A John Smoltz decision

Before I left town, I was just flipping through a newsletter from Atlanta Community Food Bank and was reading this cheesy profile (lede sentence: "Many would say, 'To know him is to love him.'") of Atlanta Braves star pitcher John Smoltz.

It talked about his contributions to the food bank and the time he donated. What caught my eye was that he also makes a donation to the food bank for every strikeout in the regular season.

So I've vowed to do the same for each player I felt, in live games and online. This weekend in Vegas I felted five people and will be cutting a check today. I hope other players think about doing the same, especially since it's good to donate back to the community.

The first place I'm making a donation to is The Carter Center. Professionally, the former president has a terrible relationship with the media and he told me once in a news conference that he would answer my question later and totally dodged it and in my eyes when you say you're going to do something you should actually do it.

But I feel that the center does good things for people around the world and I've taken advantage of its location by parking there frequently and using it as a staging ground for my Middlebear loop course that I run. I also love the fact it's based here in Atlanta.

Anyway, Smoltz didn't do so much for me yesterday when I lost a bet after he dropped a game to the Nationals but I think his donation decision will do a lot of good in the future.