MVN - Most Valuable Network

Glavine: Once More Around the Park

Classy Tom Glavine says he’s having too much fun to think about retiring just yet—there’s at least one more year of pitching to go for him, according to the New York Post.

[A]s far as going out there and having fun and doing the things I have to do to be successful, there’s been nothing there that makes me think I am going to walk away.

So far, my two determining factors are good. As much as I want to be home with my wife and kids and have some sense of normalcy in their lives, I also know I have the rest of my life to live. Even if I play next year, I’m retiring at 42 years old. There is still a lot of life left. All of my friends who have played and who are out of the game all say the same thing—”Play as long as you can.”

[My wife] goes crazy watching the games. Surprisingly, my kids are more on the side of me playing next year than not. I think that is in large part because they understand what I am doing. They enjoy coming to the ballpark and being around the guys. They like the game of baseball. I think they are really starting to figure out that, “Dad’s a major-league baseball player and it’s pretty fun going to the games.”

—Tom Glavine.

The paper says Glavine’s likely route will be to turn down his option and sign a new deal with the Mets, possibly for $12 million. Columnist Kevin Kernan says Glavine—who’s also quoted as saying he’s having too much fun to quit just yet—likes the way he’s been treated by the Mets and the way the Mets work to keep improving the team, which probably rules out any shot the Atlanta Braves might have—assuming they’re thinking that way—of bringing home one of their 1990s pitching bellwethers.

Glavine is now baseball’s fourth all-time winningest lefthander, behind Warren Spahn, Steve Carlton, and Eddie Plank. “As long as I continue to feel good,” he told the Post, “then yeah, that lends itself for me playing.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Tom Glavine, New York Mets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.