The Braves had Friday, October 27, off before facing the Indians in Game 6 the next day. Instead of a quiet off day preparing for Game 6, the Braves players and management faced a firestorm ignited by David Justice. While waiting to take batting practice, Justice told reporters that Atlanta’s fans were not very passionate and would probably boo the team if it trailed Cleveland the next night. He exacerbated the situation when he suggested that other Braves players felt the same way and that they were playing the Series for themselves, not the Braves fans. With this information in the Saturday Atlanta Journal-Constitution, many Braves fans came to Game 6 at Atlanta-Fulton Stadium ready to reply in some fashion to Justice’s comments.
Justice’s comments were not foremost in Tom Glavine’s, the Game 6 starting pitcher, thoughts. As he rode with Greg Maddux back to their North Atlanta subdivision after Friday’s work out, the topic of conversation focused on the game. Glavine recounted Leo Mazzone’s remarks from Steve Avery that the Indians could not hit his change-up and never made adjustments in Game 4. Glavine asked Maddux what adjustment the Indians made against him in Game 5. Maddux told Glavine that the Indians had not made any adjustments and the reason the Indians won the game was because he could not consistently locate his pitches. Maddux told Glavine not to change anything and that he would beat the Indians. Maddux added that “the guy who should be the winning pitcher when the Atlanta Braves win the championship will be out there.” (Glavine, 1996, p. 11) Glavine stated that those comments afforded him a large dose of confidence.
On game day, Glavine arrived at the stadium around 2:30 and began to dress at his locker. Being a bit superstitious Glavine had several items in his locker that had not moved since he put them there in 1991—a Bart Simpson doll (Glavine enjoys his humor), a four-leaf clover pressed in waxed paper, and a trophy (he always liked the look of trophies). According to Glavine, his other superstitions included chewing a piece of Bazooka sugarless bubble gum every time he pitched (he also kept an extra piece in his back left-hand pocket) and never stepping on the foul lines when taking the field.
As the clock moved closer to game time, the Braves confidently warmed up on the field. Glavine claimed that his throwing session in the bullpen before the game was nothing special and had no idea how effective his pitches would be during the game. Mazzone told him that his pitches looked good, but that did not satisfy Glavine. Glavine remembered prior bullpen sessions when he thought they went terribly but he pitched shutouts and other sessions when he thought he was primed for a great game only to be hit unmercifully. He was certain of one thing: this bullpen session was better than Game 2’s session.
Glavine took the mound and began his pregame ritual of re-adjusting the dirt to find his comfort spot for his plant foot. While working the mound, he looked up in the stands and sensed the crowd’s excitement. Glavine quickly mused that Justice’s comments may have indeed had an effect on the fans’ collective level of passion. As he toed the rubber for the first pitch, he told himself to establish a good rhythm and get out of the first inning, something that had been a problem for him in his career. Glavine began almost immediately to locate his change-up and induced Kenny Lofton to fly out to right field. With the pesky Lofton off the bases, Glavine relaxed and began to settle in. He proceeded to strike out Omar Vizquel and got Carlos Baerga to hit an easy ground ball to him that would end the inning. Glavine had not only achieved his goal of getting through the first inning unscathed but looked masterful in doing so. The Indians were in trouble.
After the first two innings, the Cleveland hitters began to move up in the batter’s box and on top of home plate. Glavine mentioned this to Mazzone and suggested that he should start pitching inside to the hitters. Mazzone countered. The veteran pitching coach told Glavine that when the hitter moves up in the box or on top of the plate that does not change his vision. He said to Glavine that he could pitch inside or that he could pitch farther and farther off of the plate to see if the hitters would continue to adjust to that. Mazzone reasoned that if Glavine threw the ball six to eight inches off the plate and the hitters made solid contact then Glavine would have to pitch inside to keep the down and away pitch as a viable option.
Glavine decided to make pitches farther and farther outside. The Cleveland hitters adjusted accordingly but still couldn’t hit Glavine. The majority of the hitters could only get the end of the bat on the ball, which resulted in easy outs. Mazzone counted a dozen times that Glavine went inside during the course of the game. Glavine’s ability to change speeds with his pitches and locate them where he wanted made him almost unhittable. After walking into the dugout after an inning in the middle of the game Glavine had this outburst, “Will somebody please score a damned run? Because they’re not.” (Freeman 2003, p. 79). Through five innings, the Indians did not have a hit.
The Braves had good opportunities to push across a run or more in the fourth and fifth innings against Cleveland starter Dennis Martinez. Atlanta had the bases loaded in the fourth with two outs but Rafael Belliard flied out to center field to end the inning. In the fifth, the Braves had runners at first and second with two outs when Cleveland manager Mike Hargrove replaced Martinez with Jim Poole in order to face Fred McGriff. Poole struck out McGriff to close out the inning.
In the sixth inning, Glavine gave up his only hit, a leadoff single to Tony Pena, but kept Cleveland from scoring. David Justice led off the bottom of the sixth to a chorus of boos. In two previous at bats Justice had walked and doubled, certainly doing his part to put the Braves on the scoreboard and mitigate the fan animosity he caused because of his comments the previous day.
On a 1-1 count, Justice launched Poole’s third pitch into the right field seats to give Atlanta a 1-0 lead. Pandemonium erupted in the stands as Justice circled the bases, and at least for the moment, Justice and the fans had a love affair that rivaled that of Antony and Cleopatra, Napoleon and Josephine, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall… well, you get the picture.
The Braves had secured that “damned” run for Glavine, and he rewarded them with two more shutout innings. After pitching through the eighth inning, Glavine walked back to the dugout, pulled Mazzone and Bobby Cox aside, and told them he was done. Cox decided to send out closer Mark Wohlers to pitch the ninth inning. Lofton led off the inning and Cox and Mazzone were nervous. They knew that if Lofton reached first base, the Braves were in trouble because Wohlers could not hold runners on base. Lofton could easily steal second and/or third. The Braves had tried to change Wohler’s delivery in the past, but that only hindered his ability to throw strikes. Cox and Mazzone just hoped Wohlers could get Lofton out some way. On a 0-1 pitch, Lofton fouled out to Belliard in foul territory down the third base line. Mazzone stated that at that point, he knew the Braves were going to win the game and the World Series. Sure enough, as if on cue, Wohlers induced Paul Sorrento and Carlos Baerga to fly out to center fielder Marquis Grissom. Venerable Braves broadcaster Skip Caray put it best, “Mark gets the sign. The wind and the pitch, here it is…Swung, fly ball, deep left-center. Grissom on the run… Yes! Yes! Yes! The Atlanta Braves have given you a championship!”
And so they did. Amid fans hugging other fans, Ted Turner kissing Jane Fonda, and general ecstasy throughout, the players piled on one another near the mound. After three World Series attempts, the Braves had achieved something that no other major sports franchise had ever done in Atlanta (and hasn’t done since)—they won a championship.
After the last out, Mazzone remained in the dugout, taking it all in. He didn’t scream. He didn’t holler. He didn’t burst out in song. He didn’t rock. He just sat there in quiet satisfaction. Later in the clubhouse, with a champagne bottle in hand, a reporter asked Mazzone about his pitching staff: “I’m just so proud I could start crying right here and now.” (Rosenberg 1995, p. 159) Many of the Braves fans in Atlanta and across the country did just that—cried. So many years of bad baseball. Close calls against Minnesota and Toronto. Pent up frustration. All washed away in the glory of a World Series title.
Two days later, thousands of fans lined Peachtree Street to honor their heroes. Players and coaches rode on firetrucks in a parade that had been 30 years in the making.
The Atlanta Braves…World Series Champions! Oh, but to hear those words again!
Freeman, Scott and Mazzone, Leo. Tales from the Braves Mound. Sports Publishing L.L.C., 2003.
Glavine, Tom and Cafardo, Nick. None but the Braves. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, www.sportspublishingllc.com, 1996.
Rosenberg, I.J. Bravo! The Inside Story of the Atlanta Braves’ 1995 World Series Championship. Marietta, GA: Longstreet Press, 1995.
