Old Braves Stick Together
Red Sox pitcher John Smoltz had a few words for the Braves, who on Wednesday released his former teammate Tom Glavine because they didn’t want to pay him. As you may already have guessed, they were not kind words:
That’s not how you treat people. He didn’t have a chance to fail at that level. … That’s not how you go about it. But they’re in control. They make those decisions. They’ve made a lot of them lately.
Smoltz added:
Like a lot of things lately, they handled it in a very interesting way and one that leaves you scratching your head. It’s unfortunate for Tommy. Obviously, I’m using a very soft word in “disappointed.” That ain’t right, to go that far in rehab — then, right before the time, do that.
That’s not my problem anymore. I just feel badly for a teammate of mine that I had for a long time.
Smoltz’s anger is understandable, but he does seem to be ignoring a couple of unpleasant but unavoidable realities, like the fact that his old buddy Glavine is pretty much done, and that the Braves are no longer the kind of team that can afford to pay out $4.5 million – the amount Glavine could’ve earned if he’d made the big league team and achieved incentives – to 43-year-old lefties. Of course it does seem sort of cruel to let him go through the whole rehab stint before dumping him, but then again, the rehab work did allow him to show other teams that he might still have one last year left in him, so in a way they did him a favor, no? It might’ve been cold, but it wasn’t exactly elder abuse, is what I’m saying.
Fantastic blog, many amusing details. I think 6 of days ago, I have viewed a similar post.
March 15th, 2010 at 5:00 pm