Braves Pitching Staff Also Aces on the Links

The Atlanta Braves quartet of Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Charlie Leibrandt and Steve Avery may be the best starting rotation in baseball. They’re not bad on the golf course either.

Glavine is a 20-game winner for the second consecutive season; the other three have won at least 11 games.

While Glavine is the top dog on the diamond, Smoltz and Leibrandt are the best on the links.

“It’s a tossup between John and Charlie right now,” Glavine said.

According to the left-hander, Smoltz and Leibrandt shoot in the mid to high 70s, “probably five or six handicaps. I’m probably a 12; Avery is a 12-13 or 14.”

The regular group of golfers is limited to starting pitchers, since the game is off-limits to other players except on days off.

On those rare occasions, catcher Greg Olson joins in.

A biased observer is reliever Kent Mercker, who during the off-season lives in Dublin, Ohio and is a member at the Jack Nicklaus-built Muirfield golf course. He has his own rating system of the players.

“A bad day for Charlie and John is 82-83. An average day is 77-78. A good day for John is par or better. My average day is their bad day,” said Mercker, who said he’s a 15 handicap “because I haven’t played much”

He rated Glavine and himself as about even.

“Right now Glavine is better than me because he’s playing a lot. But I can definitely catch him. I’ll tell you who the sleeper is, Pete Smith,” Mercker said.

“If he works at it, he’ll be competing for honors on the team,” he said. “Avery, no chance. Avery is either 77 or 97. He’s not in between.”

A late addition to the group is fifth starter Smith, who joined after his recall from the minors in mid-summer. He’s a 12-to-14 handicapper.

Olson is considered the luckiest of the group.

“He’ll hit a ball 15-20 yards off-line and somehow it will always find the fairway,” said Leibrandt. “He’ll hit a tree and it seems to always bounce right for him.”

He said Smoltz hit a recent drive on a par 5 some 40-50 yards out of bounds, but it struck a house with a pitched roof, and wound up just off the fairway in the fringe.

“That’s an ‘Olie’ shot,” said Leibrandt.

“They call everything I hit lucky,” said Olson, who has since been sidelined with a broken ankle.

Although the competition for the team championship is between Smoltz and Leibrandt, the others aren’t about to give up.

“Myself, Avery and Pete are just trying to get to a point where we can contend with Charlie and John,” said Glavine.

“Pete and Avery will play now and then, but it’s hard to get those two out of bed in the morning, so they don’t play quite as much as we do. They’re not as fanatic about it.”

That role belongs to Smoltz, who tries to play twice a week. He also takes the most ribbing from the others.

“I’m the one who has to take all the abuse and set up the arrangements all the time,” said Smoltz.

“Basically I’m the No. 1 golf nut, and I learned a long time ago that if you want to play, you’ve got to make your own arrangements. That way you can’t be left out,” he said.

On the road, the consensus is that San Francisco is to best place to play. That may end if the Giants move to Florida.

“That’s probably the biggest golf trip for us,” said Glavine. “That’s going to be the sad part about not going out there.”