Having covered Kerry Wood’s first and last pitches in the majors and chronicled his best and worst moments — in simulated games, Cactus League games and playoffs games, through elbow, shoulder, knee, back, blister and hot tub injuries — I’m eager to experience the post-Wood Cubs.
Befitting a legend, Wood left a million stories in his wake. Here are a few I’ll always remember:
The start
The Cubs had told Wood in spring training of 1998 he would start the season in Triple-A even though he had struck out 329 batters in 2731/3 innings in the minors. In Wood’s first spring training outing, he pitched two perfect innings, striking out John Jaha and not allowing any balls out of the infield.
“I wasn’t in awe,” he said. “I was nervous, but I’d have been nervous in Little League on the first day. I had some first-day jitters, but I’m glad I didn’t choke.”
Said catcher Scott Servais: “After he threw his first fastball to Jaha, he turned around and said, ‘It’s too early for that stuff. I said, ‘Get used to it.'”
The call
Ron Santo was recovering from surgery during the 2003 playoffs, and called the Cubs’ clubhouse after their division series-clinching victory over the Braves. Wood was standing in the hallway talking to Santo during the celebration inside.
“Before I popped champagne, I spent 15 minutes on the phone with him talking,” he said. “He was pretty emotional and we thought at that time, ‘This is for you. You’ve been waiting a long time.’ It was a special moment for us and that one-on-one conversation after it all happened, to catch him in that emotional state, I won’t forget that.”
The game
Wood tied Roger Clemens’ 20-strikeout record in his fifth start on May 6, 1998, striking out eight of the last nine hitters and hitting 100 mph on the radar guns twice. He got Derek Bell swinging to end the game and make himself a legend.
“I had no idea what I had going into the last three innings,” he said. “After the first inning I knew I had three, but I lost track after that. I wasn’t real worried about getting strikeouts. I knew it was getting up there. I was just glad we were able to get a win out of it.”
Mark Grace compared Wood with another young phenom.
“Tiger Woods, Kerry Wood,” he said. “Hello, world.”
The collision
One of the most anticipated Wrigley Field games in years was Wood’s 2003 matchup against the Yankees’ Clemens, who was going for his 300th career victory.
But the buzz was muted when Wood and first baseman Hee Seop Choi collided on a Jason Giambi popup, knocking Choi out for several minutes. An ambulance came onto the field through the right field doors and took Choi to Illinois Masonic hospital, where he was held overnight with a concussion.
“Once the incident happened, we were all in the dugout saying, ‘Let’s win it for (Choi),'” Wood said. “We pulled together and focused even more after that happened. We were determined to get a win.”
Wood outdueled Clemens, Eric Karros’ three-run homer in the seventh gave them a lead and the crowd chanted “Hee Seop Choi” over and over in the top of the ninth.
The DL
Wood famously has spent numerous stints on the disabled list, including this month with “shoulder fatigue.” He and Mark Prior made the simulated games synonymous with the Cubs.
His most puzzling injury may have been the slow-healing blister on his index finger in 2008, which frustrated manager Lou Piniella to no end.
“You know, when I played, pitchers had blisters and they put that Tuff Skin on there,” Piniella said. “They seemed to function pretty well.”
Wood returned after a month, then became unavailable because of a bad back. He eventually returned to help the Cubs to 97 victories and the playoffs, where the Dodgers swept them.
The suspension
Wood was suspended for five games early in 2004 for “inciting” fans to throw garbage on the field during a rant against plate umpire Eric Cooper, whom Wood charged after the inning when he got ejected for arguing being squeezed on a couple of walks.
“I didn’t touch him, didn’t bump him, didn’t spit on him, didn’t head-butt him,” Wood argued. “Didn’t do anything like that. … Guys have been arguing for years. They’re not going to make an example out of me because I argued.”
Dusty Baker was worried it would be a bad collision.
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“It made me nervous because Woody had a full head of steam,” Baker said, recalling Antonio Alfonseca’s belly bump of umpire Justin Klemm in ’03. Wood wasn’t worried he would bump Cooper.
“I don’t have (Alfonseca’s) boiler yet.”
The feud
The meltdown at the end of the disappointing 2004 season was filled with controversy, which Baker and many players blamed on the media, particularly broadcasters Chip Caray and Steve Stone.
Wood was upset a radio station fingered him as the culprit who smashed Sammy Sosa’s boom box, a charge he denied. Stone left after the season, but the following spring told WSCR-AM that Wood should “go sell cars” if he refused to change his mechanics.
“That speaks more about what happened last year,” Wood said. “That’s a sure sign of where (the controversies) started. I came to spring training, doing my job, and all of a sudden that stuff starts coming up? I choose not to comment on it. I choose not to say anything back. It’s a waste of time, a waste of breath and a waste of ink.”
Wood asked the “experts” that didn’t like his mechanics to “write me letters. Teach me how to pitch.”
The loss
Wood mentioned his Game 7 home run in the 2003 playoffs as the highlight of his career, and most agree it set off the most noise ever heard it at Wrigley Field. But Wood failed to get out of the sixth inning, turning a 5-3 lead into a 6-5 deficit, and the Cubs were cooked.
Afterward, he blamed himself.
“I choked,” he said. “That’s the bottom line. I choked.”
Wood then ended the press conference at his locker and walked away.
The tub
Piniella’s raw honesty didn’t fit well with the Cubs’ preference for secrecy regarding injuries, especially the pitchers.
On the opening day of Piniella’s first spring training in 2007, he surprised reporters when he announced Wood sustained a rib injury falling “in his hot spa.” Piniella next mistake was asking the media not to make “a big deal out of it.”
Wood was eventually able to laugh about it.
“It’s about that time of year, isn’t it?” he said the next day. “Just typical. I was getting out of the hot tub at the house and took a little spill.”
The end
After covering Wood for 10 of his 15 seasons, my last question to him occurred the night of May 8, after he threw his glove and hat into the stands during a loss to the Braves. Actually, the question never really was posed.
The words “throwing the glove” led to the response: “Irrelevant, dude. Why the (bleep) would you even bring that up?”
Wood then stalked off.
An hour after Wood’s farewell press conference Saturday, we talked near his locker about the incident, shook hands and I wished him luck in his next chapter.
Another perfect ending.
Twitter @PWSullivan