47 and 48: More Than Numbers

Tonight is going to be one of those magical evenings that Turner Field has been increasingly providing thanks to a rise in players retiring and wins. The lucky few that attended the honorary luncheon and the 40,000+ friends in attendance at Turner Field tonight will all have been part of the most momentous evening in the Braves recent history. When the number 47 is unveiled in the Braves Hall of Fame, which itself is slowly catching that of the Yankees, it will signal the end of two of the greatest eras in sports history: the 14 consecutive divisions and Tom Glavine’s career. A career that started in 1987, two years before I was born, officially ends just before first pitch is thrown against the San Francisco Giants tonight with Glavine being the seventh number to be retired by the Atlanta Braves. He joins last year’s inductee and former teammate Greg Maddux (31) as well as Hank Aaron (44), Eddie Mathews (41), Warren Spahn (21), Dale Murphy (3), and Phil Niekro (35).

In a twist of poetic irony it will be the Braves current number 48 Tommy Hanson starting tonight in what could be seen as one of the most poignant torch passing’s of recent years. While Jason Heyward catching the season’s first pitch, thrown by Hank Aaron, was a piece of stage management rarely seen in the city outside of the Fox theatre tonight was hardly designed as Tommy Hanson’s coming out party, it may just end up that way. 47 being retired the same night that 48 is on the mound just happens to be one of those beautiful consequences that occasionally happens in sports but there is a lot about Glavine’s career that Braves fans should remember every time they see Tommy Hanson. In his rookie year Hanson posted a 2.89 ERA which Glavine bettered only twice in his career and it took him 5 years to put up a 2.55 ERA in 1992 and that, in case you were wondering, is before the boom in performance enhancers. Glavine’s rookie season consisted of only 50 innings, not exactly a large amount of data, so his first full season in 1988 is much better to compare to the work that Tommy Hanson has done in his young career so far. In 34 starts Glavine went 7-17 (yes that is the right way round Tom lost 17 games) while putting up a 4.56 ERA in 195 innings. Hanson made 22 starts in his rookie season with the aforementioned 2.89 ERA and an 11-4 record while completing 127 innings. His second season hasn’t exactly matched his achievements of 2009 and that hasn’t gone unnoticed, Tommy has put up a 3.83 ERA and a mediocre 8-8 record in almost exactly the same number of innings but one more start, in comparison Glavine’s second full season saw a 3.68 ERA a 14-8 record in 29 starts, or 186 innings.

What all those numbers prove is that even the Braves greatest product, Tom Glavine, needed an amount of time to adjust the league he would go on to dominate. Even though Hanson has seemed to struggle this season he is still posting numbers significantly better than a young 47 produced or would produce until his fifth year in the league. So when I or any other Braves fan complains about Tommy Hanson’s 2010 season and wonder what’s wrong we need to remember that he has been better than one of the 7 best players in Braves history. Well, for two of twenty-one years at least.