Smoltz Hungry Before First '09 Start

WASHINGTON -- "We have too many Johns on this team," cracked a heard, but not seen, Red Sox player as a horde of media crowded around John Smoltz's locker the day before his first major league start of 2009.

There is (Jon) Lester, the once and future ace. There is (Jonathan) Papelbon, one of the best closers in the game. And Thursday evening in the nation's capital, for the first time there will be (John) Smoltz, the future Hall of Famer trying to reinvent himself one more time as he makes his 2009 debut.

"This is not the old, or the new, or the done," Smoltz said of his return to a major league pitching mound. "This is just a new chapter of which when I have a baseball in my hand, I feel like I can make a pitch and ... take the sting out of the bat."

Philosophical words spoken by a man who has recreated himself as a pitcher countless times. And that characteristic is really what defines Smoltz among the elite pitchers of his era, beyond all of the statistical accomplishments. Greg Maddux had the smarts, Tom Glavine frustrated hitters, Curt Schilling had the impeccable control, Randy Johnson dominanted and intimidated and Pedro Martinez had the impossible-to-believe prime.

Smoltz has come back from Tommy John surgery, only to become an All-Star closer, only to go back to starting, only to have shoulder surgery, only to embark on his latest quest to pitch again at 42.

After a few minutes of hearing him talk, the reason he's been so spectacularly successful in so many different roles and after so many different twists and turns becomes crystal clear. He's an intense competitor with a seemingly singular focus on retiring opposing hitters.

"Let's see, expectations: No runs, as many innings as they'll let me pitch.

"It will be a success," Smoltz predicted confidently. "It ain't about stories. It ain't about saying I could do it again. This is about getting hitters out, the end result is going to be that."

Of course, getting to the point where he could make such proclamations hasn't been easy.

Smoltz endured surgery on his torn labrum, a procedure he said prevented him from sleeping for three weeks as he healed because there was no good way to rest on his right shoulder. He has gone through months of grueling rehab, strengthening his arm to prepare it, yet again, for a major league mound and pitched six times in the minor leagues over the last few weeks.

"He's gone through a lot to put himself in the position where he can help us win a lot of games," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.

Smoltz echoed those sentiments saying: "I enjoy what I'm doing. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to get back to this point. ... When I came back from the surgery, I knew I could pitch again. I'm convinced whatever I put my mind to, I will be able to do."

Now comes the fun part -- for Smoltz and for the rest of us outside of Atlanta (and maybe the Bronx). We get to see what one of the greats has left in the tank. First, though, we'll have to rub our eyes a few times to get used to the sight of the right-hander in a Red Sox uniform.

He signed with Boston over the winter, joining his third organization as a professional. But Smoltz has never pitched in the majors for any team other than the Braves, a span that covers 20 big-league seasons. (He was traded from the Tigers to the Braves in 1987, a year before his major league debut.) And he is the only one of the revered Atlanta pitching trio that also included Maddux and Glavine to stay in the city for his entire career. Or at least he was, until the Braves made what Smoltz considered to be a lowball contract offer over the winter and the Red Sox swooped in.

Smoltz admitted it will be "a little bit different" to be pitching for a new team after two decades with the same one, but downplayed the effect it will have on him.

"It won't be weird to be in a uniform and throwing a baseball, I can promise you that," he said.

It is hard to doubt his loyalty. A player doesn't spend 20 years with the same franchise and not feel some kind of connection to it, especially when that team isn't handing out the richest contracts in the sport. But it is also quickly apparent that Smoltz is not nostalgic or sentimental at all, at least not when he's got his mind set on something.

Maybe that's why he's been able to remake himself so many times. Maybe that's why he found such a perfect fit with the Red Sox, the one team that always seems to have a plan (from A to B to Z).

He has placed a goal in front of himself -- getting back to a major league mound -- and on the eve of seeing it through, he is hungry.

"Once I [find my routine] and I cross the white line, everything will be calm. I'll be at ease. I've hated to watch as many games for this long," Smoltz said. "When I'm on the mound, I'm going to give it everything I have. ... From the very beginning of the game I'll be on attack mode."

He and the Red Sox have been building toward something, but Thursday's start against the Nationals is merely a marking post, not the endgame. Boston has October aspirations and Smoltz has a terrific postseason pedigree (15-4, 2.65 ERA). One carrot may have been dangled in front of him over the last few months, but there is another still grander one dangling much further along.

"Tomorrow is just one rung in the ladder," Smoltz said. "Really at the end of the day [the goal] is to pitch in the playoffs."

After all these years, it'd be foolish to doubt him.