Tom Glavine was voted into the MLB Hall of Fame on Wednesday, and while most of his work with the Atlanta Braves is what got him in, the left-hander took some time to reflect on his five years with the New York Mets--a tenure which ended on a sour note, but is also a time that Glavine looks back on fondly.
In meeting with the media after the announcement that he--along with long-time teammate Greg Maddux and Frank Thomas--will be enshrined in Cooperstown this summer, Glavine spoke about his memories in New York. While a lot of fans of the Mets will remember a brutal Game 162 performance by Glavine with the team's playoff hopes on the line in 2007, Glavine remembered the five years as a whole, as a fun time in his career.
Glavine took the mound for the Mets in Game No.162 in 2007 and yielded seven runs in the first inning in for the Mets, and the team was unable to come back causing it to miss the postseason. The loss completed a collapse that started earlier that September when they had a seven game NL East lead over the Philadelphia Phillies with 17 games left to play and couldn't put the division away.
Still, Glavine enjoyed his time in New York.
"I would summarize it as a great five years of my career," Glavine said Wednesday via ESPN New York. "I had a lot of fun in New York. I certainly made a lot of great friends there as teammates and people within the organization. It was a fun five years, albeit a tough five years at times for my family with me being gone. But it was a fun five years for them. It was a great experience being in New York and playing in New York. It's an experience, I think, every player should have."
Glavine also struggled in his first game in a Mets uniform when he got knocked out of his frigid Opening Day performance in 2003. Still, Glavine won his 300th MLB game with the Mets and overall was 61-56 with a 3.97 ERA in 164 starts as a member of the Mets.
"I'll always have fond memories for the Mets organization for the opportunity, but also because I won my 300th game in their uniform. That's something I certainly will never forget," he told ESPN New York.
Glavine was on the Mets when they won the NL East in 2006 and were one game away from the World Series.
"By and large it was a very fun, positive experience for me. I certainly had some down moments as well," he said per ESPN New York. "But I'd like to think I was a part of them kind of turning the corner and helping get their organization back on track, as evidenced by the playoff appearance in [2006]."
Overall, Glavine was 305-203 in his career with a 3.54 ERA and 2,607 strikeouts. He spent most of his career with the Braves and was in Atlanta for 16 years between 1987-2002 before having a five-year stint with the Mets and closing out his career back in Atlanta in 2008.
While his final memory in the Mets is a sour one, his lasting memory in baseball will live on when he is enshrined in Cooperstown as a member of the 2014 Hall of Fame class.
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