On NESN’s pre-game, the Eck, who played with Nomar on the 1998 team, laid down the law: “This guy deserves as big a standing ovation as anyone’s ever gotten.”

Will he get it? I have no doubt. And that’s the stuff that makes me proud to be a Red Sox fan.

Between Nomar’s return, Smoltz’s first Fenway start, and the always-stunning Amalie and Heidi in the house, I might be taken out by sensory overload before first pitch. Stay tuned.