With Tom Glavine gunning for career win no. 300 tonight, the New York Sun’s Tim Marchman, while offering qualified praise for the lefthander (“he’ sreached greatness simply because of consistency, from pitch to pitch and from year to year, from his early career with a wretched Braves team through the last few seasons that have seen him chipping away toward the 58 wins he needed to reach immortality,”) can’t resist wondering what Glavine’s doing in a Mets uniform, anyway.

Any baseball writer who isn’t lying will admit to some prejudices, and I was, at the time, prejudiced against the Braves. For their offensive team nickname and the ridiculous tomahawk chop, for the maddening layout of their sprawling city and its past as a stronghold of the Confederacy, for John Rocker and the presence of a grown man named Chipper on their roster, I never could stand the Braves. This never carried over to the likes of Glavine, Bobby Cox, or Greg Maddux, but there still seemed to be a certain justice in a senescent Glavine retiring to the old folk’s home in Queens with Mo Vaughn, Roberto Alomar and their ilk and suffering through several wretched seasons of losing baseball And something to make up for Kenny Rogers walking home the winning run in the 1999 playoffs.

Five years on, I still think the sight of Glavine in a Mets uniform is only slightly less bizarre than the sight of Reggie Miller in a Knicks uniform would have been, and I still don’t understand the impulse to self-degradation that allowed the Mets to bring the hated enemy into their own camp and exalt him. How could a team have so little pride?

While Cole Hamels was terrific last night (8 IP, 3 hits, one earned run) in the Phillies’ 4-1 win at Wrigley, the visitors lost Shane Victorino and Michael Bourn to injuries. Said mishaps, along with Chase Utley’s recent broken hand, are undoubtedly a bummer for the Phils, but Todd Zolekci submits that no injury has been nearly as costly for Charlie Manuel’s charges as Freddy Garcia’s damaged shoulder.

While Eric Gagne remains one of the more coveted commodities at today’s trade deadline, the Yankees have swapped reliever Scott Proctor for the Dodgers’ IF Wilson Betemit.