DIAMOND RESORTS TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 22, 2021

Tom Glavine

Tranquilo Golf Course

Quick Quotes

Q. We learned today about the passing of Hank Aaron. If you can, talk about when you heard today and some thoughts about that.

TOM GLAVINE: Yeah, sad day obviously for baseball. It's been a tough year for the Hall of Fame. Been a whole bunch of guys unfortunately that have passed away this year, and Hank being the latest.

We just lost Don Sutton a couple days and Phil Niekro a couple weeks ago, so a tough couple weeks for Atlanta for their franchise, so hearts are with the Aaron family. Like I said, for Braves Country it's a sad day, but Hank Aaron is certainly a guy we will all remember and all just fondly remember all the great things he did not only as a baseball player, but as an ambassador for baseball.

Q. Is there a story you can share about one of your memories?

TOM GLAVINE: You know, I think one of the first encounters I had with Hank is when I was a minor leaguer with the Braves. He was in charge of player development, so you had some interaction with him from time to time and it was -- obviously as a young player it was cool. Hank Aaron, Hall of Famer, one of the greatest of all-time.

So casual conversation were okay. You never wanted to be called into Hank's office. If you were, that meant you were going home. So you always try to avoid Hank's office. You wanted the conversations to be away from his office.

It was neat, like I said, being a part of an organization, you know, he was in charge of the minor leagues. Like I said, when I got drafted by the Braves I didn't know a whole lot about Atlanta, but I knew Hank Aaron. Certainly a franchise that was it neat to be part of because everything that he accomplished as a player.

Q. Tom, Hank obviously had a larger-than-life impact on the game, but he didn't carry himself that way. Can you talk about that dynamic and what he was like as a person?

TOM GLAVINE: I think that's one of the great things about Hank, was you'd never know he was one of, if not the greatest baseball players of all-time, certainly one the greatest hitters of all-time.

He never carried himself that way. He was very humble and came from very humble background, and I think always kept that with him. You know, he was always very willing to talk with people, young players especially, and give whatever advice he could.

Yeah, for a guy of his stature, he certainly didn't carry himself that way. I think, again, that was a tribute to him and what he was about.

Q. As great a hitter as he was, did he have some sage advice for pitchers?

TOM GLAVINE: You know, it was mostly -- I think most of it was attitude stuff: Stay positive, keep working hard, doing all that stuff.

I mean, I don't know what he could tell a pitcher, because I'm sure there weren't too many pitchers he didn't feel like he could hit.

Like I said, even as a pitcher, to sit down with him and have a conversation about hitting and talk about what hitters are trying to do or what their approach might be, that's valuable information as well, even though it's not directly correlated to how you throw a certain pitch or something like that.

When you can pick the brain of a hitter like Hank Aaron, that is pretty good information.