Chicago Cubs: The Heroes of Wrigley Series presents Kerry Wood

In just his fifth career start, Chicago Cubs rookie right-hander Kerry Wood re-wrote the record books and built his Wrigley Field lore for decades to come.

A week before May 6, 1998, I had just celebrated my ninth birthday.  I started watching baseball maybe a year prior and was instantly mesmerized by the game.  I couldn’t quite understand what it was but something seemed to draw me in as nothing had before.

On this particular May afternoon, I could be found heavily wrapped up in my favorite Batman comforter, firmly planted on my living room couch, resting and exerting as little movement as possible.  I was sick, miserable with the flu and home from elementary school.

After watching the “sick day” classics, The Price is Right and reruns of Unsolved Mysteries, it was about time to tune into my new found passion.  I promptly changed the station to channel nine, WGN.

The Chicago Cubs were hosting one of their division rivals, the Houston Astros, in an early season game on a cloudy, overcast day at Wrigley Field.  I remember the Cubs broadcasters, Chip Caray and Steve Stone highly touting this rookie pitcher while he made his warmup tosses before the start of only his fifth career game.  The pitcher on the mound they were raving about that day was 20-year-old Texan right-hander Kerry Wood.

As I sat up to give my full attention to Cubs baseball, struggling to make my first movements or any sign of life in hours, I couldn’t have fathomed the history I was about to witness nor the impact this game would eventually have on as I was about to watch what would be my favorite Cub of all-time etch his name in the record books.

This would be the day I fell in love with the game of baseball.

Chicago Cubs: Like father, like son, Wood strives to be the best

On June 16, 1977, Kerry Lee Wood was born in Irving, Texas. His father, Gary, was once a star left-handed shortstop who quit playing baseball shortly after high school to focus on providing for his family.  Once Kerry was born, he handed down his passion for the game onto his son at an early age.  The youngster quickly fell deeply in love with the game, idolizing fellow Texan and flamethrower, Nolan Ryan.

Throughout youth baseball, Wood followed in his father’s footsteps, playing shortstop.  It wasn’t until high school at MacArthur High that he began pitching and, by then, people began to notice something special in him.

Unfortunately, he suffered the first of many arm injuries to come shortly after and was sidelined for two months.

When he returned for his sophomore season and completed a rehabilitation program, Wood was back on the mound.  He had grown several inches from the year before and his velocity had noticeably increased.  A sharp curveball had also been added to his repertoire that summer, courtesy of his father.  He began to emulate Roger Clemens on the mound, modeling his pitch delivery and kick after the Texas-born strikeout artist.

In a 1994 game, MacArthur was set to face Martin High School, a rival school in the district.  Martin High was the home of one of Texas’ top players, senior Ben Grieve.  Pro scouts from all over the country came to scout Grieve but, on that day, Wood made sure that Grieve wasn’t the only player they would report about.

Chicago Cubs: Getting right after a rocky start

It was an ominous start to the May 1998 ball-game for Kerry Wood, to say the least.  Wood felt like he didn’t have anything close to his best stuff and made it known in the Cubs pen.

I don’t think I threw any strikes warming up. I was all over the place. Balls were all over the place. I think I actually shut it down early and flipped the ball to [pitching coach] Phil Regan and said, “We’re done. I’m loose. It’s only going to get worse. It’s time to start save my bullets.” It was an ugly warmup.

During the opening at-bat of the game, with Craig Biggio at the plate, Wood threw his first pitch wildly soaring directly into the home plate umpire Jerry Meal’s face mask.

“Here we go,” exclaimed Wood.  “At least it can’t get any worse.”

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The right-hander appeared to calm down after Biggio’s at-bat as he cruised through the first three innings.  While he was still a bit wild, the movement of his pitches kept fooling the Astros batters as they either whiffed at pitches outside of the zone or were caught looking at the ones that sexily painted the plate.

Both pitchers were dealing in those initial innings for their respective squads.

Houston’s starter, Shane Reynolds, had already struck out seven Cub batters.  However, he gave up four hits and surrendered an unearned run that scored Cubs first baseman, Mark Grace after an error by the left fielder, Dave Clark.

Wood kept pace with his counterpart, strikeout out six himself, allowing just one hit to shortstop (and future teammate) Ricky Gutierrez.

This base hit later drew the ire from the home crowd by the later innings, as it perhaps should’ve been recorded as a fielding miscue by Cub third baseman, Kevin Orie.

Nevertheless, the Cubs held a 1-0 lead after three frames as I cheered while lifting my head up from out of the bucket placed next to the couch.

Chicago Cubs: Turning heads as a budding flamethrower

As Grieve stepped up to the plate, Wood struck him out with a devastating curveball, leaving Grieve, and the crowd, in gross bewilderment.  The scouts were impressed with the movement of Wood’s pitches and also took notice of his velocity that clocked up in the upper 80s.

After transferring to a new high school, Grand Prairie, for his senior year, Wood continued to turn heads, dominating opposing teams.  By year’s end, he possessed a perfect 14-0 record, with a minuscule 0.77 ERA.  He continued to model himself after his Texas heroes and mowed down hitters in the same vein.  In only 81 1/3 innings, Wood struck out an astounding 152 batters, further showcasing his overpowering potential.

Instead of one scout coming to his games to see a rival prospect like Ben Grieve, hundreds of scouts packed the school’s parking lot in order to get a glimpse of Kerry Wood.  One scout in who was frequently in attendance was Al Goldis, a scouting director for the Chicago Cubs.

With his impending graduation just around the corner, Wood had a life-altering decision to make to either attend college to further develop his mechanics or jump straight into professional baseball.  Wood opted to go pro and was drafted by the Cubs with the fourth overall pick in the 1995 MLB draft.

Chicago Cubs: All signs point to a nail-biter in the making

By the verve in the announcer’s voices, it became clear that I was witnessing something special by the middle innings.  Wood had added six more punch-outs, bringing his total to 12 through six scoreless frames.

“I felt a change in about the first part of the fourth inning,” Wood said after remembering throwing back-to-back breaking balls to Astros superstar slugger, Jeff Bagwell.  “That’s when everything started to click.”

Blue signs that donned assorted wooden bats which resembled the letter “K” started to flood the Wrigley Field bleachers as the “bleacher bums” began keeping tabs on Wood’s number of strikeouts.

Now, I don’t know if this was a common thing in baseball at the time, but I remember this instance as the first time I saw “K” signs in the crowd to denote a pitcher’s strikeout total in a game.

They kept adding another one to the line after each strikeout and, with each strikeout, the Wrigley faithful became louder and more raucous than the last.

It began to feel otherworldly as the movement of his pitches became sharper and sharper, making a mockery out of the formidable Houston lineup that consisted of the “Killer B’s” (Biggio, Bagwell, Derek Bell).  Out of his 12 strikeouts to that point, six of them came catching the Astros’ batters looking.

You could tell Wood was rolling on pure adrenaline.  His wild pitches were probably the result of his nerves but oddly that seemed to only be beneficial to him, as the Astros didn’t quite know how to handle them.  It became almost comedic to watch as I laid on the couch.

After retiring Bell to end the top of the sixth inning, Wood walked off the mound, trying to mask his pumped-up nerves with a confident mask across his baby-face, letting out a deep exhale on his way back to the dugout.

The unearned run remained the difference, still the only score of the game, as the Cubs maintained their tight 1-0 lead.

Chicago Cubs: The real Kid K is exposed as he begins his career

Upon landing in Chicago’s minor league affiliates, it became clear that Wood possessed a serious talent and raw potential.  In 1996, the 19-year old was regarded as the Cubs No. 1 prospect and ranked in the Top 15 in all of baseball. While playing in Single-A Daytona, Wood started 22 games and had a 10-2 record.

In 1997, he saw a call-up to the Double-A team in Orlando, where he began to consistently top out the radar gun around the mid-90s, striking out opposing batters by the boatload.  However, despite his high strikeout rate, a weakness was quickly exposed.  He seemed to have an inability to find undeviating command, which resulted in a high volume of walks.

Regardless of his struggles with finding the strike zone, the Cubs promoted Wood again in ’97 to their Triple-A team, the Iowa Cubs.  He again held a winning record (4-2) but the walks allowed took a toll and inflated his ERA to near 6.00.

Meanwhile, in the Majors, the Cubs were in the midst of an abysmal season, finding themselves dead last in the division.  Fans grew vocal about the team potentially calling up Wood from the minors, hoping to see him pitch on the Major League roster, in order to have something to cheer for in a lost season.

But, with the looming incarnations of two new expansion teams, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Arizona Diamondbacks, set to hit the field at the start of the 1998 season, the front office opted to keep him in the minors in order to protect him and avoid losing him to the expansion draft.

Chicago Cubs: A historic ending signifies that Kid K belongs here

Going into the last three innings, it became clear to the Wrigley Field fans, the ones who toughed out the rain and the ones watching at home on television, they were witnessing a truly historic outing put on by the 20-year-old phenom.

In both the seventh and eighth innings, Wood struck out the side.  His strikeout total now sat at a staunch 18.

With fans running out of “K” signs, they began to improvise, painting them on their bare beer bellies.  Joining the plethora of “K” signs, a makeshift “E-5” sign was added, almost lobbying against the lone hit that was given up by Wood.

Jose Hernandez gave the Cubs a two-run cushion in the bottom of the eighth, grounding into a fielder’s choice to score Mickey Morandini.

Reynolds, pitching exceptionally well himself, gave up one earned run, notching 10 strikeouts over eight innings.  But the “K” signs and cheers weren’t for him.  His great game didn’t even enter the zeitgeist of what was happening.  On any other day, his strong performance would almost surely be good enough to win the ballgame.  But, this day was all about one player… Kerry Wood.

Wood attempted to finish off Houston in the top of the ninth.  He makes quick work of Bill Spiers for his 19th strikeout, tying the National League single-game record, set by David Cone, Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton.

When the army-helmeted Biggio grounded out next, the crowd booed as they couldn’t fathom anything else but a strikeout at this point, as Wood was just that good that day.

Only Bell now stood in the way of history.  Wood quickly gained an advantage in the count, throwing pitches that were popping his battery-mate, Sandy Martinez‘s glove so loud, I could hear it from my couch as I inched closer.

A nasty breaking ball whipped outside of the zone and Bell chased as Kerry Wood, or “Kid K” as he’d be known after his game, notched his 20th strikeout of the game, tying the Major League record set by his Texas idol, Roger Clemens.

He emphatically snaps his fingers upon completing the final out, not because he tied the record, but because he didn’t surrender a walk the whole game like he’d been so infamously accustomed to in the minors.

“It showed me that I belonged here,” said Wood in his 2018 documentary, “20.”  “It’s not a fluke that I’m here, I deserve to be here.”

To many, Wood’s epic 20-strikeout, no walk, one-hit shutout performance, is the greatest pitched game in baseball history.

Chicago Cubs: Living up to tremendous expectations post-20 K game

In the aftermath of his historic outing, Wood was heavily placed under the microscope and built as the game’s next great pitcher.  The fans unfairly expected him to repeat his dominant May 6 performance fifth day he took the mound, often considering it a down game if the gunslinger struck out only 10 or 12 batters.

The 21-year old rookie began feeling the pressure of such lofty expectations.

He finished his first year with a 13-6 record and a 3.40 ERA.  More impressively, in just 166 2/3 innings pitched, he amassed an astronomical 233 strikeouts (12.6 K/9).

He helped the Cubs clinch the 1998 Wild Card and, despite missing the last month of the season due to issues with his elbow, won the National League Rookie of the Year Award.

After his successful first season, fans couldn’t wait to see Wood blossom more so in his second.  Unfortunately, they’d have to wait longer than expected as Wood tore his UCL in spring training and required Tommy John surgery.  As a result, he missed the entire 1999 season.

Wood returned from his injury in 2000, starting 23 games, posting an 8-7 record.  In 2001, he saw himself make progression and throwing more innings (174 1/3) and obtained his lowest ERA to date (3.36) as he went 12-6.

He pitched his first full season in 2002 for the last-place Cubs, appearing in 33 games.  For the first time in his career, he notched over 200 innings (213 2/3) on his way to a 12-11 record with a 3.66 ERA.  It appeared that Wood was back to full health and ready to become the pitcher that many thought he would be.

Chicago Cubs: Turning a new chapter in his career, Wood adjusts to a new role

The success of the playoffs became a fading memory as the injury bug would bite Wood, once again, for the next several seasons, derailing him from ever truly living up to the potential shown in his rookie year and his breakout 2003 season.

High workloads and over-exceeding pitch counts became his downfall and took a toll on the 27-year old’s arm.  By 2005, it was decided that he wasn’t fit to handle starting pitching any longer.  After landing on the disabled list for the 14th time in his young career, he was relegated to the bullpen.

In 2007, he became a free agent.  In order to stay as a Cub, he gladly continued to accept a bullpen role and took a considerable pay cut to remain with the team that drafted him

In 2008, former Cubs closer, Ryan Dempster, moved to the starting rotation.  After competing for the job, Wood won the vacated role and it proved a successful transition as it ideally monitored his workload and pitch count.  He earned his second All-Star team selection and finished the year with a 3.26 ERA and 34 saves.

In November 2008, the Cubs declined to re-sign Wood due to financial constraints and he signed with the Cleveland Indians.  That season, upon making a relief appearance in Chicago against his former team on June 19, Wood received a rousing standing ovation from the Wrigley faithful.

In 2010, the New York Yankees traded for Wood in order to bolster their bullpen as they were in the midst of a playoff race.  In 24 games, he served as the set-up man for the greatest closer in history, Mariano Rivera, going 2-0 with a 0.69 ERA.

The Yankees fell in six games to the Texas Rangers in the American League Championship Series and, after the season, the club declined his option, setting up a homecoming back to Chicago.

Chicago Cubs: Not what was expected, but still remains a legend

Wood pitched his final two seasons in a Cubs uniform.  In 2011, he was consistent out of the pen, posting a 3.35 ERA in 55 appearances.

By early 2012, it was clear that Wood just didn’t have “it” anymore.

After giving up the game-winning runs in the eighth inning of a May 8 loss against Atlanta, he tossed his glove into the stands in frustration, signifying that he was indeed done.

The 35-year old confirmed this after the game in a press conference as he didn’t want to hold the team back if he didn’t have the ability to contribute like he used to.

10 days later, in a crosstown matchup with the Chicago White Sox at Wrigley Field, Wood entered the game, in what would be his final scheduled appearance, a farewell for the many memories he shared with Cubs fans.

He would only work one batter to end the inning, but fittingly enough, it was a strikeout.

As I look back on Kerry Wood’s career, I don’t think about what could’ve been.  I think back to when I first starting watching baseball and how on that one faithful sick day in May of 1998, he made me fall deeply in love with the game of baseball.  I have Kerry Wood to thank for this and, like many fans who had the privilege of watching him over the years, even if it felt like short, fleeting moment, he is a true Hero of Wrigley.