glavine finished in the top five in the National League in quality starts a year ago, and while he got lit up like Red Dawn in the final game of the 2007 season – when the Marlins blasted Glavine and the Mets to help complete the New Yorkers’ famous choke job – there was more than enough evidence to believe his return to Atlanta would help solidify the middle of the rotation. After all, Glavine won 41 games in his final three years pitching for the (ick) Mets.
Ah yeah, those best-laid plans … blown to hell in a handbasket by the injury-riddled 2008 season.
Maybe I should’ve had an inkling sitting inside chilly Turner Field for the home opener on March 31, a night where Glavine needed 97 pitches to grind through five innings against Pittsburgh. Maybe all of us should’ve known something wasn’t right as Glavine posted a 5.56 ERA in May.
Then came that disastrous night at Wrigley Field in early June, when Glavine left the mound after three innings with an elbow injury. A strained flexor tendon in the elbow placed Tommy on the DL for two months. He attempted to return in August, but gave up seven runs in four innings against the Cubs, forcing the future Hall of Famer and winner of 305 games to undergo elbow surgery.
So, is Glavine done? Like I wrote about John Smoltz yesterday, there is no way the Braves can count on Glavine being able to toe the slab in 2009. We simply won’t know until Glavine picks up a baseball and starts throwing – which he plans to do next month.
In the meantime, we’re left with the memories of all Glavine did for the Braves from 1987-2002. I was there the night he held Cleveland to one hit over eight innings, the night the Braves won the 1995 World Series. There won’t be many warm memories from his 2008 stint with Atlanta, but maybe we’ll get another chance next season.
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