Elation for Glavine, numbness towards Bonds
Posted: Monday, August 06, 2007 2:13 PM
This baseball weekend will long be remembered. Alex Rodriguez, a failure last October in the playoffs, became the youngest player to reach 500 home runs, once the absolute benchmark of home run greatness, but now a number that appears to be merely a signpost.
Barry Bonds tied the greatest record in American sport, hitting home run No. 755 in San Diego (defying the prediction in this space of some wise guy), and reveling in more cheers -- although they were far from outnumbering the boos -- than anyone could have expected.
Yet, these eyes were riveted on a television screen in Los Angeles International Airport Sunday night, watching Tom Glavine win his 300th game. I couldn’t move nor could I deny the emotions I felt watching a player I came to know well and admire reach the goal he long sought and occasionally doubted he could reach.
Shouldn’t those words have been written about Bonds? After all, these eyes watched about 400 of Bonds’ home runs and this voice called a fair percentage of those, including the magical quartet of 500, 70, 71 and 73 in 2001.
Yet although over the weekend I was in San Diego covering the U.S. Open Series women‘s tennis event and was close enough to go to Petco Park Saturday night, I chose to watch on local television and was mainly numb when Bonds reached No. 755.
All weekend I listened to locals deride Bonds’ efforts yet they packed the park. Bonds was -- from all accounts -- decidedly booed, yet all could see many in the park stand and cheer when home run No. 755 left the yard. This was a moment that was supposed to be cherished, yet I -- who respects Bonds and held a good working relationship with him for nine years -- was numb when the milestone was reached.
What I should have felt for Bonds instead hit me hard as I watched Glavine. Good fortune allowed me to get to know Glavine well for his first three years with the Mets. What I learned, and what all should know, is that Glavine is the baseball player we should admire. He is a diligent practitioner of his craft, who always carries himself with the utmost professionalism (a trait the Braves should be proud of breeding as sad as some may be that he didn’t achieve this goal in an Atlanta uniform). Glavine is the type of person and player who should be rewarded.
Always a team-first player, Glavine has also been a baseball-first player. Never discount his last-minute role in leading the player's union to avoid a walkout in September of 2002. If Major League Baseball is wise, it will have Glavine in its halls when he hangs up the glove. In my experience no one has been better able to navigate, articulate, and understand the concerns of both players and owners.
A member of the media can always get to know a starting pitcher well for they have a great deal of downtime over the course of the season. In my time talking to Glavine I learned that Michael Corleone wasn’t right. When he left the Braves in a painfully emotional decision, he learned that you can’t really separate business from personal. No matter how hard Glavine tried to rationalize the Braves’ business decision, he couldn’t eliminate the personal sting. Jeff Wilpon made Glavine and his family feel wanted and the Mets have reaped the benefits.
Although it didn’t work that way at first. Glavine struggled, learning to pitch for the first time since his early years with a bad team. And in his first two seasons, the Mets were truly awful. My view is Glavine’s turning point came in the first two months of 2005. Glavine had begun to pay a price for the Questec zone, and in his first start of that season several borderline calls went against him. Those at-bats resulted in damaging hits, and Glavine was stung with a big loss. Willie Randolph had been hired to reverse the Mets’ fortunes, to create a winning atmosphere, and it was imperative for all to know if Glavine would be able to contribute.
Rick Peterson, the Mets pitching coach, had a candid talk with Glavine and made the simple point that the hitters were telling Glavine he had to change. Glavine could resist, stay with his tried-and-true routine, but Peterson said if Glavine wanted to win 300 games, he likely had to change.
Glavine listened. He started throwing his fastball to the inside part of the plate. North of 40, Glavine still has enough life in his arm to throw that pitch. He also added a curve that he hadn’t thrown much in the majors. Slowly, things changed and as that year progressed, and the Mets improved enough to show the promise they have fulfilled in the last two years, Glavine rebounded.
He changed, the Mets won, and so has he. Two years after that crossroads period Glavine pitches on, still effective and amazingly healthy. He wins 300 with no cloud hovering above, and many of us, I think, enjoy that. We who grew up in the glory days of baseball (the 1960s and 1970s) yearn for those uncomplicated times. When George Foster hit 52 homers in 1977, the first man to hit 50 since Mays 12 years earlier, it meant something. It was astounding and we didn’t wonder why.
Now we see Bonds hit home run No. 755 and, in San Diego, broadcasters say root for Alex Rodriguez to hurry up and overtake Bonds in career home runs. Glavine wins 300 and there are no questions. I loved feeling that way Sunday night in LAX.
