Glavine Can Put Atlanta Over Top : Game 6: The Braves have a 3-2 advantage in games, but Indians say the pressure is on the home team.

Tom Glavine was here during all of those seasons when the Atlanta Braves’ goal was to avoid losing 100 games.

He was here during the two World Series when the Braves came so agonizingly close to winning their first Atlanta championship, but failing each time.

He was here opening day, and was booed by the hometown fans, who were incensed and bitter over his active role in the strike talks.

Tonight, Thomas Michael Glavine has the opportunity to erase all the bitterness and bad memories. He can be the man who gives Atlanta its first major championship in any pro sport when he pitches Game 6 of the World Series against the Cleveland Indians at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

“It’s only fitting that Tommy is on the mound for us,” third baseman Chipper Jones said. “He was the one guy who saw the 100-loss seasons, the guy who went to the brink of two World Series, the guy who took all of the heat for the strike because of his stance with the union, and the guy who’s had to answer all of Greg Maddux’s performances with one of his own.

“So it’s only fitting that he has the opportunity to bring home Atlanta’s first World Series championship, and have the eyes of the world be on Atlanta for something besides the Olympics.

“He will not let this opportunity slip away. Believe me, we will win this [tonight].”

The Braves lead the Series, three games to two, and face Cleveland’s Dennis Martinez tonight, firmly hoping there will be no Game 7.

The Braves have won more regular-season games in the last five seasons than any team in baseball, but they are only one of 25 teams in that span that have not won a World Series.

“As much as the guys in here are saying they don’t listen to all of the talk about our past, believe me, it’s being talked about,” Jones said. “We don’t want to be mentioned in the same breath as the Buffalo Bills.

“I don’t want to say anybody is panicking, but you do sense a case of urgency, and you can see that guys are pressing. You can just take a look around and see that.

“It’s going to take us winning the last game of the year instead of losing the last game of the year for these guys to feel good about themselves.

“If we can win this thing, we can get rid of a lot of heartbreak in this city.”

The frustration stemming from recent playoff failures never was more evident than during Friday’s workouts, when Braves’ right fielder David Justice loosed his pent-up feelings.

“If we don’t win this thing, they’ll try to run us out of Atlanta,” Justice said. “You won’t see me here again until opening day. I’m gone. That’s it. That is if they don’t blow our house down. . . .

“I know how it is. I’ve seen the expectations since Day 1. It’s wrong. So this is it for 25 guys in here and coaching staff. It’s like the song, ‘[You and] Me Against the World.’ It’ll be 25 guys and our coaching staff against everybody.

“That’s where the satisfaction will be.”

Justice and several of his teammates have criticized the city’s lackadaisical attitude toward the Braves and the World Series. This is the third time in five years that the Braves have been in the Series, and it’s almost as if the fans don’t want to become emotionally attached until they win a championship.

“It’s not fair,” Justice said. “You saw what it was like in Cleveland. They love their team, which is how a city should act.

“Here, we don’t have anybody out at the airport to wish us well. We don’t have a police escort. It’s like, la-di-da.

“We’ve got fans coming out just to bad-mouth our team. They haven’t appreciated the efforts of this ballclub the last four years. Instead, all we do is hear talk about the Buffalo Bills [and their Super Bowl failures]. You look at all of the success by the Bills the last five years, but all you hear about is what they’ve done on a particular Sunday.

“You imagine what will happen if we don’t win this thing now? We’ll get treated like dirt on the bottom of shoes. The fans will never come back.”

Justice, who is batting only .214 this series without an extra-base hit, also was unable to control his indignation upon learning that Orel Hershiser and several Cleveland players insist that all of the pressure is now on the Braves.

“[Forget] Orel, and tell him that,” Justice said. “If he wants some, he can get some.

“Come on, everybody’s feeling pressure. It’s a natural emotion. You can’t deny it. If anybody says they’re not feeling it, they’re lying.”

Hershiser said he’s willing to calmly discuss the comments with Justice, but has no interest in a fight.

“I’m not trying to put extra pressure on the Braves,” Hershiser said. “I’m just saying I would be frustrated if I was a player on their side if I had three chances and never won it.”

It’s that kind of talk that has the Braves defensive, their fans nervous, and Cleveland relishing the frustration that has prevailed in the Braves’ clubhouse.

Braves’ outfielder Dwight Smith said, “If we get this ring, I think you’ll see a lot of guys saying, ‘You can kiss our . . . ‘ These fans are spoiled. They don’t realize how hard it is to get to the World Series.

“And when we do, they bring up ’91 and ‘92, even though most of us weren’t even around. How can you blame [Greg] Maddux, [Fred] McGriff and myself? We weren’t even here.

“We win this thing, you’re going to see a whole lot of guys go crazy, and we’ve got the right guy on the mound to do it.”

Said Glavine, who never has pitched a Game 6 or Game 7 in a World Series: “I’m just going to try to treat it as another game, and try not to think that it would be the biggest win in the history of the franchise or what it would mean to this city.

“But, you know, I’m only human. Everyone knows what’s at stake.”

* A CALL TO ARMS

Cleveland will try to stay alive in the series behind the pitching of Dennis Martinez, who has been struggling with a variety of injuries. C8