Sunday, August 5, 2007

Congratulations Tommy!


Congratulations Tommy! You earned it.

Now as a Mets fan, I'm probably not as excited for Tommy as the rest of the world. Growing up as a teenager during the 90s, I had to endure some pretty lean years for the Mets (not to mention constant ribbing from obnoxious Braves fans doing the tomahawk chop and bragging about how many division titles the Braves had won in a row. How many World Series did that get ya tough guy?).

Plus, I always felt that Tommy was the beneficiary of a HUGE strike zone from a majority of umpires. He would get strike calls for pitches that were clearly 4-6 inches off that plate. I really hated that.

But now that I look back at it, was it really Glavine's fault that he got those calls? If anything, it just proves how precise, smart and crafty of a pitcher the guy is. He hit his spots on the regular and was rewarded for it.

Think about it, in the entire history of baseball... a game that's been around since the 1800s... only 22 pitchers have 300 wins. Glavine makes it 23. He's also only the 5th left-hander in history to achieve the feat. That in itself is amazing.

And think about it, by all accounts he did it without a dominating fastball (Nolan Ryan), without the use of steroids (Clemens maybe???) and without the help of spit, baby oil, vaseline, hair tonic or any other foreign substance that was available (Gaylord Perry).

(As an aside, having Gaylord Perry in the Hall after he admitted to doctoring the baseball and then getting on Bonds for steroids is the epitome of hypocrisy.)

But back to Tommy. He'll always be a Brave, and I'll always be a Brave hater. But I definitely respect his 300 gangsta. His 300 is just as impressive as the movie 300, which I watched for the first time on high def Blu-ray the other day. That movie was freaking sick. (Sony, you can thank me later for the plug).

So here's to the Hall of Fame Tommy Boy, you earned it. Holla back.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I echo your feelings on Glavine and made some of the same comments on a recent post on my blog. He's that guy who you never could quite accept as a Met.

But last night I welcomed him into the fold. Now enough celebrating. Go get us a pennant.