Tom Glavine did not endear himself to Mets fans in final start
Tom Glavine of the Mets pitches against the Philadelphia Phillies at Shea Stadium. (Sept. 14, 2007) Credit: Getty Images
The details are etched in every Mets fan's memory.
With a chance to stave off an epic collapse and make the playoffs, the Mets turned to Tom Glavine on the last day of the 2007 season. But Glavine's final start as a Met also was one of the worst of his career.
His Hall of Fame career.
Glavine was reminded of that outing -- one-third of an inning, seven runs, an 8-1 loss to the Marlins, no playoffs -- when he was introduced alongside Greg Maddux and Frank Thomas as the newest Hall of Famers Thursday at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan.
"I still get people hating on me on Twitter and everywhere else over that game," Glavine said with a smile. "Like I've said to people, for what was an otherwise lot of fun for five years, that was not the way I wanted to end things here. I wish people could get past that a little bit and look at the other good things that I did. But I understand that there's still some anger from some people out there."
Glavine also rankled Mets fans with his comments after the final game in 2007 that he was "not devastated. I'm disappointed." He later explained that he was trying to show perspective about something that was not a life-or-death situation.
Glavine went 61-56 as a Met from 2003-07 and earned his 300th victory as a Met. He finished with 305 wins, the rest coming with the Atlanta Braves.
A Braves cap will be on Glavine's plaque in Cooperstown when he officially is inducted along with Maddux -- his former teammate -- plus Thomas and managers Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa and Joe Torre on July 27.
The players were elected by the eligible members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America in voting announced Wednesday. The managers were elected by the expansion era committee last month.
The BBWAA vote was not without its controversies, one of which touched on Glavine's former Mets teammate, Mike Piazza, who failed for the second straight year to get in despite some of the gaudiest offensive numbers for a catcher in baseball history.
Some voters have said they left Piazza off their ballots because of rumors of performance-enhancing drug use, which Piazza always has denied.
Glavine inadvertently waded into the Piazza debate when he indicated on Tuesday that he wasn't surprised that Piazza didn't make it the first time around. On Thursday, Glavine took the opportunity to set the record straight.
"I've got to be careful how I answer this because I got into a little trouble for this, apparently," he said. "He's a Hall of Famer. There's no question about it."
Thomas, the former slugging designated hitter who has been an outspoken critic of suspected PED users, had a different take than Glavine's when asked specifically about Piazza.
"The thing is, a lot of people suspect it," Thomas said. "If people are starting to suspect things, then something is fueling that fire. And until those guys prove 100 percent they're not . . . We've had the talk with Hall of Famers and they honestly just said, 'Our legacy is what we own and we worked hard to get here and we don't want anyone to taint it.' They've made that clear to me."
