Howard Ellsworth "Smoky Joe" Wood (October 25, 1889 – July 27, 1985) was a professional baseball player for 14 years. He played for the Boston Red Sox from 1908 to 1915, where he was primarily a pitcher, and for the Cleveland Indians from 1917 to 1922, where he was primarily an outfielder. Wood is one of only 13 pitchers to win 30 or more games in one season (going 34–5 in 1912) since 1900.

"Smoky Joe" played his first amateur baseball for the local miners teams in Ouray, Colorado. Though a native of Ness County, Kansas, Wood made his playing debut with the mostly-female "Bloomer Girls." There were many such teams across the country, which barnstormed in exhibition games against teams of men. Bloomer Girl rosters featured at least one male player.

Red Sox star Ted Williams, as a guest on the Bill Stern's Sports Newsreel radio program in 1950, told the story that Wood was posing as a girl on a girls' team when The Red Sox signed him. The story ended: "The pitcher I'm talking about was the immortal Smoky Joe Wood. A pitcher who can never be forgotten even though he did get his start posing as a girl".

After joining the Red Sox in 1908 at the age of 18, Wood had his breakthrough season in 1911 in which he won 23 games, compiled an earned run average of 2.02, threw a no-hitter against the St. Louis Browns and struck out 15 batters in a single game. Wood once struck out 23 batters in an exhibition game. He earned the nickname "Smoky Joe" because of his blazing fastball. Wood recounted in the seminal book The Glory of Their Times, "I threw so hard I thought my arm would fly right off my body."

His peers concurred. A story that gained common parlance was that legendary fastballer and pitching contemporary Walter Johnson once said, "Can I throw harder than Joe Wood? Listen, my friend, there's no man alive can throw harder than Smoky Joe Wood!" But in the Johnson Biography by his Grandson "Baseball's Big Train", this statement was traced to-a descendent of Smoky Joe, a fabricated quote. But reminded of Johnson's supposed assessment 60 years later, Wood said, "Oh, I don't think there was ever anybody faster than Walter." Though Johnson, whether being as usual self-effacing or literal, did say Wood could throw as hard as him for 2 or 3 innings, but his delivery put much strain on his arm. Johnson had a speed 6.1 MPH faster than anyone measured with the photo-electric system (used occasionally in the 1910s through 1930s), but Wood when tested in 1917 had already had a career changing injury.

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