Tom Glavine

Left-handed pitcher with 300 wins and two Cy Young Awards.

Thomas Michael Glavine, an American former professional baseball pitcher, played 22 MLB seasons for the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets. He won 164 games in the 1990s, second only to Greg Maddux in the National League, and is one of 24 pitchers in major league history to achieve 300 career wins. Glavine was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014 with 91.9% of the vote.

Quick Facts

Position: Pitcher
Bats: Left
Born: 25 March 1966
Birthplace: Concord, Massachusetts, U.S.
Debut league: MLB
Debut date: August 17
Debut year: 1987
Debut team: Atlanta Braves

Facts from the source article.

Did You Know?

Glavine was drafted by the Los Angeles Kings in the 1984 NHL draft, two rounds ahead of Brett Hull and five ahead of Luc Robitaille.
His younger brother Mike played MLB first base for the New York Mets in 2003, the same year Tom signed with the Mets.
Glavine's 201 sacrifice bunts prior to 2007 ranked second among active players, behind Omar Vizquel.

Early years

Glavine was born in Concord, Massachusetts, and raised in Billerica. At Billerica Memorial High School, he was an honor student and lettered in ice hockey and baseball. In hockey, he recorded 47 goals and 47 assists in 23 games and was named Merrimack Valley's Most Valuable Player as a senior. He led his baseball team to a Division I North Title and Eastern Massachusetts Championship. He graduated with honors in 1984 and was elected to the school's athletic hall of fame in 1993.

Professional career

Glavine was drafted by the Los Angeles Kings in the 1984 NHL draft (fourth round, 69th overall) and by the Atlanta Braves in the second round of the 1984 MLB draft, choosing baseball. He debuted on August 17, 1987, and went 33–43 from 1987 to 1990. In 1991, he won 20 games with a 2.55 ERA, the first of three straight 20-win seasons, earning his first Cy Young Award. The Braves won the National League pennant but lost the World Series to the Minnesota Twins.

Glavine, Greg Maddux, and John Smoltz formed a celebrated rotation; among them they won seven Cy Young Awards from 1991 to 1998. Glavine won his second Cy Young in 1998 with a 20–6 record and 2.47 ERA. In the 1995 World Series, the Braves beat the Cleveland Indians in six games, and Glavine was named Series MVP after winning Game 2 and Game 6, the latter an eight-inning one-hit shutout. He became the last major league pitcher to win 20 games in three straight years (1991–1993).

Pitching style

Glavine, a left-hander, relied on excellent control, deception, and changing speeds as his velocity declined. He typically started with a circle changeup off the outside corner, then alternated fastballs and changeups. His pitches had substantial movement, producing soft contact and ground balls. He started at least 25 games every season from 1988 onward and was never on the disabled list until his final season at age 42.

His repertoire included a plus-curve ball, a slider, and a tailing two-seam fastball. Despite being left-handed, he was often more effective against right-handed batters, a trait Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully attributed to Glavine pitching from the extreme right edge of the rubber. He was a good-hitting pitcher with a career .186 batting average, hitting over .200 in nine seasons, and a .244 on-base percentage. He won four Silver Slugger Awards, second all-time among pitchers behind Mike Hampton.

Players' union representative

Starting in 1991, Glavine served as the Atlanta Braves team representative to the Major League Baseball Players Association, succeeding Dale Murphy. He was heavily involved in negotiations during the 1994–95 strike, which canceled the 1994 World Series and lasted 7½ months. When play resumed in 1995, Braves fans booed Glavine for his union role.