"While his Red Sox teammates were stumbling around their hotel rooms yesterday morning, John Smoltz was in the kitchen of his home in suburban Atlanta, cooking pancakes for the kids.

He hopped into the pool to cool off. He played with the family pets, which consist of three dogs and a cat.

He wanted to cut the grass, but, well, two factors got in the way. One, the man who handles the landscaping at the Smoltz house was already on the case. And two, we're not talking about your basic front lawn here: His house sits on 21 acres, and Smoltz says it usually takes him 7 hours to give his beloved grass the attention it deserves.

But if Smoltz didn't get a chance yesterday to tend to his lawn, it was only a small inconvenience. What matters most is that John Smoltz was home - not just to his baseball home, but to his away-from-the-game home, the one with the 21 acres.

Just as Curt Schilling [stats], Dwight Evans, Rico Petrocelli, Johnny Pesky and so many other former Red Sox chose to settle in the Boston area after their playing careers ended, Smoltz, who registered 210 victories and 154 saves during his days with the Braves, has chosen to settle in Atlanta.

Meeting with the Atlanta media late yesterday afternoon in an auxiliary locker room next to the third base clubhouse, Smoltz seemed to know everyone by name. He volunteered to personally hold the microphone for a camera guy from one of the TV stations. It was stuff he'd done countless times during his 20 years in Atlanta, only now he was wearing a blue and gray Red Sox road uniform.

"But I've been honored to wear the other uniform as long as I did," he said. "And I wish the Braves well - except for these three games."

If Smoltz has any lingering animosity about leaving the Braves, it did not show.

No, not this time. He has made known his feelings about the Braves' unwillingness to bring him back for another season, as well as the team's decision to pass on bringing back Smoltz' longtime teammate Tom Glavine after the lefty had undergone an extensive rehabilitation assignment. But yesterday was no time to be firing verbal daggers."