In a paint-by-numbers baseball season that may be remembered best for widespread fan apathy, Atlanta’s Tom Glavine created a World Series masterpiece Saturday night to end the year with a bang.
Booed by the locals in April for being the players’ spokesman during the 7 1/2-month strike, Glavine turned the town upside-down in Game 6 with a one-hit gem over eight innings to beat Cleveland 1-0. That gave the Braves their first world championship since 1957, when they played in Milwaukee.
David Justice’s sixth-inning home run off left-handed reliever Jim Poole accounted for the game’s only run. Justice also turned disgruntled fans back to his side after having remarked that the Braves would be “run out of town” if they lost another Series.
From the broiler to the throne, Justice had one strange day.
“My stomach was hurting,” he said. “My brain was hurting. I was looking for some inner peace. I really thought it was me against the world. But I’m a big believer in fate.”
Glavine earned Most Valuable Player honors with his second victory of the Series, giving up only a bloop single to Tony Pena in the sixth inning. Closer Mark Wohlers notched the save with a perfect ninth, sending Atlanta into an all-out party mode when Carlos Baerga flied to Marquis Grissom for the final out.
The Braves became the first franchise to win a World Series representing three cities, having also won in Boston in 1914 before Milwaukee. It also was Atlanta’s first professional sports championship, unless one counts a pro soccer title in 1968, which most discriminating Atlantans don’t.
Interestingly, it was Glavine and Justice who got the job done.
“Those are two guys who have been in the heat of the battle with the fans all year long,” Wohlers said.
“They won’t be mentioning us anymore with the Buffalo Bills,” Justice said.
The Indians’ 47-year championship drought was extended for at least one more year, while the Braves came through after World Series defeats in 1991 and ’92.
“I was happy to have my hands on that trophy,” said Atlanta manager Bobby Cox. “It felt a lot better than that National League thing. We were wearing that trophy out.”
Glavine, who won Game 2 by a 4-3 score, was magnificent in shutting down one of the best hitting teams baseball has produced in three decades. Cleveland hit .098 (9 for 92) in its three losses in Atlanta and hit .170 for the six-game series.
“This pitching staff is as good as it gets,” Glavine said. “I’m not going to say we’re the best in basebeall, or the best in however many years. We hear a lot about the starting five, but our bullpen is solid too. This is just an all-around solid ballclub.”
Only four other teams in World Series history have had one-hitters, the last being Boston–by Jim Lonborg–in Game 2 of the ’67 Series.
“He had a one-hitter with nothing hit good all night,” said Cox. “The only hit they got was a bloop to right. But Glavine couldn’t go another hitter. He was completely done.”
After Pena broke up the no-hitter to open the sixth, Cleveland manager Mike Hargrove let Poole bat for himself and soon watched the strategy backfire. Poole’s weak bunt attempt resulted in a foul popout, and after Kenny Lofton reached on a fielder’s-choice grounder and stole second, he was left stranded on another foul pop by Omar Vizquel. Hargrove said later he’d do it all over again.
The next inning, Poole gave up the go-ahead home run to Justice on a 1-1 pitch that turned everyone into masters of the tomahawk chop.
The game featured a classic pitchers’ duel between Glavine and Cleveland starter Dennis Martinez, highlighted by some fancy glove work by Vizquel and Baerga that kept the Braves from scoring earlier.
The gig was up for Martinez when he ran into trouble again in the fifth. After walking Mark Lemke and allowing an infield hit to Chipper Jones, Martinez was replaced by Poole.
“My elbow was stiff,” Martinez said. “I can’t second-guess coming out.”
Instead of being known as three-time losers, the Braves will go down as the team of Glavine, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Steve Avery–a championship rotation to rival the 1969 Mets.
“We’ve heard all the comparisons,” Glavine said. “And they always ended with, `Yeah, but they’ve never won a championship.’ Now we have one.”
And don’t expect them to stop at one.
