Now that Kerry Wood of the Cubs has established himself as a bona fide major-league pitching prodigy, the next question is painfully obvious:
Which hat will he wear when he gets inducted into the Hall of Fame? Yankees? Dodgers? Devil Rays? Diamondbacks?
Shame on me for thinking such grim thoughts. It’s not that I have such a jaundiced view of the future, or anything but utmost faith in the Cubs’ current administration, from President Andy MacPhail to General Manager Ed Lynch to Treasurer Yosh Kawano.
My problem is that I have such fresh, frightening recollections of the past. It’s impossible to watch this team the last 30 years or so without arriving at the conclusion I reached when Wood struck out 20 Astros the other day.
How in the name of Drew Hall are the Cubs going to screw this one up? A young pitching prospect sacrificed to Wrigley Field is more likely to end up with a sling than a ring.
Admittedly, my negative impulses were activated by extracurricular stimuli. On the same Wednesday when Wood made baseball history in Chicago, Greg Maddux was working on a shutout of his own here at Turner Field.
Need I say more? Maddux is destined to go from the Cubs to Cooperstown. However, comma, he stopped in Atlanta, where he has become the finest pitcher of his time. He wanted to stay in Chicago and should have, but instead he’s with the Braves, for whom he’s won 100 games and lost only 42. The Cubs haven’t had a No. 1 starter since Maddux left as a free agent after the 1992 season and was not replaced by Mike Morgan, Jose Guzman or anybody else. The Cubs claim to be going in a different direction now, but there’s probably a chance they could still squeeze a guy with a record of 100-42 somewhere into their rotation, no?
“Greg is all we could have asked for, as a pitcher and a person,” gushed John Schuerholz, the Braves’ brilliant general manager. “He’s even great with the glove. He’s another infielder. Stops everything. He’s like a goalie.”
You can never have enough pitching, or goalies, but the Cubs will take one Kerry Wood. Now if they can just keep him. It isn’t every kid who strikes out the same number of batters as his age, 20. The last one to do that was the legendary Bob Feller, who fanned 17 when he was 17.
Mind you, there have been Cubs pitchers who pulled the rare feat of doing that sort of thing with an earned-run average, as in 24.50 at age 24 1/2. But in Kerry Wood, we’re talking special. After Wednesday, the secret is out.
If he develops into a stopper, Wood will change the complexion of the National League Central race. He’ll also be big box office. And in time he will command an ungodly sum of money and get it somewhere, maybe even from the Cubs. Maybe.
Of course, there are other ways stardom could bypass Wood. Some genius pitching coach to be named later could decide that he should switch from power to finesse. Strikeouts require too many pitches; he threw 122 Wednesday. Perhaps he might want to yield more fly balls, alter his release point, kick his leg higher or let his fingernails grow.
One bygone Cubs manager who shall remain anonymous took one look at a kid’s terrific stuff years ago and actually considered converting him into a center-fielder. Why not use that strong arm every day instead of every fifth day? Better yet, let’s make him a reliever. Maybe teach him a knuckler, so he can throw forever.
I am not making this up. Check the list of first-round draft choices who were blue-chip pitching talents, at least until they showed up at O’Hare. Randy Martz, Herman Segelke, Lance Dickson, Don Schulze, Mike Harkey and the aforementioned Drew Hall, who was selected ahead of Maddux.
Where are they now? Pumping gas from the stretch position? What happened to them? The Cubs happened to them, that’s what. I look for better things, though, with their latest gunslinger. At least I did until late Wednesday, when I realized that eventually, Greg Maddux will have to retire.
“How about that Kerry Wood?” John Schuerholz asked dreamily.
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Consider yourself warned.