NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: METS v BRAVES

October 13, 1999

Tom Glavine

TOM GLAVINE: No, it never gets old. I think you learn how to deal with it a little bit more every year, but it never gets old. That's what we play every year for is to be here and have a chance to go for the championship. So it's still a lot of fun.

TOM GLAVINE: I guess statistically speaking, probably Piazza. And probably most of the reason is I faced him more than anybody else in that line-up; so he's got a bunch of hits off me, bunch of career at-bats. I think Mike is a dangerous hitter because he can hurt you any number of ways, and there's no set way to pitch him. He is a rare combination of power and a guy who can hit for average. He's got great plate coverage; so you can't just pitch him away. You have to use both sides of the plate, and you have to change speeds a lot and change your patterns. And obviously, guys like that, they're difficult to pitch to for obvious reasons. He's one of those guys that the more pitches you make to him, the tougher it is to get him out because he's making adjustments all the time.

TOM GLAVINE: Aside from the airplane stuff, it's a pretty good place to pitch, actually. As far as I can tell, I think I've pitched pretty well there. I don't know what my record is, but I feel as though I've pitched some pretty good ballgames there. And it's definitely not a place that when I know I'm slated to pitch there, I'm disappointed to pitch there. There's definitely places like that in baseball. But it's generally a pretty fair ballpark to pitch in. It's got a good infield. You have to hit the ball pretty solid to get it out of there. There aren't too many cheap home runs in that park. It's a good place to pitch.

TOM GLAVINE: Regardless of what happens this year, I think everybody in that clubhouse is proud of what we've accomplished. I know that for myself and Smoltzy, I think the two guys that have been here since '91, nothing anybody can say or do is going to take away the pride that I have for what this organization has done. When he and I got here in the late 80's or early 90's, we were 100-loss ballclub a year. And 8 or 9 years later, we've got 8 Division Championships and a couple of pennants and a couple of World Championships. So I don't think any of us in there need validation from the media as to what we've accomplished. I think we're extremely proud of it. Sure, whether you've got one championship or four championships, you'll always be disappointed, because you feel like you could have another one. You're not going to win every year. It's not going to happen. You keep plugging along, and try to create an opportunity for yourself every year. We've been able to do that. Like I've said many times before, to come up short is a disappointment, but this has been a heck of a lot more fun having a chance every year than it was when I first got here. So I'll just take that for what it's worth. And if this season is over and we win a championship and it makes us the team of the 90's or whatever people are trying to proclaim us, great. If we don't, that's still everybody's argument. They can have it. But I'll still be proud to be a part of this organization.

TOM GLAVINE: Yeah, I think we are. I think we're all pretty aware of what makes us successful. And I think that's the case with most good players. I think you realize what you do well and what you don't do well, and you try to make the things that you do well be the difference in the outcome of the ballgame. I know the scouting report on me. I know what things I do well in order to be successful, and I know those guys know what I'm trying to do to be successful. You still have to execute and make your pitches. Much like -- even as a hitter, I know what guys are trying to do. I know where their weaknesses are. I know where their approaches are; I still have to make my pitches. If I make a mistake, that's when they have to take advantage of their opportunity to try to beat me, or any other pitcher for that matter. But that's what makes it hard to be successful in this game year after year after year, is that people get to know you and they know your patterns and they know what you're trying to do, both as a hitter and pitcher. And it's up to you as the individual to either stay ahead of the curve and make whatever adjustments you need to make to be successful, or figure out a way to be so good at what it is you do that it's successful year after year. And that's what makes good players good players, is that they do one of those two things.

TOM GLAVINE: I would say that Bobby's greatest asset is probably his people skills. He has a knack for making people believe in a system, have pride in a system, have pride in playing for this organization and have pride in playing for him. Guys want to go out there and play hard for Bobby. And a lot of that comes from how he treats guys. He treats you like a man. He's very simple in what he wants. He doesn't have a whole lot of rules. It's pretty basic. You show up on time and you show up ready to play and play the game the right way. Bobby is very big in preserving the game of baseball and how it's supposed to be played, and that rubs off on people. You don't see our guys going out there and doing a lot of things out of the ordinary. We just go out there and play the game, and we play the game with respect. And a lot of that comes from Bobby. I think oftentimes he's criticized because people don't think he has much -- many tactics when it comes to managing, because his team has been so good, you throw guys out on the field. I think Bobby does a great job with the tactical side of the game. Oftentimes, what makes a good manager a good manager is calling the right plays, and then it's up to the players to execute. He can call things all day long, but if we don't do what he's asking us to do, then he doesn't look very good. But I think he's -- again, I've heard it from so many people that have come from organizations over here to play for Bobby, that it's just a joy to play for the guy. And like I say, I think that when he gets that respect from his players, guys want to go out there hard and play the game the right way.

TOM GLAVINE: I think that players are very aware of that, and that goes a long way towards why we respect the man. He's not one of those guys that's going to air us out on the newspaper or on TV or anywhere else. If he has a problem with us, it's: "Come in my office, I want to talk to you." Again, that's all part of being treated like a man. We're all grown men here, and we're all going to make our mistakes, and we all need a kick on the butt from time to time, and a pat on the back from time to time. Bobby knows when to do those things. He's very discrete about what he does. The most flagrant thing is when he took Andruw out of the game in the middle of the game. That's so out of character for Bobby; that's why it caused such a stir. Those kind of things Bobby has always handled very privately. And for that matter, most of us don't know half the stuff that goes on. That's how private he is about it. And again, on the flip side of that, there are times that Bobby -- he commends us so much sometimes in the media -- there have been times when I know I've pitched a terrible game, and I read the newspaper and I'm seeing some of the things Bobby says and I'm wondering if he was watching the same game. That's how defensive he is with his players. Again, those things go towards the amount of respect that builds for him from the players. I think that sometimes is underrated when it comes to what makes guys want to go out there and play.

TOM GLAVINE: Well, I think that there are a lot of managers in the game think that pitchers are kind of nonathletes, second-class citizens, whatever you want to call them. But Bobby is extremely protective, I guess, of our pitching staff. And not just the starting guys, the relievers, too. He's very aware if a guy has thrown 2 or 3 days in a row and needs a day off. Or if you're a reliever and you've been in a game or two in a row and you need a day off, "Come tell me." He's very respectful of his starting pitchers and asking us how we feel and trusting us to tell him the truth. Trusting us to tell him: "Hey, I've got one or two more innings in us or we're done." He's not the kind of manager that's going to run somebody out there and if somebody is having a bad game, just leave them out there until he rots, or leave them out to get embarrassed or hurt. He's always been very protective of trying to keep his pitching staff healthy because he's one of the managers that subscribes to the pitching-and-defense-will-win-championships-for-you. And he does his utmost to protect his pitchers from injury, and at the same time try to use them in situations that they know are going to be successful in.

TOM GLAVINE: Yeah, I still keep an eye on the Red Sox. Obviously, the kid in me is happy for the Red Sox, because I'm still a Red Sox fan. I think more closer to my heart right now, I'm happy for Jimy Williams. I think he's done a tremendous job up there, and I think at times he's been too criticized up there for what people perceive as not quite the guy they wanted for the job. But he's done a tremendous job up there. I'm happy for him. Monday night watching that game, my sister, who still lives up there, must have called me 15 times during the course of the game. (Laughter). It's still pretty exciting. And obviously, that looms on the horizon for me personally. But it's something that is way off in the future right now, because we've still got an awful lot of baseball to play in this series.

TOM GLAVINE: Well, I caught part of Al's interview, and I guess I wouldn't describe myself as a typical left-hander. I mean, I'm not -- at least I don't think I'm real goofy or anything like that. I don't goof around a whole lot. I like to have fun, but at the same time I guess I'm pretty serious about what I do. And I get criticized a lot because people tell me: "You never smile when you're pitching"; "You don't look like you're having any fun"; and stuff like that. I can't operate that way. It doesn't work for me. Believe me, there are times when I'm on the mound that I wish I could goof around, but it takes away from my intensity or my concentration. Like I said earlier, there's a certain way that we all do things to be successful. And it's important to know how you need to do things to be successful. And for me, I just -- out on the mound, anyway, I can't goof around a whole lot. It takes away from what I'm trying to do. In the clubhouse, I like to have fun. There's certainly guys that like to have more fun than I do. I don't think I sit around and mope around a whole lot. I just kind of go with the flow. If the timing is right, I like to joke around as much as the next guy. But if there's something I need to be doing to prepare for my next start, I'm going to do it rather than goofing around.

TOM GLAVINE: I don't think it changed. Honestly, I cannot sit here and say that the reason I struggled the first eight weeks of the year was because of the strike zone, or I should say, a lack of pitches being called for me. I struggled because of the strike zone because I was throwing too many balls in the heart of it. I don't have the stuff to get away with that. I cannot be throwing the ball down the middle of the plate. And too many times the first eight weeks of the year, I was doing that. And it was just a matter of making some mechanical adjustments. I didn't know, quite honestly, from one pitch to the next whether I was going to throw the ball on the outside corner and it would sink like I wanted to, or I was going to cut it and throw down the middle of the plate. That's a hard way to pitch. If you don't know where it's going, it's tough to get any rhythm or consistency. And it seemed like the first part of the year that when I threw a ball over the heart of the plate, it got hit hard and it was either an extra-base hit or a home run. When I made a pitch that I wanted to make, it seemed like I would get a ground ball and it would be out of somebody's reach or wasn't hit hard enough to get an out. It seemed like everything that could go wrong, went wrong. And the easiest thing for me to do would be to sit here and say it wasn't me, it was the strike zone, but that's a cop out. You've got to look in the mirror and figure out where the problem was. And the problem was me. And the problem was my mechanics, and it was just a matter of working on things and just getting to the point where I got comfortable and got natural and just went out there and threw the ball.