Tom Glavine

It may be less than three years since Tom Glavine pitched in the majors, but he considers himself part of a different generation from those toiling on the mound today. That is especially true when Glavine looks back on his diet. "We didn't worry about what we ate in those days," Glavine said. "As long as you weren't gaining or losing weight, you did what you wanted to do. " While Glavine ate a variety of food, he took a standardized approach in his workout routine based on pitching every five days.

There is one bonus that arises from last night's postponement of Game 5 of the National League Championship Series because of rain. It's the fact that New York Mets lefthander Tom Glavine and St. Louis Cardinals righthander Jeff Weaver will be pitching on full rest tonight at Busch Stadium. They were scheduled to come back on three days' rest last night, but a day of steady rain ended that potential problem for both pitchers. "You don't want to have a pitcher pitch short if you don't have to," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said.

Two down, one to go. The Phillies have signed free-agent third baseman David Bell and reached an agreement with slugging first baseman Jim Thome, contingent on today's physical examination. Now, if they can just sign Tom Glavine, they will have gone 3 for 3 this off-season. Signing the lefthander, however, might be the toughest challenge of all. He has strong family ties to Atlanta - much stronger than Thome had to Cleveland - and luring him away from the Braves will be difficult.

The Phillies led by a run as Braves starter Tom Glavine pushed a blue helmet over his red hair and hurried to the plate to begin the seventh inning. On the mound, Cliff Brantley knew he would be inviting doom if he allowed the pitcher to reach base. When the Phils' righthander gave him a single and followed that with a pair of walks, he might as well have sent a chauffeur to doom's door. Glavine's hit ignited a seven-run Atlanta explosion in the final three innings as the Braves transformed a 3-2 deficit into a 9-3 victory over the Phillies last night at Veterans Stadium.

Matt Franco insists there's no special reason for his pinch-hitting success this year. Franco was at it again last night, delivering a two-run double in a four-run eighth inning that carried New York to a 9-7 win over host Atlanta, the Mets' fifth straight win. "I don't know of a secret," Franco said. "It just a matter of getting good pitches to hit. I knew I hit it hard. " A day after the Mets rallied against John Smoltz from a 5-1 deficit, they overcame a 5-1 deficit against Tom Glavine.

Tom Glavine will become baseball's highest-paid pitcher after agreeing yesterday to a $34 million, four-year extension with the Atlanta Braves. Glavine's agent, Gregg Clifton, said the contract gives his client $8.5 million a year and includes a club option for a fifth year at $8 million. The deal puts Glavine, a former Cy Young winner, in a tie for fourth-highest among major league salaries. Glavine is in the final year of a five-year contract and is earning $5 million this year.

Before the crucial matchup with the Florida Marlins yesterday, New York Mets manager Willie Randolph expressed confidence in sending 303-game winner Tom Glavine to the mound. "You always feel good when Tom Glavine has the ball," Randolph said to the pregame press horde. So did the Florida Marlins. Making his 669th start, Glavine picked an inopportune time to have the worst outing of what will be a Hall of Fame career. He allowed seven runs in one-third of an inning and was taken out after hitting pitcher Dontrelle Willis with the bases loaded to increase Florida's lead to 5-0. The Mets, who needed to win to force a one-game playoff with the Phillies, completed one of the greatest collapses in recent sports history with an 8-1 loss to the Marlins at Shea Stadium.

Glavine aftermath While the Braves and their fans anticipate tomorrow night's major-league debut of their hot pitching prospect, Tommy Hanson, they still are dealing with Tom Glavine's release. "Sentimentally, it stunk," third baseman Chipper Jones said on MLB.com of Wednesday's release of Atlanta's 43-year-old icon. "Optimistically, looking into the future, it's a step in the right direction. " Glavine, who no doubt will be voted into the Hall of Fame because of his 305 wins, was ready to rejoin the Braves as he neared completion of his minor-league rehabilitation assignment after shoulder and elbow surgeries in September.

Braves catcher Javier Lopez is usually overlooked when the litany of the team's offensive stars is recited. That could be changing, though. Lopez batted .542 in the Braves' National League Championship Series triumph over the St. Louis Cardinals that ended last night and was named the Most Valuable Player of the playoffs. He also scored eight runs, had five doubles, two homers and six RBI. "I don't mind that people don't talk about me," he said with a smile. "I feel less pressure because I don't have anything to prove to people.

New York Mets pitcher Tom Glavine will miss his start today after losing two teeth and suffering injuries to his face and mouth when the taxicab he was riding in got into a wreck. After spending an off-day on Monday at his Atlanta-area home, Glavine flew to New York's LaGuardia Airport yesterday and was on his way to Shea Stadium when the wreck happened about 2:15 p.m. He called the Mets to tell him he was in a wreck and was taken to New York University Hospital for tests, the team said on its Web site.

Third in a series YOU ALMOST have to feel sorry for the Mets. Almost. Remember the Mets that stole Tom Glavine from the Phillies in 2002? The Mets that snatched Billy Wagner in 2006? Remember how former Expos genius Omar Minaya and Yankees royalty Willie Randolph were going to unseat the Braves for the next 2 decades? Remember Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado and Francisco Rodriguez? All gone. They couldn't even afford to retain one of their own best players in decades: Shortstop Jose Reyes never was likely to extend with the Mets, and now he's a . . . Marlin?

Second in a series APPARENTLY, it was nobody's fault. In Atlanta, it never is. Last season, the Braves had a wild-card lead of 8 1/2 games on Sept. 6, and blew it. When an uninterested Phillies team came back and beat them in 13 innings on the last day of the season - they were 0-5 against the Phillies in that span - the Braves became the first team to lose at least an eight-game lead in September. That is, until later that day when the Red Sox finished their epic collapse.

Baseball is a series of tests, with the first examination lasting six months and 162 games. The Phillies literally aced that one, then declined a chance for extra credit by losing eight straight meaningless games near the end of September. General manager Ruben Amaro Jr.'s plan for winning a fifth straight National League East title and a second World Series was to gather as many stud starting pitchers as possible. The Phillies were not the first team in history to conquer the long season by pummeling the opposition with one quality starting pitcher after another.

THE SIMPLE mathematics say they are on pace for 106 victories. A lot can slip between the cup and the lip, as Don King used to say, but the math says the 2011 Phillies will win more regular-season games than all but a handful of teams in baseball history, and more than they ever have in theirs. And this makes you what? Thrilled? Happy? Excited beyond belief? Of course not. That would be like putting ketchup on a soft pretzel or Gouda on a cheesesteak. You're anxious already.

As the Atlanta Braves went on their remarkable run of 14 straight division titles from 1991 to 2005, three names stood out as the cornerstone of that era: Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, and Tom Glavine. So as the Phillies prepare to take the field in 2011, Glavine recalled what it was like to pitch in a rotation of superstars, and he concedes it was not pleasant at times. "It gets aggravating. It gets to be a pain in the neck sometimes," Glavine said. "As a player you just want to go out there and play.

It may be less than three years since Tom Glavine pitched in the majors, but he considers himself part of a different generation from those toiling on the mound today. That is especially true when Glavine looks back on his diet. "We didn't worry about what we ate in those days," Glavine said. "As long as you weren't gaining or losing weight, you did what you wanted to do. " While Glavine ate a variety of food, he took a standardized approach in his workout routine based on pitching every five days.

Let's face it. At this stage of the off-season, the Phillies' rotation, lifted from intimidating to awe-inspiring by the unexpected return of Cliff Lee, looks like the mound version of Murderers' Row. Cy Young Award winner Lee, Cy Young Award winner Roy Halladay, NL Championship Series MVP Roy Oswalt, and World Series MVP Cole Hamels are a formidable foursome no matter the identity of the rotation's fifth wheel. Given good health and good fortune, it's already difficult to envision a scenario in which the '11 Phils don't advance to their fifth straight postseason and perhaps a second World Championship since 2008.

WANT TO KNOW the truth? Cole Hamels does feel a little bit left out. Over the past few days, he has said all the right things about starting Game 3, about being the young lefthander in the middle of two veteran righthanders. But when you really break it down, when you really cut to his core, there is one aspect of the situation that he might change. His name. "I should just change it to Roy," Hamels cracked. An identity crisis might be the only downside to the three-headed monster that will take the mound for the Phillies during their National League Division Series against the Reds, which starts tonight at Citizens Bank Park.

  Martinez shows how 'not working' is done Perhaps all of us (and by "all of us" we mean you, Brett Favre) can learn something about retirement from Pedro Martinez. The erstwhile Dodger, Expo, Red Sox, Met, and Phillie, in a phone interview with the AP, said he had turned down overtures from teams looking for arms for their pennant runs. It was very flattering and all, he said, but all things considered, the 38-year-old righthander would rather stay in Santo Domingo. "Very tempting," he said, "but I have already committed to my kids for the rest of the year and going on vacations, and made plans already with the family.

Johnny Cueto (2-1) pitched a one-hitter for his first major league complete game, allowing only a third-inning single that went off shortstop Paul Janish's glove, and the visiting Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-0, last night for their fourth consecutive win. The Pirates' only hit was by Ronny Cedeno - and it nearly wasn't one. Janish managed to deflect Cedeno's one-out grounder into leftfield, barely missing making the play....