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He was really an excellent pitcher for a long time and a big part of some of the best Cubs teams of the past thirty years. He will be missed.
Leo Messi for example is wonderfully gifted, but often I see defenders do some of the dumbest things on Earth when trying to defend him, things they'd never dare consider if it was Chris Wondolowski coming at them. He's so good that they start to just guess at what it is they're supposed to do and that takes Messi's play from great to ridiculous.
I mention this here because that's what happened to the Astros that day. While Wood's stuff was obscene that day, the Astros went into full meltdown and started to just actively suck all on their own. After the first 10 Ks or so, you could have put me out there in disguise and I could have gotten at least four more strikeouts. They were that beaten.
Yeah, I think the last swinging strike of the game was like a foot outside of the zone.
This made me think of Barry Bonds, and with him it's even more obviously true. After 2001 anybody who could pull off being a Barry Bonds look-a-like could have gone to the plate and drawn 3 walks per game.
Thanks, Kerry, for all the great memories. You fought through injuries with class and dignity. Too bad you couldn't go out on a better note, but no one will ever forget May 6, 1998.
Wood was the 8th best #4 overall pick by WAR, which I think will be a Chris Jaffe column next week.
The most shocking thing to me from that list: Cory Snyder ended up with a negative overall career WAR, and over 6 total WAR less than Mike Harkey (who I will always think of as just another of the Cub draft busts).
#4 picks have done pretty well for themselves - 2 HoFers, a third who should be (Brown), and Munson, who would have had an interesting case given a normal career length.
Wood will always be remembered for the 20K game, but perhaps this was his gutsiest performance.
I still remember being at my Grandma's house one Sunday afternoon and turning on the TV as the Cubs were getting set to face the Montreal Expos. The announcers seemed quite excited about that day's starting pitcher for the Cubs, a young kid making his Major League debut.
His career didn't pan out the way any of us envisioned it, but you have to be impressed with a guy who was so determined to make the North Side of Chicago his baseball home.
His homer in that game is one of my fondest memories as a Cubs fan. Talk about a crowd becoming unglued.
Oh yeah. That was the brief moment where I really thought they could put Game 6 behind them and get past the Marlins.
It was a gutty performance, no doubt, really his last hurrah. He struck out 297 batters in 2003 (between the regular season and post season), and put up his best season by WAR in his career. At 26, it looked for the world like he might have come past the arm problems and could be on his way to being the #1 starter type everyone hoped he would be.
After 2003, he never again threw even 150 innings in a season. It all fell apart so quickly, for him and the Cubs.
It's true, but you can't help but wonder what if. If Wood retires today, he and Mark Prior will have combined to win 128 games in the major leagues. Jon Garland (former Cub giveaway for the execrable Matt Karchner) won 132. The world's slowest Cub, Steve Trachsel, won 143. Carlos Zambrano has won 126, and counting.
Not really. I do plan doing a Kerry Wood career highlights thing, though.
In retrospect, that entire 2003 postseason was one last hurrah for Wood. I didn't think the Cubs would take even one game from the Braves in the DS. Wood quickly put that to rest with a great outing (and that nifty spinning nab with the glove of the ball hit back up the middle), and really, until that Game 7 against the Marlins, it seemed like Wood got that big strikeout every time he was in need of it.
But like you said, it quickly fell apart, as it seemed like the next three seasons were a chronic "Kerry Wood and/or Mark Prior are hoping to be back by X."
Same here. At that moment, I really thought that, despite everything, it must be their year. Didn't work out that way, of course, but if you judge moments by how they felt as they happened, and not by what came after, I don't think anything tops that for me.
(Probably #2 on the list was when I was 10, and saw Ryne Sandberg hit a homerun in person for the first time.)
I didn't see the 20K game as it happened, as I didn't get WGN in those days. I remember watching Headline News, though - back in those days they gave sports highlights every half-hour - and hearing that it happened. Mind-boggling, that this kid, who had just been called up a few weeks earlier and had seemed overwhelmed to that point, could pitch a game like that. I wasn't really used to seeing Cubs' players do remarkable things like that - little did any of us know at that time what that summer held (amusing to note that Sosa only had 7 HR to that point of the season).
What I hadn't remembered until I looked it up just now, was that Wood's game prior to the 20K game was pretty good, too: 7 IP, 1 R, 2 BB, 9 K.
Anyway, I got to see Wood in person for the first time later that season, and was happy to see him pitch extremely well. That's a good memory, too, that day.
- yeah, i've seen teams (with MY team you see that a LOT these past few years) just get that - there is no WAY we're gonna hit this guy - look and they LOOK defeated
one of the reasons i was so FURIOUS with the astros manager for pulling wandy rodriguez from his last start after 8 innings/92 pitches when the opposition hadn't touched him at ALL for 4+ innings and just looked like they wanted to go home.
they had completely new life when wandy got pulled and whaddaya know, they won
- and what in the name of holy eff is a leo messie?
Really, you wanna ask about Messi and not Wondolowski? (Messi is the best soccer player in captivity, Wondo is a soccer player).
And thanks, Kerry. I got married in a Kerry Wood jersey because I had always sworn I'd wear a Cubs jersey on my wedding day. (My wife, in keeping with the odd theme of our wedding, wore all black.) I've never loved a Cub as much as Kerry, and I can't imagine I ever will again.
As odd as it sounds, one of my enduring memories of seeing him pitch was seeing Jeff Bagwell hit a popup against him that was the highest I think I've ever seen. The MMP roof was closed that night, and the ball went straight up over the plate, and went between the rafters hanging from the roof - it would have hit one of them if it had been on line. The ball was spinning so much that it appeared to wobble suspended in the air for a moment at its highest point, like it was fighting to keep going.
Just one of those weird things that stands out in the mind.
Living in Chicago in 2003 was a hell of a thing. An amazing sports memory.
I'm sure Dusty Baker got the blame for that.
Sorry to see you go, Kerry. Always thought you were awesome.
This works nicely as a comment on #27 as well.
I echo some of the sentiments above from Cubs fans noting the significance of the home run he hit in G7 2003. Unbelievable feeling at the time. (A similar moment from the same series that was washed away by the the final outcome, was in Game 1 when Sosa tied the game with a bottom of the ninth -- two out? -- two run home run).
Can't wait to see the ovation for him today (if today is the day).
The girl is now my wife. And Kerry was our favorite player. We'll miss you, kid.
EDIT:
Yeah, it really was.
I pity you.
Kerry Wood retiring got me thinking of this- what are my ten favorite individual teams of my sports fan life? My favorite teams to follow probably look something like this:
1. 1991 Redskins
2. 1989 A’s
3. 2002 A’s
4. 1987 Redskins
5. 2003 Cubs
6. 2000 Northwestern Football
7. 1992 A’s
8. 1998 Capitols
9. 2007 Redskins
10. 1999 A’s
I'm not a Cubs fan but I lived in Chicago from 1999-2004 and that Cubs team was wonderful fun.
2003 was a wonderful time to be a baseball fan in Chicago. The atmosphere was incredible.
To nit pick a little, it's the highest ever game score for a 9 inning game, 39th-highest if you include extra inning games. The highest of all time is Brooklyn's Joe Oeschger's 153 in a 26 inning, 1-1 tie, May 1, 1920. The Boston Braves' Leon Cadore put up a 140 (second-best ever) in the same game. Brooklyn's Charlie Pick went 0-11, which is also a record.
Edit: Cadore has the record for batters faced, with 96; Oeschger's 90 is second. All this is 1918 and later records only, of course.
He also looks exactly like Steve Perry from Journey.
2003 was the strangest of years for me. I was a Cub fan most of my life (the "Sandberg game" in '84 against Sutter is a big baseball memory), and here they were having their most epic meltdown in my lifetime, and my apathy was off the charts. Of course I was having my own meltdown on the other side of the league with a team I had cared about for less than a year...
It is odd that if you told me when I was 13 that I would have won a World Series by the time I was 40 and the Cubs wouldn't have, I would have been awfully confused.
As to Leo Messi, I'm a Barca fan (have been for almost 10 years), and have also seen Leo play. He was a hair off for a crucial two week period a month ago (Chelsea - Real Madrid - Chelsea), but I just think the kid is tired. Next year he will go back to his Olympian heights. And while he does look like Steve Perry, he is also about 4'10" (*), so make the proper allowances for height discrepancies.
(*) Yes, I know he's not really 4'10". It's called humor.
Don't. My theory of sports karma dictates that for every team I root for that crashes and burns, another wins a championship (or at least does very well). The Patriots won in 2003 (and 2004), which balances out the Cubs woes. Had the Cubs won, the Patriots would have lost.
It's also worth noting that the 2003 Cubs had the worst record of the 8 playoff teams that year and managed to sneak by a far superior team in the first round.
Interestingly, the team that started the 1988 season is probably the most talented Cubs team of my conscious lifetime (I was alive in 1972 but an infant).
Mark Grace - 24
Ryne Sandberg - 28
Shawon Dunston - 25
Rafael Palmeiro - 23
Dave Martinez - 23
Darren Jackson - 24
Greg Maddux - 22
Jamie Moyer - 25
Bob Tewksbury - 27
There's a lot of remaining WAR from 1989 onward for those guys, double digits for every one. They lost 85 games.
1. 2002 Angels
2. 1987 Lakers
3. 1991 Lakers
4. 1995 Angels (They broke-a my heart, and won me forever.)
5. 2009 Angels
6. 2011 Lakers
7. 2000 Lakers
8. 2005 Angels
9. 2004 Angels
10. 1992 Cowboys (Don't judge me.)
I just finished replaying that season with OOTP13. We lost 92 games.
1. 1999 Knicks
2. 1994 Knicks
3. 2005 Mets
4. 1999 Mets
5. 2000 Mets
6. 2006 Mets
7. 1997 Knicks
8. 2002 Jets
9. 2012 Knicks
10. 2012 Mets
If other "sports" were included, Shawn Michaels' '92, '95, '97, '02, '07, and '09 runs were incredible.
His home run vs. the Marlins in Game 7 was one of the most shocking moments in my baseball life. I was certain they'd pull it out after that. That was a great postseason, and we got the matchup nobody wanted. Boo hiss.
Also:
1. '04 Red Sox
2. '10 Giants
3. '08 Celtics
4. '98 Arsenal
5. '02 Arsenal
6. '06 Arsenal (CL final team, last ever Highbury team and the last year of Bergkamp and Pires)
7. '94 49ers
8. '93 Canadiens
9. '93 Giants
10. '05 Wales rugby team that won their first Six Nations (Euro championship) in 27 years
11 would be the '10 Celtics that fought like lions vs. the Lakers.
It was probably the most optimistic I ever was as a Cubs fan, even after the season. Walton and Smith both had big years in the minors, Maddux and Moyer both looked like great young pitchers, Palmeiro was a big time prospect and Grace looked legit too, plus Sandberg was still quite young. I don't think I was as bullish on Harkey as the Cubs were though.
Moyer and Palmeiro got traded, Walton got rushed for no good reason (a mistake they doubled down on with Gary Scott), Smith was a good hitter but couldn't really field despite his speed and Grace inexplicably never developed any more power, even when the rest of the league developed a ton. When Maddux put every last piece together, he was gone a year later. Tewksbury was dumped onto the minor league free agent market. Dunston's glove regressed as his hitting improved and then was beset by injuries.
1992 probably could have been the Cubs year had different moves been made as that 1988 team transferred to 1992 looks like a pretty good team. Even Moyer was pitching well though not in the majors.
He never became one of the Greats, but he did something great. And we'll always love him for that. Baseball, as always, remains an icon of of the human experience. People are young and old, they try and succeed and fail. Life rolls onward. So it went with Kerry Wood. A talent that exploded among the unexpecting like a young Alexander. We all know how the rest of his career went. The strikeouts, the injuries, 2003, and the past few weeks. He never became Nolan Ryan, but he was Gordo Cooper. An unbelievable talent that flashed to the height of heights. We wanted him to hold us there for a generation, but time went on and what must pass passed.
All morning, I keep remembering the end of Tom Wolfe's book: The Mercury program was over. Four years later, astronaut Gus Grissom was killed, along with astronauts White and Chaffee, when fire swept through their Apollo capsule. But on that glorious day in May 1963, Gordo Cooper went higher, farther, and faster than any other American - 22 complete orbits around the world; he was the last American ever to go into space alone. And for a brief moment, Gordo Cooper became the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen.
2. 2004 Red Sox
3. 2007 Red Sox
4. 1986 Celtics
5. 1990 Red Sox
6. 1984 Dolphins
7. 2003 Red Sox
8. 1978 Red Sox
9. 1999 Red Sox
10. 2011 Bruins
Top five teams I had no real rooting interest for;
1. 1980 Astros - I was on the Astros in Little League and they had that crazy pitching staff; Ryan, Richard and played that great playoff series
2. 1997 Red Wings - My roommate had promised to buy a keg if his Wings won the cup.
3. 1991 Twins - My entire dorm was obsessed with the "worst to first" Braves and me and one other guy were perplexed that the similar Twins got no love.
4. 2006 Tigers - Always loved the Tigers of the 80s and it was great to see a great baseball town rebound
5. 1984 Mets - Dr. K, Strawberry,...what else you need?
I would say his gutsiest performance was in the 1998 playoffs when he was basically already broke but he went out there anyway and gave the Cubs 5 innings of 1 run ball in an attempt to keep the Cubs alive for one more game.
2008 Cubs
2003 Cubs
1998 Cubs
1993 Notre Dame Football
2007 Cubs
1995 Cubs
2010 Blackhawks
2008 Celtics
2004 Cubs
If you're going to go with a wrestler's year, then it's Kurt Angle 2001 or Chris Jericho 1998
Lemme echo my fond farewell to Kerry -- seems like just yesterday, after a friend's wedding in the summer of 1998 -- we jumped to the front of long line to get into Jilly's by passing off one of our crew as Kerry Wood (he bore a passing resemblance)... got a roped off VIP table, he actually signed several autographs, and it was generally as an enjoyable a night as many of Kerry's starts were.
I will say -- I had no hope in the 2003 playoff game, even after the Wood homer. He just had nothing and Dusty had already proven his ineptitude at managing the pitching.
For gutsy performances, I'll still take Sutcliffe's in '89 -- he had a bad arm, the announcers spent the whole game talking about how he was about to get lit up, but he still tossed 6 solid innings with nothing but guile...
For me - Kerry will always be the 20 K game. I wish I had seen it in person - I only caught the last few innings on TV, but I agree with Voros... The Astros looked like little leaguers at the end. I didn't see the scratch IF single until later replays of the game - but I remember being shocked that anyone would have been able to get a hit off that stuff.
I've seen vintage Pedro, vintage Big Unit, plenty of Clemens, some fine Maddux, etc --- but in a single game, that was the most dominant I have ever seen a pitcher throw. I think he'd have shut down the '27 Yankees with the stuff he had going that game.
Went to my class Wednesday morning, and only 3 people showed up. We had an abbreviated session, then I went home to make lunch and watch the start of the game. I never left the couch.
What I remember about the one cheap hit the Astros got was that Kevin Orie ended the previous half-inning looking really bad on a strikeout, and when the ball went through him at third, I thought that he still looked like he was thinking about his at bat.
I never did like that Wednesday class after that.
Wood brought out the lineup card.
I knew the series was over after the Gonzo boot... but I've made my thoughts on this known before and was heckled about it, so that's all I'll say.
2. 2011 Blue Jays
3. '95-'96 Winnipeg Jets
4. 2002 Canadian Men's Olympic Hockey Team
5. '94-'95 Winninpeg Jets
6. 2006 Colts
7. 1997 Blue Jays
8. 2003 Blue Jays
9. 1996 Blue Jays
10. 2000-2001 Red Deer Rebels/'03-'04 Calgary Flames
I'm not claiming it, nor saying you are saying that I am saying it, but Kerry didn't have anthing in that game and he was walking on a razor's edge from the beginning of the game to the time he left. I was yelling at the screen at Dusty from the first inning on that he should have taken Kerry out. When Kerry hit the homer I said great, now pull'em. You've gotten lucky but don't keep pushing it.
My favorites:
1. 1985 Bears
2. 1972 Lakers
3. 2005 White Sox
4. 2011 Grizzlies
5. 1967 Cardinals
6. 1970 Orioles
7. 2005 Chelsea, when I really got into the Premier League
8. 1991 Bulls
9. 2010 BlackHawks
10. 1998 Bulls, the end of an era
Ditto.
Ever watched Gretzky or Lemieux in their primes?
You bastard, Kerry.
*The 1993 Charlotte Hornets, making the playoffs for the first time. Beating the Celtics in Round 1.
*2004 Braves - I'd just moved to Atlanta. The team lost Sheffield and Maddux and still won 101 games with Jaret Wright and Russ Ortiz as the top starters; Playoffs included my favorite in-person baseball moment ever
*Any number of Duke basketball teams; 2002 was probably my favorite, despite being eliminated early when Jay Williams bricked a free throw against Indiana. The 2010 title team was also a pleasant surprise after several more deserving Duke teams came up short.
Well I had always got conceptually the idea of a great player making good defenders look foolish, but I've only recently come around to this idea of a player's reputation of greatness causing good defenders to act foolish all by themselves with little prodding.
And no, hockey has never really been my thing.
EDIT: Kerry Wood just struck out the last batter he'll probably ever face (Dayan Viciedo).
So ticked to be stuck at work and missing this; at least I can semi-follow the game online.
Please tell me he went out to the largest standing ovation imaginable; I can't wait to get home and see it for myself.
Yes. WGN didn't go to commercial for the pitching change (Wood's K was the 2nd out of the inning) and the ovation lasted through what would have been the entire commercial break. Wood took a curtain call and hugged everybody in the dugout. Very nice moment, and well deserved.
I once saw Wayne Gretzky get challenged by a defender in mid-ice, at which point he reversed and started skating backwards. Then, while being directly pursued by said defender, Gretzky widened the space between them. While going backwards. And while still controlling the puck. It wasn't a scoring play, but it knocked me out.
For the first time in my life, I am very glad I have severe allergies.....
No one walking by my desk will think I'm crying.
It sure was. And it was my first year living here, sort of finding my way after my marriage ended. That year offered solace galore.
2-86 Celtics (Maybe the best basketball team ever-who could compete with that front line
2-(Tie)-79 Pirates (Talk about a fun team-the We are Family Pirates were so easy to root for)
4-2007 Red Sox (They win title #2)
5-75-76 Celts (Hondo, Cowens, Silas, JoJo White-yeah, I loved that team)
6-2000 Ravens (Hometown boys. It was great to see the city so excited)
7-75 Sox (Ah, I had such youthful hopes-thought they would be a dynasty for years)
8-72-74 A's(The Swinging A's. Colorful, brawling, talented. Just a blast)
9-85 Bears (I could watch that defense play all day long)
10-76 Raiders (Stabler, Branch, Casper, Tatum, they were the baddest guys in a bad ass league)
mmmmm....nope, sorry, gonna judge you.
2 - 1985 Bears
3 - 1984 Cubs
4 - 1983 Illini Football (During the Michigan game, 80,000 people chanting "Rose Bowl, Hose Bo, clap, clap, clap clap clap" over and over again.)
5 - 2005 White Sox
6 - 6 peat Bulls (all the teams blend together, but it was a magical time)
7 - 1983 Winning Ugly Sox (first post season Chicago baseball in my lifetime)
8 - 1989 Flying Illini (could be way higher, just a really fun team, but the way they lost to Michigan in the semis drops them lower)
9 - 1977 South side hit men
10 - 2003 cubs (I guess I have to include them, but not really one of my favorites. Randall Simon, Tom Goodwin, Doug Glanville, Jo Borowski, El Pulpo, Ramon Martinez...THAT'S a would be champion?)
1/2. '98 Cubs & '96-'98 Jazz
3. '05 Notre Dame Football
4. '07-'08 Jazz
5. '03 Cubs
6. '08-'09 Jazz (just b/c I paid for Lg Pass and watched all but 2 games)
7. '05 Northwestern Football
8. '05-'06 GWU Basketball
9. '05-'07 Bears
10. '08-'09 Phillies
2-7 Chicago Bulls Championship teams
8. 2006 Bears
9. 2008 Chicago Cubs
10. 1988 Fighting Irish
'08 Cubs
'01 Bears-the Mike Brown team.
'89 Illini basketball
'96-'98 Bulls
'83 Illini football
'98 Cubs
'85 Bears
'91-'93 Bulls
'84 Illini basketball
Lotta hoops in there.
I agree with this. Gretzky didn't make so many literal WTF moves as he just simply understood angles and momentum better than anyone else. He was a master at going one way and then shooting/passing the other. Lemieux on the other hand made many more how-the-hell-did-that-happen plays.
10. 1999 A’s
I'm glad to see you mention these guys. My favorite team of all time. Gotta put the 94 49ers, the 91-92 Warriors, the 93-94 Warriors (####), and the 2001 A's as the rest of my top 5. Maybe toss the Jason Kidd Cal Bears and the 1991 Cal football team in there too.
ya big lug
No one will disagree with you that Prior was a more polished pitcher than Wood. As to whether or not he would have developed had he stayed healthy, it's a big daunting to even consider since the likelihood of him staying healthy was so unrealistic.
However, there are several pitchers who are late bloomers and go on to have HOF/near-HOF careers largely after the age of 26 (Wood's last full season):
Curt Schilling had 2 seasons with more than double-digit wins before age 30. He went 164-94 from age 30+ with 2,316 Ks, 3 20-win seasons
Randy Johnson didn't become a dominant pitcher until he was 29 and basically peaked at age 37 or so.
David Wells didn't become a starter until he was 28. There's Dazzy Vance, Sandy Koufax, Jamie Moyer.
Lemieux was better than Gretzky, I'll never be convinced otherwise.
Gretzky had the benefit of being older and entering the league earlier. It's sort of a Babe Ruth outhomering entire teams thing. He could do it because he played in a good HR park (1920-21) when no one else was even trying to hit home runs.
The Oilers in general and Gretzky in particular were so far advanced beyond the rest of the NHL in terms of finesse, skating (Gretzky himself was not even close to being one of the better skaters on the Oilers), stickhandling, etc., that they were playing an entirely different game. After Gretzky was in the league for several years, he was still a great, great, great player, just like Ruth in the mid-late 1920s, but he wasn't lapping the field anymore.
Gretzky did manage to be much more durable than Lemieux, but for pure dominance, Lemieux just owned Gretzky. He was a man among boys. He was 99.9% as good a passer as Gretzky, and a markedly better scorer/shooter. He was bigger and faster and simply could not be stopped.
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