Mets' Collapse? Glavine Was Bushed
Bad karma: Pitcher's wife gave cash to Bush campaign.
After the worst performance of his career personally guaranteed the worst collapse by a team in baseball history, New York Mets pitcher Tom Glavine was practically blasé — he talked about "we" this and "we" that.
Glavine told the Bergen (N.J.) Record's Steve Popper:
His refusal to stand up and personally take at least some of the blame is reminiscent of George W. Bush's well-known refusal to personally admit mistakes, even in light of the Iraq debacle.
Why be so oxymoronic as to bring up Bush? Back in 2004, Glavine's wife, Christine, gave $500 to the Bush-Cheney campaign. Federal records show that it's the couple's only contribution to any candidate.
That's nothing but bad karma.
Yankee fans had better beware. Alex Rodriguez is another Bush supporter. Records show that star third-baseman A-Rod gave the Bush-Cheney campaign $2,000 in August 2003.
We'll see whether A-Rod comes through in the playoffs and, if not, whether he'll take the heat.
We already know that Glavine, like Bush, is not a stand-up guy. As the Record's Bob Klapisch wrote:
Instead, Glavine prattled on about moving on and learning from the experience, as if he'd just pitched in a mid-July game against the Pirates. "It was an incredibly stupid thing to say. Everyone was shocked to hear that from him," said one member of the organization. [General Manager Omar] Minaya said he would huddle with Glavine in the near future, setting the stage for the left-hander's inevitable return to the [Atlanta] Braves in 2008.
Contrast Glavine's reaction to that of San Diego Padres relief pitcher Trevor Hoffman, also a sure-fire Hall of Famer, whose miserable performance Monday night gave a playoff spot to the Colorado Rockies. Hoffman was all over the news this morning, saying:
Mets manager Willie Randolph, whose job is now in jeopardy, had no problem standing up, as the Record's Popper noted:
Glavine, though, had already cleaned out his locker on Sunday night and was headed home to his mansion in Alpharetta, Georgia — Atlanta's most exclusive suburb — where he's protected in the gated community of Country Club of the South. (His celeb neighbors in Alpharetta have included Jeff Foxworthy, Usher, Morris Day, Greg Maddux, and Damon Stoudamire.)
Glavine won his historic 300th game this season. Mission accomplished. An avid golfer, he'll stroke himself all winter and then possibly return to the Braves, with whom he spent his entire career before joining the Mets a few seasons ago as an aging baseball mercenary.
But it's up to Glavine. He was paid $7.5 million this season and has an option to return to the Mets for $9 million in 2008 — yes, that's a 20 percent raise after pitching the worst inning of his career in the biggest game of the season.
We New Yorkers have probably seen the last of Glavine's TV commercials on behalf of union workers. A leader of baseball's players union last decade, Glavine has earned lavish praise by the AFL-CIO for standing up for his union brothers in other, less glamorous, trades.
At some point, at least, Glavine was a stand-up millionaire guy.
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