RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR) – The National Baseball Hall of Fame announced its 2014 class today.
Former Atlanta Braves pitchers Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux were elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, as was former Chicago White Sox slugger Frank Thomas.
What makes this Hall of Fame class extra special for Richmond baseball fans is that Glavine once played at the Diamond on Boulevard for the Richmond Braves.
Here is a clip from the CBS 6 Video Vault of a then 20-year-old Glavine before the 1987 season.
“For me at this point to go back there [Richmond] for even a full season is not going to hurt me,” Glavine said in a spring training interview. “I’m going to learn a lot. I still have a lot of things to learn and I still have a lot of experience to gain.”
Glavine, who went a combined 7-17 over two seasons with the Richmond Braves, jumped to the Atlanta Braves later in the 1987 season and never looked back.
Glavine earned 305 wins over his 22-year Hall of Fame career, which came to an end in 2008.
Glavine is not the first Richmond Braves player to be enshrined in Cooperstown, according to the Gwinnett Braves (remember the Richmond Braves moved to the Atlanta suburbs in 2009).
Pitchers Phil Niekro, who played for Richmond in 1967, and Bob Lemon, who managed the Richmond Braves in 1975, are both in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
World Series winning manager Tony La Russa, who played for the Richmond Braves in 1972, was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee last month.
So was former Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox, who played for the Richmond Braves in 1967. He will join his former pitchers Glavine and Maddux at July’s Hall of Fame ceremony.
