Happy Smoltz Day!

Oh, glorious heavens! Your skies are parting, and the sun is (finally) shining in Boston – which is all very fitting since today is the day we all rejoice, for it is SMOLTZ DAY.

NATSTOWN will surely be no match, as Our Vaunted Hero makes his triumphant return to the pitching mound – and, more importantly, dons the Boston greys for the first official time. O, happy day!

While we all wait in barely-contained anticipation for first pitch tonight from Washington, let’s learn random things about John Smoltz — all of which come courtesy of the fabulous Dan Hoard, a broadcaster for the PawSox and a first-rate blogger.

• Smoltzie’s first career path was not baseball. At the tender age of four, he followed in his father’s footsteps and started playing the accordion. THE ACCORDION. Per Dan Hoard:
  

  John’s dad was an accomplished musician who played the accordion and Smoltz started playing at the age of 4. Within a year or two, he was entering and winning contests for young accordion virtuosos. But one day when he was 7, while sitting in the family vehicle at a gas station, John informed his folks that he wanted to “retire” as an accordion player. He planned to become a major league baseball player instead.

• Tiger Woods call Smoltz “the best amateur” he had ever golfed with. (and Smoltz would like to play on the PGA Tour once he hangs up his baseball spikes)
• John grew up in Michigan as a Tigers fan. His grandfather was a groundskeeper at Tiger Stadium for 38 years, and his dad was part of the entertainment at the Tigers victory party following the 1968 World Series. Smoltz got to go to the final game of the 1984 World Series in Detroit as a fan. He wound up with a chunk of sod from the infield and planted it in his family’s front yard next to a statue of a tiger.
• Smoltz is already in the Hall of Fame – at least his picture is. Per Dan Hoard, there’s a photo of a baby John in an exhibit highlighting the dominant Braves teams of the 1990s.
• Dan Patrick recently had Smoltz on his radio show, and asked John about his recent nuptials with Kathryn Darden.
  

  After expressing his disappointment over not being invited to the ceremony, Patrick asked the newlywed to “rate his stuff on his wedding night.” Smoltz said, “I was locked in and went long enough to get the win.”

• John’s house palace in Georgia has “3 golf holes, a baseball field, tennis court, basketball court, and partial football field”