Saying Goodbye to the Playing Career of Tom Glavine

Long time Atlanta Brave and New York Met pitcher Tom Glavine will no longer be an option for my fantasy team.

Glavine has been a constant member of my fantasy teams for the past 15 years.

Ironically he ends his career in 47th place on my list of top fantasy players, matching his uniform number.

He was a pitcher on my team at total of 55 times and scored my team 1,031 fantasy points for a weekly average of 18.74 fantasy points.

In 2006, Glavine scored 190 fantasy points in eight selections, for an average of 23.75 fantasy points per week.

But now to step away from fantasy and enter reality.

Glavine debut with the Braves on Aug. 17, 1987.

He quickly became a favorite of mine and all of Braves Nation.

Soon Glavine, John Smoltz and Steve Avery became the face of the Braves pitching staff.

In 1993, Greg Maddux joined the clan, and Glavine, Maddux, Smoltz along with Chipper Jones and Javy Lopez became long time household names with Atlanta Braves fans.

On May 13, 1998 a friend and I got the chance to go to St. Louis and see the Braves play the St. Louis Cardinals.

It was my first Major League Baseball game experience and it was awesome. The friend I was with was not a sports fan and could not fully comprehend the excitement.

On that Wednesday, we were among the 31,532 people that watched Glavine lead the Braves to a 10-2 victory over the Cardinals and then home run slugger Mark McGwire.

Glavine pitched 7.2 innings, allowed four hits, two runs, including a home run, two walks and six strikeouts. Two of the strikeouts went to McGwire.

Pitcher Mike Cather came in closed out the game for Glavine.

On Aug. 28 I traveled back to St. Louis with a fellow Braves fan.

This friend is a big Glavine fan and this would be her first time seeing our boys of summer.

We made our way to the dug out and watched batting practice. We spent most of the time peering through our zoom lenses snapping pictures.

At one point I looked over and did not see my friend, then I looked down and she was sitting down fanning herself recovering from the joy and shock of seeing Glavine in person.

Glavine pitched game two of the series and once again lead the Braves to victory with a little save help from Rudy Seanez.

The memorable moment from this game came in the first inning when McGwire was called out on strikes. McGwire argued with the umpire and was ejected from the game.

The Cardinal fans which made up the majority of the 47,627 people in an attendance were not happy and the boos rocked Busch Stadium. Trash showered the Braves on the field.

It was a scary moment to be wearing a Braves jersey, but no injuries were reported.

Glavine survived the first inning mini riot and went on to throw 7.1 innings, and strike out four. He even had a hit in the game.

Glavine gave way to then Braves controversial relief pitcher John Rocker who pitched one inning before Seanez closed out the win.

We returned in August of 1999 but Glavine did not pitch.

However, he returned to the mound in Busch Stadium on Aug. 25, 2000 and once again we were there to watch him lead the Braves to a 7-4 victory over the Cardinals.

Once again Glavine pitched into the seventh inning before giving way to Terry Mullholland and Kerry Lightenberg.

Three years later the hearts of Braves fans were forever damaged when Glavine dawned the uniform of the hated New York Mets.

He returned to Braves blue in 2007 and my friend and another made plans to once again go to St. Louis in 2008 in an effort to see Glavine, Smoltz, Maddux, and Chipper and a what we hoped would be a returning Javy, before the dreaded word retirement claimed any of them.

Well things didn't go as planned, see story for more information and we did not see Glavine or Javy.

We tried again in 2009 and once again Tommy was missing.

In 2010 Glavine will be with the Braves as a coach. So maybe there is hope of seeing him in this capacity and maybe even picking up the elusive Glavine autograph.

Until we meet again Tommy, thanks for the memories.