"Tom Glavine was simply miserable last year. An aching left elbow added to the prolonged discomfort provided by his troublesome left shoulder. Still, while the pain proved great enough to force him off the mound, it never proved strong enough to force him to seriously contemplate retirement.

Motivated by the desire to compete and his passion to pitch, Glavine spent the offseason rehabbing his left elbow and left shoulder, which were both surgically repaired in August. The light at the end of the tunnel was supplied by the possibility that he might once again be able to compete at the Major League level without having to deal with the misery that surrounded him last year.

"Last year wasn't a lot of fun," Glavine said. "I enjoy coming to the ballpark, having that nervous feeling in my stomach and then going out there to try to execute a game plan. That's fun for me. Last year, it wasn't fun because that nervousness in my stomach was a product of, 'How am I going to get through this today?' I knew I didn't feel good, and I knew I was battling that more than anything else."

Confident that his elbow has returned to health and content with the fact that his shoulder is going to provide some of the same discomforts that have been present for the better part of his storied career, Glavine anxiously made his Grapefruit League season debut against the Mets at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex on Saturday afternoon and experienced a sense of relief that wasn't present last year.

"The way I feel right now, I'd have taken this any day of the week last year," said Glavine after limiting the Mets to two hits over three scoreless innings.

While facing a Mets lineup that was highlighted by Ryan Church and Daniel Murphy, Glavine displayed some of the poise and pinpoint accuracy that has helped him notch 305 career wins. The only hits he surrendered came courtesy of consecutive one-out singles produced by Bobby Kielty and Church in the second inning.

"I'm satisfied with it," Glavine said. "I'm not going to sit here and try to pretend it was any more than it was. For me, right now, it's about going out there trying to feel comfortable with making my pitches -- which for the most part I did -- and trying to feel comfortable with how I feel physically -- which for the most part I did.

"But that's not the New York Mets' lineup. So I'm not going to get fooled or overconfident based on the results." "