This Just In: Tom Glavine Gets Career Win 300!
Just a quick post to congratulate Tom Glavine on becoming the 23rd pitcher in Major League Baseball to win his 300th game, and only the 5th lefty to ever accomplish the feat. The win came on 8-5-07, at 11:29 PM at Wriggly Field against the Cubbies!
What’s even cooler is that because of Glavine, the number “300″ now belongs to him and this will all but erase from my mind that lousy movie by the same number that came out earlier this year. Thank goodness!
I love baseball, but I am a huge Atlanta Braves fan. I am young/old enough to have grown up following the careers of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz when they were playing together at Atlanta through the 80’s and 90’s.
As Major League Baseball’s premier pitching tandem, and quite possibly the three overall greatest pitchers to ever play the game, these three guys were my hero’s. They are the reason I love baseball so much. Of course, Glavine is now with the Mets, but I still root for him whenever he is on the mound.
Tonight’s record setting effort by Tom places him in a special league all by himself. He may very will be the last player in MLB history to win 300 games. Only Randy Johnson is even close at 282 or 284, and now that Johnson is getting Tommy John surgery (or is it back surgery) I doubt very seriously that he will get to 300. Yippee. I can’t stand that hick!
As an aside, Smoltz is still playing with Atlanta, and he is throwing better than ever. Greg Maddux left Atlanta about the same time Glavine did, and he is now with San Diego and having a good year of his own.
Of interest is the fact that Smoltz has never played for any other MLB team! That alone places John in a special group. Sadly, John Smoltz has just over 200 wins, with 203 in the “W” column. So, it looks like Maddux and Glavine are the only guys from that famed Atlanta pitching trio to get to 300. As much as I love Smoltzy, I just don’t think he will even get close. 73 wins? He will be lucky to pitch in 40 more games. I doubt very seriously that gets another 30 wins, let alone the 73 he needs to get to 300.
Oddly enough, Smoltz could very well have been pushing 300 wins at this point were it not for the number of years he spent as a closer dating back to 2002. Because of his stint as a premier closer he was robbed of a chance to throw in enough games as a starter to aid his cause. Ironically, it’s because of his tenure as a closer that John is still a Hall of Fame candidate. Due to his assortment of achievements as a Cy Young winner, a starting pitcher and a closer, John has records that no other pitcher has.
In 2002 Smoltz became only the second pitcher in MLB history to have had both a 20-win season and a season with 50 saves (the other being Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley). He is the only pitcher in Major League history to top both 200 wins and 150 saves, and if memory serves he has the most post season wins of any MLB player. According to Wikipedia, Smoltz has a 13-4 post season record as a starter (15-4 overall) with a 2.65 ERA. He is followed by Andy Pettitte (14), Tom Glavine (14), and Greg Maddux (11). So, while 300 wins is one of the most coveted records in baseball, so are John’s other accomplishments. Both he, Maddux and Glavine should see the Hall soon!
Baseball: The Greatest Sport In The World!
