After The Glavine Release: What's More Important, Retribution Or The Legacy?

I wrote HERE the other day about how Tommy Glavine had to be feeling pertaining to his recent release by the Atlanta Braves.  His actions since the release express his main emotion: Embarrassment.  His next steps will show what's more important to Glavine, retribution for causing the embarrasment or preserving the legacy.

After winning his 300th game with the Mets in August of 2007, not much has gone right for Tommy Glavine on the field.  He was involved in one of the biggest team collapses in Major League Baseball history at the end of that season when the Mets blew a 7 game lead with 17 games to play.  In fact, it was Glavine on the mound starting game 162 and famously (or infamously) not being able to get out of the first inning.  A fresh start with a new team, which was really his old team, the Braves, in 2008 didn't pan out so well as Glavine spent much of the season on the disabled list - his first visit to the DL in his 20+ year career.  Now, working his way back in the minor leagues, he has been told by the big club that they literally don't think he's good enough to pitch for them anymore.  That's a lot to be embarrassed about.

Glavine and his agent, Gregg Clifton, are now considering filing a grievance against the Braves, saying he was released because the team didn't want to pay him the million dollars he would have received had he been recalled.  Under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement between MLB and the Players Union, a player is not allowed to be released for financial reasons.

Those who aren't participants in this story - the other 29 MLB teams, you, me, China & the G-7 (sounds like a punk band), next year's contestants on The Biggest Loser - now get to watch to see who's going to win this competition.  The burden of proof is on the Glavine camp.  While the Braves say Glavine's readings on the radar gun weren't big league quality, Glavine's rebuttal is that he has never been about hitting triple digits on the Juggs Gun.  He's been about throwing the ball in a squiggly fashion to anywhere he wanted it to go.  If a batter hit it, chances of it being hit directly at a teammate were better than the ball flying over a wall 405 feet away.  Do Glavine & Clifton have evidence, some smoking radar gun that proves the Braves cut the future Hall of Fame lefty purely to save $600,000 (the net number after subtracting the $400,000 Glavine's replacement, Tommy Hanson, will receive as a Major League minimum salary from the $1 million Tommy Glavine won't receive)?  Or would this grievance be more about an attempt to embarrass Atlanta?

Think about this.  Let's say you were a teacher or a salesperson or a cop for 20 years and one day, three of your bosses (not just one, but three of them) pull you into a room, close the door and tell you they don't think you're good enough to be a part of their school/business/police force anymore.  How would you feel?  Yeah, you'd be hurt and embarrassed.  You'd also get pretty mad as you replayed the meeting over and over and over again in your head.  Do you think you'd be able to see their criticism of you with objective eyes?  Could you agree that maybe they were right and your performance wasn't worthy of their paying you any longer?  In two of the three cases, you would have a union to talk to (a salesman for a medical services company or record company or internet advertising firm doesn't have that benefit).  If you had a union rep to back you, do you think you'd follow the Glavine path and consider filing a grievance?

Tommy Glavine has a lot to be proud of on the baseball diamond.  The media has backed him up over the way the Braves released him.  The team even apologized for its tone during their meeting with Glavine.  But he has to know there is a fine line between preserving a legacy and looking desperate.  If Glavine's threats of a grievance are merely to keep public opinion on his side, mission accomplished.  Should he pursue this angle all the way, he runs the risk of baring his professional inadequacies.  And what man in his 40s wants the public to know about his inadequacies?

To fight over a million dollars is worth it for the ordinary citizen.  For the already multi-millionaire baeball player, there's more than just money being fought over here.  Does Tommy Glavine's embarrassment justify a full 12-round bout?  Or should he give up while he's still ahead?  That depends on what means more to him, either getting back at the team that let him go or preserving his Hall of Fame legacy.