Never imitated, infrequently updated: May 2009

In no particular order.
1. He was the never the ace on any team he was on, ever.*
2. Since he was never the #1 on any staff, his rotation was set up so he did not have to face other team's best pitchers.
3. He doesn't pass the sniff test. I say Ken Griffey Jr., you say no doubt, first ballot HOFer. I say Randy Johnson or Pedro you say Hall of Fame. I say Tom Glavine, you say ehhh.
4. Ask a manager from the 90's to pick one pitcher to
a. start a team with
b. win one game and you can pick any pitcher in baseball.
No one picks Tom Glavine.
5. No one benefited more from the Eric Gregg strike zone (4-6 inches outside to right-handers) more than Mr. Glavine. Javier Lopez would set up outside. Glavine threw directly into his mitt. Lopez never moved then framed it. Strike one. But wait a minute, that pitch was three inches outside. How he got away with that same crappy trick start after start is not his fault, and I give him credit for using it to his advantage however, if he came to the bigs sometime during or after 2003, after the initiation of Questech, I cannot imagine he would have the same success. He was 63-60from 2003-2008. Pretty good? Yes. HOF good? No way.
6. He played on the best team in the regular season in the National League for 12 consecutive seasons. Again, not his fault, but his numbers are inflated because of it.
Put John Smoltz or Gregg Maddux, two bona-fide HOFers with Maddux being a no doubt first ballot entry, on the K.C. Royals or the Pittsburgh Pirates during the 90's up through the 00's and their numbers would be a little different but their career's in baseball would still have the same end point, Cooperstown. If Tom Glavine played for the Baltimore Orioles throughout the 90's and into this decade there would a very, very small chance that he would be enshrined in the hall.
7. He has one thing going for him. One. He won three hundred + games. A testimony more to his longevity and the teams he played for than his individual talent. No one has ever won 300 or more games and been left out. He should be the first.
8. Tom Glavine was a good/very good player for a long time but that is not what the baseball Hall of Fame is for. The Hall of Fame in baseball is for the best of the best, not the best of the good.

* He was the ace of the NY Mets in 2003 and 2004, before they acquired Pedro Martinez, and went 9-14 and 11-14 in those 2 seasons.