On April 12, 1998, Kerry Wood pitched in his first major league game, a 4-1 loss to the Expos. Yesterday, he pitched in his last, a 3-2 loss to the White Sox. Along the way, he, and Cub fans, experienced plenty of highs (the 20 strikeout game, 3 division championships, 1 wild card birth, the 2003 NLDS victory over the Braves) and lows (injuries, the 2003 NLCS collapse against the Marlins, injuries, 9 straight playoff losses, injuries).
Word started to leak out early Friday morning that Wood was planning on calling it quits, following an errant tweet from his wife. Things had not been going well for him this season, and his aching arm did not seem to be up to the challenge of bouncing back day after day in the bullpen. Because of the meltdown in his last appearance, where he was booed off the field and tossed his glove into the crowd in anger, Wood wanted to pitch one last time. He got his chance in the 8th, with the Cubs down by one and Dayan Viciedo at the plate.
Like the Wood of old, he struck out Viciedo and, like that, it was over. Acting manager Jamie Quirk came to the mound and Wood left the field to a standing ovation, right into the arms of his son. After the game, he officially announced what everyone already knew, that he was walking away from the game, and team, that he loved.
I first saw Wood pitch in person on May 2, 2000 against the Astros, his first game back after elbow reconstruction surgery wiped out his 1999 season. Besides winning the game, Wood also thrilled the crowd with a home run off of Jose Lima. I saw him pitch 57 more times over the years, first as the ace of the Cubs staff, then as their closer, as an Indian and Yankee, and, finally, back home as a set up man, expected more to sell tickets and put butts in the seats than to get batters out.
Highlights include the showdown he won against the Yankees and fellow Texan Roger Clemens as the Rocket tried for win number 300, a few epic meltdowns in crosstown games against the White Sox, the home run and ultimate failure in game 7 of the NLCS against the Marlins, and, sadly, the injuries that robbed him of much of the promise he showed as a fresh faced 20 year old back in 1998.
Wood’s numbers in games I attended were:
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It’s been 3 years (to the day) and 121 games since we last looked at the single game leaders in pitching categories for all the games I have attended in person. There are some new names of the list that weren’t there when we first looked in 2012 and again in 2015. Keep in mind that, for pitchers, leading a category can be a bad thing in some cases.