On Facebook, I wrote: There's a lot to say about today's letter from the BCB.
The return address is from one town away: Billerica, MA., so I knew the card would belong to the pride of Billerica: Hall of Famer Tom Glavine.
But what I did not know is that I would receive a hand written letter, purportedly from the lanky lefthander, letting me know that HE is a fan of ME! You can imagine my joy in reading this communication and when Glavine said he'd meet me on the softball field, you know that I'll be there.
I wonder if that's a metaphor? Maybe he means the softball field of life? What would that be though? Church? The Mall? Mac 2's? I'll have to think about this.
Glavine is probably the best athlete to come out of Massachusetts in the last 40 years. He was drafted by the Braves and the NHL's LA Kings. He chose baseball, giving up being teammates with Wayne Gretzky to sharing a locker room with John Rocker (amongst better, less racist guys).
Glavine won over 300 games, a couple of Cy Youngs, a World Series and with fellow HoFer Greg Maddux starred in the last great Nike ad, "Chicks dig the long ball." Not a bad choice, in retrospect.
Aside to the BCB, one of Glavine's Brave teammates lived closer to me than Glavine. Burlington native Pete Smith pitched for Atlanta from 1987 through 1993, before calling it a career in 1998. The MVC must have been a lot of fun in the early 80s.
2019 Notes: The MVC means the Merrimack Valley Conference, which is where Burlington High School and Billerica High School were grouped. I'm not sure if they're still grouped that way any more. I should check, but I don't want to.
I don't have a lot to say about Tom Glavine other than I thought that it was really cool that he was from Massachusetts and was so dominant. There are a lot of baseball players, but not many seem to come from New England. You get your Billy Swifts, your Gary Disarcinas, your Jerry Remys; but you don't get a lot of Hall of Famers, like Glavine.
The one thing I really remember about Tom Glavine is getting his 1988 Score Rookie card, looking at the back and getting excited because he was from Massachusetts. Then looking at his win loss record that year and seeing 7-17, with the 17 in bold indicating that he led the league in losses. That tempered my excitement a bit. I had no idea that he was going to the Hall.
I counted 14 Hall of Famers from the Bay State and other than Jeff Bagwell, most of these players died before I was even born. So it was pretty great to see someone so dominant in his era come from the same place you did.
Even though he was elected to Cooperstown on his first ballot, where would you rank Tom Glavine amongst the pitchers of the 1990s and 00s? Behind Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux. Behind Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez. Probably above Mike Mussina, Curt Schilling and John Smoltz. Well ahead of David Cone and Kevin Brown, right? Not using any numbers (dangerous, I know) and going on what I remember, I'd say that Tom Glavine was probably the fifth best pitcher of his era.
Not too shabby, Glavine. And that gets you a street named after you in your hometown.
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