It’ll be a Braves reunion in Cooperstown

Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine were the first two pitchers that manager Bobby Cox turned to for much of the Braves’ 1990s heyday, and now Cox will be able to turn and see them on the podium in July when all three are inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Maddux and Glavine drew overwhelming support from voting writers and were elected to the Hall of Fame on Wednesday along with former White Sox and A’s slugger Frank Thomas. They’re part of a Braves-flavored Class of 2014 that also includes Cox, who was elected unanimously (along with managers Tony La Russa and Joe Torre) by the Expansion Era committee last month.

“It really would’ve been disappointing not to have the opportunity to go in with Bobby and Greg,” Glavine said. “If there’s anything that would’ve killed me, so to speak, about not getting that phone call today, that would’ve been it. It’s such a rare opportunity to go into the Hall of Fame. It’s even rarer to have a teammate and your manager go in at the same time.”

Maddux and Glavine combined for six Cy Young Awards and 660 major league wins, including 445 wins as Braves, and became the first Hall of Famers in 40 years to spend most or all of their careers together and be elected by the BBWAA in the same year. The last to do it were the Yankees’ Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle, who were elected in 1974.

Maddux and Glavine’s selection was notable in two more ways. Before Wednesday, only two players who’d spent a large part of their career with the Atlanta Braves were elected to the Hall of Fame: Hank Aaron and knuckleballer Phil Niekro.

And they are part of an increasingly rare breed in the Hall: starting pitchers. They are the first starters of their generation to get in. Don Sutton was elected in 1998 and Nolan Ryan in 1999 — both men began their careers in the 1960s. Since then the only starting pitcher elected by the writers was Bert Blyleven, who started his career in 1970, in 2011.

The Hall of Fame induction ceremony is July 27 in Cooperstown, N.Y. Mattingly’s new deal: Don Mattingly will be back as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers next season with a new three-year contract that takes him through 2016, quieting speculation that his future with the club was in doubt.

Mattingly, reportedly, is getting a raise from the $1.4 million he made last year. By comparison, Yankees manager Joe Girardi is starting a $16 million, four-year agreement after completing a $9 million, three-year deal. Iglesias signs: The Detroit Tigers agreed to a one-year deal with shortstop Jose Iglesias. Iglesias finished second in last year’s AL Rookie of the Year vote, hitting .303 in 109 games with Boston and the Tigers. Detroit acquired him from the Red Sox in a threeway deal shortly before the trade deadline.