Producers’ Pick | Tom Glavine: Why the Yankees Are the Best Baseball Team This Season

The more you listen, the more you'll know.

It's Brian Kilmeade. And there you go. That was one of the moments that Tom Glavin probably won't forget, but he's had a lot of them. 1996 NLCS in Game 7. Glavin hit a triple. The guy could play. He could play, he could hit, and we all know he had a Hall of Fame pitching career with the Braves and Mets. Tom Glavin is now talking golf.

He's going to be in the 2022 American Century Championship because he could do it all. Tom, welcome back. I like that introduction.

That's a lot to live up to, Brian. I know. Well, you did it. You lived it. I watched you.

You're in New York. I actually watched you guys. The first time I heard of how great your young pitching staff was, WFAN, which is an all-sports radio station here in New York, was at Mickey Mantle's. And you guys came and visited Bill Mazer there. And he just talked about glowingly, and everyone saw your stats, how great you guys are going to be for a long time. And then you added Maddox, and you were great for a long time. Yeah.

I mean, who would have necessarily known that? But yeah, look, it was a perfect storm, I guess. We had myself and Smoltzy and Steve Avery at the time that kind of all came up through the Braves system and grew up together.

And then you have a little success. And oh, by the way, then you had probably the best pitcher in the National League at that time and Greg Maddox. So it was fun. And I think the best thing was, obviously, we all had talent, but I think we all respected the heck out of one another and generally wanted each other to do well and knew how important we were to the overall goals of the team. So we had friendly competitions between one another, and no question, we kind of motivated each other. If somebody went out and had a good game the night before, you wanted to go out and do one a little bit better.

So we drove each other, and it was a lot of fun. I mean, it'd be tough. You look at it now, it'd be awful tough in today's game, economically speaking, to keep a rotation like that together. So we were fortunate. Yeah, they have a luxury tax now. I guess you could spend back then. It's kind of a salary cap.

That's the way it's functioning. But Tommy, you're forgetting about John Rocker. Another time, because I started doing sports here at Fox, when sports became news, I would cover it. And when John Rocker came to town, that was some crazy times, wouldn't you say?

Crazy is probably a good word to describe it. Yeah. You know, he lit a little fire there with his... Sports Illustrated interview? Yeah, so it was, you know, I mean, I remember, I think that year we came back, our first game, the first game that he saved out in LA, we went out to shake hands after the game, and we got showered with all kinds of things. So it became a dangerous endeavor to go out there and shake hands at the end of the game when John closed it at that time. Of course, this is something you won't forget for sure.

Cut 35, 1995, Game 6, Mark Waller's. Your thoughts? You know, it was a lot, I guess I say it's a long time coming. I mean, you know, we had come up short a couple times, obviously, in 91 and 92, and then got beaten in the NLCS by the Phillies in 93, which, you know, with that team, I think we thought was probably one of the best teams that we had assembled and had the historic comeback, the second half of the year, and I think we were just kind of out of gas when we got to the postseason. But to finally win, you know, it was a great feeling, obviously, and I think what made it even better was, you know, largely it was the same group that had been through the disappointments. You know, we had some changes here and there, but for the most part, the nucleus of that team had been together to experience the losses in the World Series.

So to ultimately do it with largely the same group was a ton of fun. And, you know, I mean, I think we look at it and we're disappointed. We only got the one, but, you know, we got beaten by some pretty good teams when we got beat. And, you know, that following year against the Yankees, we had a chance to repeat and we were up to nothing and, you know, didn't get it done.

But, you know, I mean, look, 14 straight division titles is not something you ever expect to do. So we had a, we had an opportunity every year. So it was fun.

Right, absolutely. So you came to New York in 2003 to 2007. We're carried here by WABC too. So everyone remembers you as a Met. And then you ended up with the Braves, but you started from 87 in 2002 to accomplish all that. Here's what your former teammate, who's going to be golfing in the American Century Championship along with you, who's a real good golfer as well, John Smoltz, said about the Braves' chance of catching your former team, the Mets, who, by the way, have won 14 in a row and now have just four games back of the Mets, cut 40. Can Atlanta catch the Mets? I don't think the Atlanta Braves can catch the Mets this year. The Mets are the deepest team I've seen in the National League for them, for their organization, and they're doing it without their best two pitchers. The Mets last season just weren't as good to hold on to that lead, and that's why the Braves made all those moves. I don't think that's the case this year, and I believe the New York Mets, as much as these fan base, has been dying to see this team get to October. I think they're going to be pleasantly surprised this year, and they can make a real deep run. So that's the analyst, John Smoltz. What does Tom Glavine think?

I don't disagree with a lot of that. I mean, I'm not going to go so far as to say that, you know, the Braves can't catch the Mets, but, you know, I think that if you're a Mets fan, you have to be encouraged by what's going on. I mean, you've got a four or four or five game lead in the division now. You know, the Braves obviously won 14 in a row, and they've made a big run, and you would anticipate when a team behind you wins 14 in a row, they're going to gain some ground, but, you know, the Mets have held in there. And to John's point, they're a very deep team, obviously, to be able to be where they are, given that they've been without the Grom and Scherzer. And, you know, I think if you're a Mets fan, like I said, you see where you are. And if, you know, you said that your fan base, hey, in the middle of June, we're going to be four games up on the Braves, and we're going to have a large part of our season with our without our two horses and Scherzer and the Grom. I think every Mets fan would have been thrilled by that. So being where they are and knowing that Scherzer hopefully is close to coming back and the Grom, you know, would almost if he's able to come back the second half of the year would almost be like a, you know, a trade deadline kind of deal for them.

That would be a huge boost. So I think it a lot of it depends on whether or not Max and the Grom are able to make significant contributions over the second half of the year. And lastly, the biggest story, I think, in baseball is the Yankees now 30 games over 500. You know, in the offseason, you know what New York's like, Tom.

They were talking about Brian Cashman's got to go. This team needs to be broken up. And now no one can stop them. They've won six in a row again. Aaron Judge looks like he's going to break Roger Maris's record at 60 in a single season. I guess it's at least a team record.

Well, 61 I should say. Cut 38. The 3-2. Driven out to 8 center field.

Margaux back on the track at the line. Home run, Aaron Judge. He's 25th and it's a 1-0 Yankee lead. How do you explain his success? 6-7 guy, wasn't hitting much for average in the minors. He's changed a lot now and he's staying healthy these days. How does Tom Glavin pitch Judge?

How do you explain what are the big challenges? I think you pitch him carefully. For a lot of guys, that's the beauty of baseball.

More so than a lot of sports. You just don't know when that light bulb is going to go off for a guy and he starts to figure stuff out. Aaron Judge, obviously, is a huge talent. Just a monster of a guy. A physical guy. If he puts it all together, then you don't know what he's capable of. You're interested in seeing what he's capable of doing.

I think you're starting to see glimpses of that. He's just such a presence in that lineup, a presence in the batter's box. He can not hit a ball and still get it out of the ballpark. So, I think as an opposing pitcher, he's really one of those guys that you look at and you say, well, you can't repeat too much. You've got to constantly change speeds and constantly change locations and hope you don't make a mistake because if you do, there's a good chance he's going to get you. That's why baseball players, I think, in general, are so boring, Brian, is because if we listened to every time a pundit said that our team was going to stink or we were going to stink or this guy needed to go and then everybody ends up being wrong, we would all go crazy. So, I think that's why in our game, we really do tend to try to stay on that even keel and not listen to a whole lot of stuff because so many things change in baseball from a month to month standpoint that you'd be crazy if you got caught up in everything people said.

Precise, personal, powerful. Is America's weather team in the palm of your hands? Get Fox weather updates throughout your busy day, every day. Subscribe and listen now at FoxNewsPodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

All right. So, Tom Houser, I know you're a good hockey player too. So, now you're playing golf, the 2022 American Century Championship. You're going to be there with a bunch of other celebrities and sports celebrities.

They've already raised $6 million for charity. How serious do you take this? It airs on the Golf Channel beginning tomorrow, excuse me, starts July 8th, airing on the Golf Channel July 8th and Saturday and Sunday, 9th and 10th with $600,000 at stake. So, how do you approach this tournament? We all take it seriously.

I mean, it's the premier celebrity event, obviously. And look, I mean, for a lot of guys that play in the tournament, and I guess in past years, you could put me in that category. You know, you don't have a chance to win, but you still want to go out there and you want to play well. And, you know, there are guys around you that you look at and you say, okay, well, I want to beat that guy. I want to beat that guy, or I want to finish in the top 20, or I want to finish in the top 25, whatever.

So, it's, you know, you take it seriously. You drive yourself to go out there to try and play well. It's an uncomfortable environment for all of us Saturday golfers, you know, because there's a gallery and you got to put everything out and, you know, there's always the embarrassment factor, but it's a blast. I mean, you get those competitive juices going, which for a lot of us retired athletes, there's not a lot that does that anymore. So, to be able to go out there and kind of have that feeling of nervousness again, when you get on that first tee, it's a lot of fun. But, you know, I've played it in a number of years now. So, you know, there are guys that I see out there every year that it's, you know, it's fun to go back and see them and play against them.

And certainly some of the guys that are playing today, that we all watch on TV to get an opportunity to meet some of those guys. So, it really is a great event, but I'm looking to, I'm looking to play better this year, Brian. I didn't play very well last year. So, I'm looking to be one of the surprise guys this year. And, of course, your teammate is lost in the playoffs, Avinny Del Negro, in the playoff last year. So, you can't let Smoltz beat you again, although I hear he's pretty awesome. He's pretty darn good. So, if I can't win the tournament, I damn sure want to beat him. So, that's my secondary goal.

All right. Tom, lastly, are you worried at all about baseball? People talk about to pick up the game, what could be, what changes, should they be more open to it?

The DH in both leagues for now. What would you, are you concerned about the game for the big picture? Not for the baseball nuts like you and the great players, but for the ones, for the ambivalent sports fan who moves to big events? You know, I mean, I think even for the lifelong baseball fan, you know, somebody like myself, there's concern, right? I don't necessarily love the game the way it's played right now. I hate all the pitching changes.

I hate all the analytics. You know, I think for fans across the board, there's a concern, you know, about the three outcome game, right? Home run, walk and strikeout is all we ever see.

There's very little strategy anymore. You know, for the less baseball fan, you know, they don't want to go to the ballpark and sit there for three and a half hours and watch nothing happen. So, I mean, I think those are all concerns and I'll give baseball credit. They've been open to some change and certainly a lot of things that they're implementing at the minor league level experimenting with to try and see if they can bring it to the big league level. But, you know, I definitely think there are some things that can change and need to change both from a length of game standpoint and from just a pure action standpoint.

I think the game needs more action. Right. It's just hard to tell people they can't use analytics and I guess you can... No, I agree. I agree. Yeah, I agree with that.

Right. Tom, great talking to you. Always, and thanks for using New York and Atlanta.

What a great career. Thanks so much for joining us. I appreciate it, Brian. Thanks for the time. Put the power of over 100 meteorologists and the worldwide resources of Fox in your hands with the Fox Weather Podcast.

Precise, personal, powerful. Subscribe and listen now at FoxNewsPodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts.