Glavine forever linked with ex-'mates Maddux, Smoltz

Tom Glavine, who has a lifetime 3.49 ERA and has never been on the DL, posted 243 of his 300 wins with Atlanta (1987-2002). AP

RELATED • WILKINSON: All hail 'Mound Rushmore' • REACT: Is Glavine the final one to 300?

ATLANTA -- Tom Glavine was once asked, "If Randy Johnson is the Big Unit, what are you?" He pondered his reply before quipping, "Uhm, the Little Twerp?" On Sunday, before Glavine took a second stab at the pinnacle of twerpdom, those in the know at Turner Field fielded two more questions:

Will Glavine be the last pitcher in baseball history to win 300 games? And, had John Smoltz enjoyed the good health of Glavine and Greg Maddux, would the Atlanta Braves have been the only team to produce three 300-game winners off the same staff? "Could've been," Smoltz said of a 300 trifecta.

"Could've easily been," echoed Braves general manager John Schuerholz. As for Glavine's renewed pursuit of his 300th victory Sunday evening in Wrigley Field, before a capacity crowd and national TV audience, Schuerholz deemed it, "A great accomplishment. It might be the last in modern-day baseball."

"Ever. Tommy will be the last 300-game winner ever," insisted Glavine's old manager, Bobby Cox. "If Randy Johnson doesn't make a comeback, I don't think anybody will do that."

On a night for history in Wrigley, posterity was the order of the day at The Ted. Glavine became the 23rd pitcher in big-league history to win 300 games, going 6 1/3 innings in a 5-3 victory over the Cubs. In his second attempt at 300 in this, his 21st major-league season, Glavine allowed six hits and two runs, singled in the Mets' first run and got a standing ovation when he departed in the seventh.

Earlier Sunday, some historical perspective was in order in his old ballpark -- for years, a place of nonpareil pitching excellence.

"Mound Rushmore." That's how veteran baseball writer Marty Noble once described the mound in Turner Field. That's how large Glavine, Maddux and Smoltz collectively loomed from 1993-2002, when they fashioned a decade of dominance rarely, if ever, seen.

"Halley's Comet." That's how Colorado manager Clint Hurdle characterized that phenomenon before Sunday's Braves-Rockies matinee.

"It's amazing. The people here were treated to something special."

Beginning with Glavine, then Smoltz and finally Maddux. Between them, they won seven Cy Young Awards in the 90s. The first of Glavine's two Cy Youngs came in 1991, starting the trio's streak of six straight. After winning his maiden Cy with the Cubs in 1992, Maddux won three more in Atlanta before Smoltz went 24-8 in '96 (with four more post-season victories that October) and won his only Cy. Glavine captured his second Cy in '98 [he also twice finished second], three years after pitching eight innings of one-hit ball to beat Cleveland 1-0 in Game 6 of the 1995 World Series. That gave Atlanta its only world championship.

Last Tuesday night in Milwaukee, after departing in the seventh inning with a 2-1 lead, Glavine saw the Mets bullpen fail and his 300th victory evaporate. On Sunday in Chicago, before friends and family -- including his parents, Fred and Millie, watching their first game in Wrigley -- the little lefty threw 103 pitches, shutting out the Cubs until the sixth inning. As Glavine walked toward the Mets dugout, his wife Chris had tears in her eyes. A fan standing right behind the dugout held up a sign, signifying the Cubs' pennant-push mantra. On this starry night, however, "It's Gonna Happen" took on an entirely different meaning.

Back home in Atlanta, where Glavine still lives despite opting for free agency and the Mets in 2003, some of those who know him best reminisced.

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