A familiar voice will be missing from the Braves’ broadcast lineup this season: Tom Glavine’s.
The Hall of Fame pitcher, who has served as an analyst on varying numbers of Braves telecasts over the past decade, decided to step away from the role for family reasons, he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday night.
“With my dad passing away last summer, I’ve just got it in my mind that I want to go spend more time this summer with my mom (who lives in Massachusetts),” Glavine said. “Trying to navigate that through a broadcasting schedule probably would have been difficult, so I spoke to the folks at (Bally Sports South and Southeast) and said, ‘Listen, here’s kind of where I’m at, I just want to take this one year (off) and see what happens.’”
Glavine, who lives in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., said he “left the door open” to possibly returning to broadcasting Braves games in 2023.
“I’m not walking away permanently,” he said. “We have talked about certainly revisiting things at the end of this season for the following season.”
Glavine said he also told Bally Sports he might be able to work “a little bit” this year “if you get into a situation where you just need a series filled.”
“I'm not walking away permanently. We have talked about certainly revisiting things at the end of this season for the following season."
He began broadcasting Braves games in 2010, initially working the Sunday home games and eventually adding more telecasts. “I ended up at my high mark doing close to 50 games a year,” he said. He estimated that he called between 40 and 45 games last season.
Glavine, who will turn 56 on Friday, holds a special place in Braves history. In a 22-year major-league career from 1987 through 2008, he posted a 305-203 record, including 244-147 in 17 seasons with the Braves. Most famously, he pitched eight innings of one-hit shutout ball as the Braves defeated Cleveland 1-0 in the clinching Game 6 of the 1995 World Series.
Bally Sports South and Southeast said its broadcast lineup this season again will feature play-by-play announcer Chip Caray, entering his 18th season calling Braves games, and Jeff Francoeur, entering his fourth season as the lead in-game analyst. Francoeur typically works about 100 games per season.
Former Braves players Brian Jordan (entering his 16th season as an analyst on the pregame and postgame studio shows), Paul Byrd (entering his 10th season as an in-game reporter) and Peter Moylan (entering his fourth season as an analyst on the studio shows) will get expanded roles as in-game analysts. Kelly Crull returns for her third season as an in-game reporter.
The pregame and postgame shows will be hosted by Treavor Scales, who joined the cast late last season. In addition to Jordan and Moylan, analysts on the studio shows will include former Braves players Nick Green, who is in his eighth season in the role, and Gordon Beckham, who joined the telecasts for 12 games last year.
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