Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Tom Glavine | Former Professional Baseball Pitcher | 05-11-26
Transcript
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- 0:25Speaker 2: Talking about all time great, how about Tom Glavin. I
- 0:28Speaker 2: don't know how many pitchers are. We're gonna win three hundred
- 0:30Speaker 2: games again. Tommy won three hundred and five. You know,
- 0:33Speaker 2: we got his three hundredth win as a New York
- 0:35Speaker 2: Met two thousand and seven. Remember the game well in
- 0:38Speaker 2: August against the Cubs, and Glavin came here to pitch
- 0:41Speaker 2: for the Mets, and Tom and I became good friends
- 0:44Speaker 2: over the air. You know, he would call me down
- 0:46Speaker 2: in Miami quite a bit here in New York. He's
- 0:48Speaker 2: a super guy. Had an amazing career with the Braves
- 0:51Speaker 2: mostly and the Mets, and his skipper Bobby Cox all
- 0:55Speaker 2: those years in Atlanta died this weekend at the age
- 0:58Speaker 2: of eighty four, and I only wanted to talked to Glavin.
- 1:01Speaker 2: So I'm Alway's in the car right now with his son,
- 1:04Speaker 2: the doctor, but he said, I'll call for you sid
- 1:06Speaker 2: so here. He is really one of the old time
- 1:09Speaker 2: greats and a terrific guy. My friend, the lefty Tom Glavin. Tom,
- 1:12Speaker 2: good morning, buddy, how are you?
- 1:14Speaker 3: Good morning? Said, I'm not the president, but hopefully i'll
- 1:17Speaker 3: do this morning.
- 1:18Speaker 2: You're a superstar as well. Trust me, I love both
- 1:20Speaker 2: of you. I love Trump and Glivin. I love you both.
- 1:23Speaker 2: So I was reading some of the quotes from guys
- 1:26Speaker 2: like Andrew Jones, who was benched after his first game
- 1:30Speaker 2: by Bobby Jones and by Bobby Cox, I should say,
- 1:33Speaker 2: and guys like Brian McCann and others. You know what, Tom,
- 1:36Speaker 2: He all said the same thing. Forget about his skills
- 1:39Speaker 2: as a manager. You know, he's a Hall of famer.
- 1:41Speaker 2: They said he was the nicest man ever. And most
- 1:45Speaker 2: people say Bobby Cox is the most beloved manager of
- 1:49Speaker 2: all time. I imagine you agree with that.
- 1:52Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, I do. You know, listen, there have been
- 1:55Speaker 3: a lot of great excuse me, a lot of great
- 1:57Speaker 3: managers in the game. And I know a lot of
- 2:00Speaker 3: guys who have played for Joe Tory probably say echo
- 2:02Speaker 3: a lot of the same sentiments that those of us
- 2:04Speaker 3: who played for Bobby will echo. But you know, I
- 2:08Speaker 3: think the thing that was great about Bobby is, you know,
- 2:10Speaker 3: he was tough, but he was fair. And you know,
- 2:14Speaker 3: even though he was tough, he had really only a
- 2:19Speaker 3: couple of rules. You know, you show up on time,
- 2:22Speaker 3: you wear your uniform the right way, and you play
- 2:24Speaker 3: the game hard. And that was really it. And I
- 2:28Speaker 3: know it sounds kind of silly for the average person
- 2:31Speaker 3: to hear this or hear me say that, but a
- 2:33Speaker 3: lot of guys will say the same thing. He treated
- 2:35Speaker 3: us like men and just kind of left us alone,
- 2:38Speaker 3: you know, like I said, with those three simple rules
- 2:41Speaker 3: that he had, he expected you to follow him. And
- 2:44Speaker 3: then he trusted guys to do what they needed to
- 2:48Speaker 3: do to get their work done, to be ready to
- 2:50Speaker 3: play each and every day. And you know, I know
- 2:53Speaker 3: for us pitchers, you know, particularly me, Smultiumatics, we played
- 2:58Speaker 3: a ton of golf. Everybody knows we played it golf.
- 3:01Speaker 3: Bobby didn't care because he knew it never got in
- 3:03Speaker 3: the way of us getting our work done and being
- 3:06Speaker 3: out there every fifth day taking the ball and go
- 3:08Speaker 3: to pitch. So I think that was a big part
- 3:11Speaker 3: of it. You know, like I said, he was tough.
- 3:14Speaker 3: If he had a problem with you, he'd call you
- 3:15Speaker 3: in his office and you talk it out and that'd
- 3:17Speaker 3: be the end of it. But he was also I think,
- 3:19Speaker 3: extremely fair and and you know, like I've said to
- 3:23Speaker 3: people over the course of the weekend, everybody keeps asking me,
- 3:26Speaker 3: you know, give me one word that would describe Bobby,
- 3:29Speaker 3: And I think the word that keeps coming to me
- 3:30Speaker 3: is passion. You know, he had a passion for his family,
- 3:33Speaker 3: he had a passion for the game, and he had
- 3:35Speaker 3: an unbelievable passion for his players.
- 3:38Speaker 2: You know, you mentioned the fact that was wonderfully said
- 3:41Speaker 2: and beautifully said. Tom. Now, do you guys like to
- 3:43Speaker 2: play gump It, Smolty and Maddocks. Who's the best golfer
- 3:46Speaker 2: of the three of you?
- 3:48Speaker 3: I hate to say it, it saylt Yeah, I'm trying to
- 3:52Speaker 3: close the gap on him. I'm getting there, but he's
- 3:54Speaker 3: still the.
- 3:54Speaker 2: Best because I know. In fact, when I texted you
- 3:59Speaker 2: Saturday and we talked about coming on today, I said,
- 4:01Speaker 2: something tells me you'll be on the sevente actually texted
- 4:04Speaker 2: you that if you remember that, so I know that,
- 4:06Speaker 2: I know that you love the game, you know, and
- 4:08Speaker 2: you get you know, on the Braves and correct me
- 4:11Speaker 2: if I'm wrong. I could be wrong, but I believe
- 4:13Speaker 2: your first two years there with the Braves, you had
- 4:15Speaker 2: Chuck Tanner, who was one of the great managers when
- 4:18Speaker 2: I was a kid with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was
- 4:20Speaker 2: a great manager. And then I think maybe had one
- 4:22Speaker 2: year of Russ Nixon before Cox, who walked away in
- 4:26Speaker 2: I guess ninety five after managing Toronto, decided to come
- 4:30Speaker 2: back eighty five, excuse me, decided to come back in
- 4:33Speaker 2: nineteen ninety and make a second run with the Braves
- 4:35Speaker 2: the twice to twenty one years. So you had guys
- 4:38Speaker 2: before Bobby, like Chuck Tanner and Russ Nixon before you
- 4:42Speaker 2: got Bobby Cox.
- 4:43Speaker 3: Yes, I did. Yeah, I look at Chuck. You know,
- 4:46Speaker 3: Chuck was a great manager, you know, and a super
- 4:49Speaker 3: nice guy. But I think I indirectly may have been
- 4:52Speaker 3: a little bit responsible for getting Chuck fired. I had
- 4:55Speaker 3: a game in Cincinnati early in my career, I think
- 4:58Speaker 3: eighty eight or eighty nine. I forget what. I think
- 5:00Speaker 3: it was eighty eight, but I was you know, I
- 5:02Speaker 3: wasn't very good that year, but Chuck kind of let
- 5:05Speaker 3: me left me out there, uh, to take one for
- 5:08Speaker 3: the team a little bit. And I don't think that
- 5:10Speaker 3: went over too well with the organization for for a
- 5:13Speaker 3: young guy like myself being out there. So that didn't
- 5:16Speaker 3: go well. And then you know Russ. Listen, I had
- 5:19Speaker 3: spent some time around Russ in the minor leagues, and
- 5:22Speaker 3: I lucked Russ. I mean, I I'll credit Russ for
- 5:26Speaker 3: me personally, because I was going through a tough time,
- 5:30Speaker 3: you know, early in my career. And you know, I
- 5:32Speaker 3: remember him calling me in his office in Chicago, uh
- 5:35Speaker 3: and essentially saying to me, listen, stop worrying about it,
- 5:38Speaker 3: stop looking over your shoulder. You're not going back to
- 5:40Speaker 3: the minor leagues. You're getting the ball every fifth day.
- 5:42Speaker 3: Figure it out. And that was huge for me as
- 5:45Speaker 3: a young player. And and you know, so so I
- 5:48Speaker 3: think every manager has their thing. I think every manager
- 5:51Speaker 3: has a mark on a player. But obviously, you know,
- 5:54Speaker 3: having the opportunity to play for Bobby for you know,
- 5:56Speaker 3: thirteen years or so, you know, and I think the
- 5:59Speaker 3: thing people for I got a little bit too, is
- 6:01Speaker 3: when Bobby came over from Toronto. You know, he was
- 6:04Speaker 3: the general manager for the Braves eighty six through ninety
- 6:07Speaker 3: one when he finally hired John Schuerholtz. You know, he
- 6:10Speaker 3: was manager general manager there in nineteen ninety when he
- 6:13Speaker 3: took back over as the as the on field manager, right.
- 6:17Speaker 3: You know, he made a commitment when he came over
- 6:19Speaker 3: from Toronto to be the GM that he was going
- 6:21Speaker 3: to rebuild a farm system and he was going to
- 6:23Speaker 3: focus on pitching. And you know, you look back at
- 6:25Speaker 3: some of those drafts and you know, the likes of
- 6:27Speaker 3: Kent Merker, Steve Avery. You know, he's traded for Smoltsey.
- 6:32Speaker 3: You know, he drafted Chipper. So his hands were all
- 6:35Speaker 3: over the minor league rebuild and then ultimately, you know,
- 6:39Speaker 3: turning that into a successful fourteen year run in the
- 6:42Speaker 3: big league level.
- 6:43Speaker 2: You know, it's interesting. Davey Johnson was such a great
- 6:47Speaker 2: managery had success in so many places. And you know
- 6:50Speaker 2: he won the World Series with My Mets who became
- 6:52Speaker 2: your Mets in nineteen eighty six. Now many accupants of
- 6:55Speaker 2: all the story, but won the World Series in nineteen
- 6:57Speaker 2: eighty six and then never won again. You know, eighty
- 7:01Speaker 2: eight the Mets lost the nlc as to the Dodgers,
- 7:04Speaker 2: the big orl hirsch Eiser a year never won again.
- 7:07Speaker 2: And you know, it's kind of weird to label somebody
- 7:10Speaker 2: who won a championship in any sport as disappointing. But
- 7:15Speaker 2: when you look back at your brave teams, especially with
- 7:18Speaker 2: you John and Greg at the top of that rotation,
- 7:21Speaker 2: and you can only boast one World Series win in
- 7:24Speaker 2: ninety five, was Bobby disappointed?
- 7:30Speaker 3: I mean, I listen, if you were to ask any
- 7:32Speaker 3: of us, and I'm sure Bobby would would say the
- 7:34Speaker 3: same thing, where we disappointed we only won one World Series? Yeah,
- 7:38Speaker 3: of course, you know, I think we felt like we
- 7:41Speaker 3: certainly could have won more. And I think that when
- 7:44Speaker 3: you start to really.
- 7:45Speaker 2: Like you should have ninety six, you had him in
- 7:47Speaker 2: ninety six. I know, the Layer, it's home on Bowlders.
- 7:50Speaker 3: That wasn't a big one, but you had him, no,
- 7:51Speaker 3: one undred percent. I think that when we look back
- 7:54Speaker 3: at it, if there's one that you kick yourself over,
- 7:57Speaker 3: yeah it's ninety six with the Yankees. I mean to
- 7:59Speaker 3: go up in New York and win the first two
- 8:01Speaker 3: games of the series up there and then come home
- 8:04Speaker 3: and you know, and then you essentially get swept four
- 8:06Speaker 3: games and the series is over. That was that was
- 8:08Speaker 3: extremely disappointing. And you know, given that, you know, Game
- 8:12Speaker 3: three I pitched and we lost, and we had a
- 8:14Speaker 3: basis loaded with nobody out one inning, didn't score. Game four,
- 8:18Speaker 3: we had a big lead. We gave that back. So yeah,
- 8:22Speaker 3: I think that's the one series you look at and
- 8:24Speaker 3: you kick yourself a little bit now when you look
- 8:25Speaker 3: at the other ones. You know, we lost in ninety
- 8:27Speaker 3: one to Minnesota. You know, we lost in ninety two
- 8:31Speaker 3: to Toronto, and even in the series that we beat Cleveland,
- 8:35Speaker 3: you know, the margin between victory and defeat is so small,
- 8:40Speaker 3: and when you look back at us beating Cleveland in
- 8:43Speaker 3: ninety five, yeah, there's some key plays during the course
- 8:45Speaker 3: of that series that went our way, you know, and
- 8:47Speaker 3: when you look back at the series that we lost,
- 8:50Speaker 3: those key plays didn't go our way. So I wasn't
- 8:52Speaker 3: a situation where you know, you just went in in
- 8:55Speaker 3: a series and you got bum rushed and you got beat.
- 8:58Speaker 3: There's typically two three crucial plays throughout the course of
- 9:02Speaker 3: the series, whether it's in a bat or a pitch
- 9:04Speaker 3: that make all the difference. And you know, in the
- 9:06Speaker 3: series that we lost, we weren't able to do that.
- 9:09Speaker 3: But you know, the disappointment of not winning another one shirt,
- 9:13Speaker 3: it's real. But I think a lot of us would
- 9:15Speaker 3: argue that going out and winning fourteen straight division titles
- 9:20Speaker 3: was probably harder than winning another World Series, you know,
- 9:23Speaker 3: And I think that for us, you know, when you
- 9:25Speaker 3: look back at it what we did, or look back
- 9:27Speaker 3: at Toronto for example, right, Toronto wins back to back
- 9:30Speaker 3: World Series and then you really didn't hear from them
- 9:32Speaker 3: again until last year. True, I would rather do what
- 9:36Speaker 3: we did and have a chance every single year, and
- 9:41Speaker 3: you know, and maybe not win one more one more
- 9:43Speaker 3: World Series. We had a chance every year and that
- 9:45Speaker 3: was that was pretty special.
- 9:46Speaker 2: Now, it's kind of like Jim Kelly for me. I
- 9:47Speaker 2: remember Chris Whoso arguing that Jim Kelly, you know, he
- 9:50Speaker 2: couldn't win the big So what the guy playing four
- 9:52Speaker 2: straight Super Bowls? He got beat by better teams except
- 9:54Speaker 2: for the Giants. So you know, the fact that the
- 9:57Speaker 2: Bills were there every year with Marvin, Jim and Thurman
- 9:59Speaker 2: and the guys Andre Bruce was pretty remarkable. And you
- 10:03Speaker 2: guys earned that same category. We'll wrap it up with Bobby,
- 10:06Speaker 2: but I do want to get to your Mets day.
- 10:08Speaker 2: I loved it here five years. I know. They go
- 10:10Speaker 2: back to the collapse and the game against the Marlins.
- 10:13Speaker 2: As I'm talking to you, I'm getting some text messages.
- 10:16Speaker 2: Tell Gladman the Marlins. You know. When you look at
- 10:18Speaker 2: your stay, I know, and you had that horrible car
- 10:21Speaker 2: action in the cab, you know. I mean, so you
- 10:23Speaker 2: had some rough moments here in New York. But when
- 10:25Speaker 2: you and I have talked in the past and all seriousness,
- 10:27Speaker 2: it seemed to me like you really enjoyed your years
- 10:30Speaker 2: here after those great years in Atlanta with the Mets.
- 10:34Speaker 2: Are you still fond of those days? The more removed
- 10:36Speaker 2: from New York you are?
- 10:39Speaker 3: I am, Listen, I loved my time in New York,
- 10:42Speaker 3: and I think anybody who really knows me knows that.
- 10:46Speaker 3: Look at I'm not going to tell you that it
- 10:48Speaker 3: wasn't a huge move for me. I'm not gonna sit
- 10:52Speaker 3: here and say that I didn't try to say I
- 10:54Speaker 3: signed back with the Braves. Of course I did, but
- 10:56Speaker 3: it didn't work out. And when that situation played itself out,
- 11:01Speaker 3: and and I ultimately found myself in New York. I
- 11:04Speaker 3: loved it. I had a great time there. You know,
- 11:06Speaker 3: I think that when people ask me about what it
- 11:09Speaker 3: was like to play in New York, you know, I'll say,
- 11:11Speaker 3: there's there's no place better when things are going well,
- 11:14Speaker 3: and there's no place worse when it's not. So you
- 11:16Speaker 3: try to stay on the good side of it as
- 11:17Speaker 3: much as you can, you know, And and it's you know,
- 11:21Speaker 3: the passion level up there is is off the charts.
- 11:24Speaker 3: But I did. I loved it. I had a great
- 11:26Speaker 3: time up there to this day. Some of those guys
- 11:29Speaker 3: that I played with on those teams or or some
- 11:31Speaker 3: of the guys that I keep in touch with the most.
- 11:34Speaker 3: And and you know, listen, we came close in in
- 11:37Speaker 3: O seven, you know, we were what one run away
- 11:40Speaker 3: from getting to the World Series, and and you know,
- 11:43Speaker 3: I think we all thought we had a team that
- 11:44Speaker 3: could win the World Series. Unfortunately, you know, fell a
- 11:47Speaker 3: little bit short there. But you know, it was a blast.
- 11:49Speaker 3: I hate the way it ended, you know, and people,
- 11:53Speaker 3: you know, obviously people have long memories and that I'm
- 11:56Speaker 3: myself included. I hate the way that all ended, you know,
- 12:00Speaker 3: was uh, you know, I wasn't pitching well at the time,
- 12:03Speaker 3: and I knew going out that day I was gonna
- 12:05Speaker 3: have to find something and figure something out. And I didn't.
- 12:07Speaker 3: But you know what, I still maintained. I mean, we
- 12:10Speaker 3: had a seven game lead in September. Uh so a
- 12:13Speaker 3: whole lot of things went wrong before we got to
- 12:15Speaker 3: that last day of the season, Oh, no doubt. Unfortunately,
- 12:19Speaker 3: I was just a guy on the mound that that
- 12:20Speaker 3: last day.
- 12:21Speaker 2: True Willie Randolph, of course, but you're such a stand
- 12:25Speaker 2: up guy, look at you. I didn't have it that day.
- 12:27Speaker 2: And because again, you gave the Mets a lot of
- 12:29Speaker 2: tropic starts here in New York, and you were a
- 12:31Speaker 2: great ambassador for us, and it was a big deal
- 12:33Speaker 2: to get a guy like you want a team because
- 12:35Speaker 2: you were a winner your whole career to the very
- 12:38Speaker 2: day that you walked up the field as a member
- 12:39Speaker 2: of the Atlanta Braves one more time, the very last time.
- 12:44Speaker 2: So that had to be pretty cool, right to go
- 12:45Speaker 2: back to Atlanta that that last season, just to say goodbye.
- 12:49Speaker 3: You know, it was. I mean, listen, I felt like
- 12:51Speaker 3: I had at least one more year in the tank.
- 12:54Speaker 3: But I also knew that, you know, playing playing one
- 12:57Speaker 3: more year in New York probably was gonna be a
- 12:59Speaker 3: tough sell for my wife. I mean, you know, when
- 13:01Speaker 3: you think about it, I was in New York for
- 13:04Speaker 3: five years, so essentially when you put the days together,
- 13:06Speaker 3: you know, I was gone for almost three calendar years.
- 13:09Speaker 3: So that's a lot on my wife, you know, and
- 13:12Speaker 3: we had young kids at the time, and it just
- 13:15Speaker 3: got to the point where, you know, what if if
- 13:17Speaker 3: I wanted to try and play one more year, I
- 13:19Speaker 3: was going to have to do it at home. And
- 13:20Speaker 3: you know, unfortunately, even coming back to Atlanta, that season
- 13:23Speaker 3: didn't go the way I wanted because the first time
- 13:26Speaker 3: really in my career, I had to battle some injuries.
- 13:28Speaker 3: I had a hamstring tear early in the year, and
- 13:31Speaker 3: then I hurt my elbow, and so it was it
- 13:33Speaker 3: was a struggle and certainly not the way you know,
- 13:36Speaker 3: any athlete wants to have things go. But I think
- 13:39Speaker 3: the blessing for it was that, you know, I think
- 13:42Speaker 3: a lot of guys struggle with retirement because they still
- 13:44Speaker 3: think they have something left in the tank. I knew
- 13:47Speaker 3: I had nothing left in the tank. I had. I
- 13:48Speaker 3: got everything out of my arm, in my body that
- 13:51Speaker 3: I could possibly have gotten out of it, So I
- 13:53Speaker 3: think that made it a little bit easier when it
- 13:55Speaker 3: was over to kind of walk away because there was
- 13:57Speaker 3: nothing left.
- 13:58Speaker 2: Three hundred and five wings, ladies and gentlemen, and his
- 14:00Speaker 2: three hundredth game is in New York met in August
- 14:02Speaker 2: of two thousand and seven. So in the final thirty seconds,
- 14:05Speaker 2: Tom and again, you're such a stand up guy. You're
- 14:07Speaker 2: a great guy. You're a beautiful guy. I love you.
- 14:10Speaker 2: In the final thirty seconds, what do you want to
- 14:12Speaker 2: say on the way out about your skipper, Bobby Cox?
- 14:16Speaker 3: Well, listen, like I said, he's arguably one of the
- 14:19Speaker 3: greatest managers of all time in the game of baseball,
- 14:21Speaker 3: certainly the greatest manager in Atlanta Braves history. And you know,
- 14:24Speaker 3: I think when you look at somebody and you try
- 14:27Speaker 3: to get a sense for what somebody is and what
- 14:29Speaker 3: they're like, just listen to what players say about them.
- 14:32Speaker 3: I think that says it all. Every guy who put
- 14:35Speaker 3: on a uniform for Bobby loved them and would run
- 14:37Speaker 3: through a wall for him, And I think that, more
- 14:40Speaker 3: than anything, speaks to the character of the man.
- 14:42Speaker 2: Thank you so much for doing this today. I know
- 14:44Speaker 2: you're busy, your little boy and all that your son,
- 14:46Speaker 2: but not little anymore. And anyway, thank you, thank you
- 14:49Speaker 2: so much for hopping on today and hope they'll get
- 14:51Speaker 2: a chance to talk to you again very soon. Tom
- 14:53Speaker 2: glav a terrific job. Thank you so much.
- 14:56Speaker 3: I enjoyed it. Said good to talk to you.
- 14:57Speaker 2: Thanks for having me you too, President Trump has a
- 15:00Speaker 2: I'm up to just CNY. Pretty good, Tom Glovin.
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