How an All-Time Great’s Worst Performance at the Wrong Time Soiled his Reputation With the Mets – The Tragedy of Tom Glavine

From a shelling from the Padres to a rough start to the 2023 season, Max Scherzer’s numbers with the Mets are often overshadowed by the poorly-timed lowlights. That’s almost going to be a given when playing in one of the largest baseball markets in the world with one of the largest contracts ever awarded to a player in Mets history. I’m sure you the reader have thoughts on whether he earned that bread, but on the eve of August 28th we heard what the crowd in Citi Field thought:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYSgW7F-hPE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYSgW7F-hPE)

There were definitely a heap of thankful fans in attendance but the sounds of the more passionate and disappointed ones were more audible. Deserved or not, this is the side effect of big city sports. We see it with Yankees fans when Giancarlo Stanton can’t come up big. We heard several boos when Manny Ramirez returned to Fenway (albeit the reasons were less performance-related).

But for the Mets, the worst victim of this was Tom Glavine.

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https://preview.redd.it/lc869lmdb2lb1.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=587a42c79fad365877a691ac47355677e57555ed

Glavine was one of the most reliable pitchers of all time. Across 22 seasons with the Braves and Mets, he started 682 games and pitched over 4,000 innings. He was rarely injured, and when he was, he returned like nothing happened. When the team needed a win, he was eager to go out and get one. And on September 30th, 2007, his Mets needed one desperately.

From a distance, 2007 looks like a great year for the team. They finished 88-74, a record that many teams would kill for, and had career years from David Wright and Jose Reyes. Sadly, it’s the last month that sticks out, when the team couldn’t capitalize on their NL East lead and lost both the division and the wild card spots. Make no mistake, this was a team effort. The bullpen couldn’t hold leads, the hitting core couldn’t hit, and they had no answer for the surging Phillies.

However, it could’ve been avoided. Down to game 162, the team needed a win to keep their playoff hopes alive. Their opponents, the Florida Marlins, were last in the division and looked like an easy target to feast off of. The ol’ reliable Tom Glavine was on the hill, and momentum was in the team’s favor as the day before, John Maine had held the fish to 7.2 no hit innings.

One other thing: this was the last game Tom Glavine would ever pitch for the Mets. His contract expired after 2007 and there was a good chance he was going to retire.

[https://www.espn.com/mlb/spring2007/news/story?id=2768861](https://www.espn.com/mlb/spring2007/news/story?id=2768861)

In his career with the Mets, Glavine had two All Star nods and was a key factor in their 2006 run. His 2007 numbers weren’t as solid as his past years – his ERA was an inch above 4 and he was under 100 strikeouts for the first time since his debut with the team – but he had reached 200 IP and was consistently putting out quality starts. This was the man the Mets *wanted* on the mount for this game, and if he was going to retire after 2007, he was going to retire with another ring.

The game began and Glavine faced off against leadoff batter Hanley Ramirez. He worked the count 3-2 and then took ball four to give the Marlins a runner on first to lead off. Not the most ideal way to start, immediately putting on a man with 50 stolen bases on the season. To make matters worse, Dan Uggla, a home run threat, was up next. That meant Glavine had to keep Ramirez close while navigating around a dangerous bat. Fortunately, Uggla hit the ball on the ground and Ramirez was forced out at second. Crisis averted.

This was the only out Glavine would record.

From there, he surrendered a base hit to Jeremy Hermida, an RBI single to Miguel Cabrera, another three runs on a Cody Ross double coupled with a throwing error that brought him home, a single to Mike Jacobs, a walk to Matt Treanor, and then another single to Alejandro De Aza. In only a third of an inning, Tom Glavine had surrendered four runs. All earned.

The next man up was the opposing starter, Dontrelle Willis. Willis was one of the best hitting pitchers in the game and was not to be taken lightly. If Glavine wanted to escape the first inning, he *needed* to get him out. He got ahead of him 1-2, but his next pitch left his hand at the wrong point and struck Willis. With that, the Marlins had successfully batted around. Manager Willie Randolph came out of the dugout to pull Glavine for Jorge Sosa, who managed to get the final two outs but at the cost of three more runs.

Tom Glavine, in his final start with the Mets, in a game they needed him most, had surrendered 7 ER in .1 IP.

No one can imagine what he felt as he left the mount, but I doubt it was easy to contain himself. With every step he took toward the dugout, the shower of boos from furious fans growing louder and louder. He had let the team down in a way a player could only have nightmares about. To the city and the press, his legacy with the Mets was ruined.

Glavine did not retire after 2007; he signed a one year deal with the Braves during which he posted a 5.54 ERA. He was clearly not major-league material that year, but that 2008 must have been therapeutic for him. An all star pitcher whose planned final start ended in shambles could not live with the feeling of failure, so he signs with the team he experienced his heyday with to end things on a more positive note. Braves fans were more than welcome to have him back. After all, he was part of that championship-caliber pitching staff that led them to multiple World Series in the 90s and a win in 95. It was like when Ken Griffey Jr. finished his career with Seattle. Regardless of how he pitched, I bet that last stint with the Braves lifted up him.

Personally, I feel sorry for Glavine. I’m a big picture person when it comes to careers and it’s sad how the last thing a player does often overshadows the greatest things they’ve done. Glavine did not produce like an ace, but he was a keystone to the up and coming Mets of the 2000s and he fulfilled every expectation they had except one. That 2007 team collapsed for reasons beyond his control, but there’s no denying game 162 stung. Had the Mets performed like they should’ve that month he would not have been in that situation, but major league sports is a results business. Success is the standard and failure is magnified. The mantra for every team is the same thing New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick’s instills into his men: “Do your job.”

The Mets are not the only team in recent memory to experience a disastrous collapse. In 2011, the Boston Red Sox *and* the Atlanta Braves experienced one firsthand. For those teams, though, the stenches of those seasons were lifted in no time, be it through a historic rebound or another World Series ring. The Mets had no relief from 2007. After another collapse the year after, they produced a losing record in Citi Field’s inaugural year and lost their competitive edge not long after that. Although they made a World Series appearance in 2015, they could not win that coveted championship.

When I think about that ill-fated start by Glavine, another moment in sports history comes to mind, ironically dealt by a championship Mets team: Bill Buckner’s error. For many years, Buckner was the face of the Red Sox’s World Series loss, and Boston sports fans could barely speak anything positive about him. When you look at the game six in its entirety, however, you’ll see that what *really* caused that Sox loss was a complete collapse of the bullpen. Much like Glavine, I’m sure Buckner felt the incredible weight of that loss, and even for him it overshadowed the success he had with the team, including a 200-hit 46 doubles season in 1985. When the Curse of the Bambino was finally broken in 2004, it felt like that weight was lifted. Sox fans, finally back in the world champions column, had much more positive and even lighthearted impressions of Buckner’s tenure. “Sure, he let that ball go by, but that hardly matters now!”

Glavine has yet to receive an exoneration of that sort. Mets fans have memories of his many great starts, but that final game of 2007 still sticks out. Perhaps a World Series trophy will alleviate that memory, but it could also be that the crushing blow of the collapse will permanently etch that start in many minds and no trophy will make them forget. Whatever the case, his *entire* tenure with the Mets should never be forgotten: 164 games with a 3.97 ERA. I’ll take a pitcher like that on my team any day.

Last night, Max Scherzer’s tribute resurfaced rough memories of that final game of 2022, a game that eclipsed the fantastic regular season that helped the team get to that point. For every game but one, he was the Max Scherzer the Mets expected. Regardless of how you view the player there is no denying the greatest critic of that performance is himself, and while tenures that end with low notes like that are viewed less favorably, I cannot look at his stint with the Mets with that lens. The same goes for Tom Glavine.