May 20, 2012
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Kid K
For the most part, nobody who reads this on a semi regular basis is going to have much interest in reading this post, but I wanted to write it anyway. As you may or may not know, I’m a huge Chicago Cubs fan and my favorite current baseball player, Kerry Wood retired a couple of days ago. The funny part is that he wasn’t my favorite player so much for his performance on the field as much as it was for who he is as person.
Wood started with the Cubs in 1998. In just his fifth big league start, he tied the all time major league record for strikeouts in a game when he struck out 20 Houston Astros on May 6, 1998. I can still remember watching that game on my tiny t.v. in my bedroom on that damp and cold early May day. I turned the game on in about the fifth inning and he had 10 strikeouts which was good, but nothing too unheard of. As the game went on though he never slowed down. Soon it was the ninth inning and myself and I’m sure everybody at the game was nervous with excitement at the potential of his accomplishment. What made it even more amazing was that he was only 20 years old at the time. In fact, he became the first player in history to have as many strikeouts as his age.
After that season, the injuries started. He missed the entire 1999 season with elbow surgery. The rest of his career was sadly plagued by injuries filled in with pockets of brilliance such as the 2003 season when he helped pitch the Cubs to the National League Championship Series. The Cubs won their first playoff series since 1908 that year when they beat the Atlanta Braves in the National League Division Series and I remember being giddy with excitement at what the future held for him and this team. Sadly (and equally as frustrating) though, they have not even won a single playoff game since that year.
Off the field though Wood remained a class act. After losing the deciding game seven of the NLCS in 2003, he stood in front of his locker with tears in his eyes and blamed himself for the loss. As the years went by and the injuries piled up, he felt more and more like he owed it to the Cubs to keep playing for them out of a sense of loyalty for them sticking by him through the injuries. After the 2008 season though, the Cubs general manager, Jim Hendry told him that he could get more money elsewhere and he should leave. So he signed with the Cleveland Indians.
In December 2010, Cubs legend Ron Santo died. Even though he was not on the team, Wood still went to the funeral. It was there that he and Hendry struck up a conversation and Wood agreed to come back to the Cubs for about nine million dollars less than he could have gotten from other teams. He said he loved it here, for him Chicago was home in spite of being born and raised in Texas. He also started a foundation here and said he would be spending a lot of time here working with the foundation anyway so he might as well play here too.
This year was a rough year for him, not just rough but awful to be honest. So Friday word leaked that he would retire after his next game. Fittingly enough, after striking out the only hitter he faced, he was taken out of the game to a rousing, standing ovation. Just as he got right in front of the dugout, his six year old son ran out and gave him a hug in which was one of the more touching and better moments in all my years of watching the Cubs.
Wood in many respects, represented everything that it means to be a Cub or a Cub fan. Lots of promise and hope that melted into heartbreak and unfulfilled potential. Through it all though, he never gave up. He kept fighting and battling through all those injuries to keep coming back to the Cubs. He loved being a Cub and wanted to be here more than anything, which in sports these days is pretty damn rare. For him it truly wasn’t about money. Farewell Kid K, hope to see you around town.
