Glavine Watches All-Star Game
Most major league players welcome the three-day All-Star break. Not Tom Glavine.
The six-time Atlanta Braves All-Star makes no bones about it: he'd rather be pitching Tuesday at Boston's Fenway Park, a short 25-minute drive from where he grew up in Billerica, Mass.
Instead, he'll be watching the game on TV while spending time with his family in Georgia.
"Not making the All-Star team is a disappointment. The fact that it is in Fenway adds to it," he said.
Glavine, the winningest left-hander of the last 11 years with 180 victories, struggled in the early part of this season and was 3-7 before regaining the form that earned him NL Cy Young Awards in 1991 and 1998. Now he is 7-8 with a 4.14 ERA after winning four of his last five starts.
"So far it has been two seasons," Glavine said. "The first six weeks weren't very good. The last six weeks have been really good."
He had no decision Saturday in Atlanta's 2-1, 11-inning win over Boston, when he went nine innings and gave up one run and six hits.
"I know it's easy for people to look up and say I'm having a bad year and struggling, but I'm not struggling right now," he said.
That makes it even more difficult to accept his absence from the All-Star scene for the first time in four years. Plus, this is likely to be the last All-Star game at Fenway Park before it is torn down for a new park.
"To play an All-Star game at Fenway would have been a big, big thrill for me," Glavine said. "But I'm not going to be there and I'm not going to dwell on it. I'll just hang around with my family, relax and watch the game on television."
For the first time since 1995, the Braves will send only two players to the game outfielder Brian Jordan and pitcher Kevin Millwood, both making it for the first time.
The Braves have had at least six players on the NL squad including Glavine in each of the last three years.
Jordan, batting .295 with 17 home runs and a team-high 71 RBIs, has adequately filled in as the cleanup hitter for Andres Galarraga, who has been battling cancer since February.
Millwood, a 24-year-old in only his second full year with the Braves, is 11-4 with a five-game winning streak and a 3.20 ERA.
©1999 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed