Kerry Wood
From Sports Library
| Chicago Cubs — No. 34 | |
| Pitcher | |
| Born: June 16 1977 (age 31) | |
|---|---|
| Bats: Right | Throws: Right |
| Major League Baseball debut | |
| April 12, 1998 for the Chicago Cubs | |
| Selected MLB statistics (through 2006) |
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| Wins-Losses | 71 - 56 |
| ERA | 3.68 |
| Strikeouts | 1299 |
| Teams | |
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Kerry Lee Wood (born June 16, 1977 in Irving, Texas) is an American baseball player. A right-handed pitcher, he plays for the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball and is currently under contract with the Cubs for the 2007 season.
Wood became a high school phenom while attending Irving Mac Arthur High School in Irving, Texas, for his first three seasons of high school baseball. He continued his domination of batters at Grand Prairie High School in his final season as a high school player.[1]
Wood has a dominating selection of pitches, and recorded over two hundred strikeouts in four different seasons between 1998-2003. In recent years, he has had serious arm injuries, and has only started a total of 14 games in 2005-2006.
Contents |
Professional career
Wood was drafted by the Cubs in the first round (4th overall) of the 1995 Amateur Draft.
1998: Rookie Sensation
A much-hyped prospect in the minor leagues, Wood made his MLB debut on April 12, 1998. He wasted no time showing the world his talent when - in only his fifth career start on May 6, 1998 - he hurled a one-hit, 20-strikeout shutout against the Houston Astros, tying the record for strikeouts in a 9-inning game.
Wood finished the 1998 season with a 13-6 record, and despite missing the last month of the season with elbow soreness easily won the National League Rookie of the Year award. Wood pitched one game in the playoffs against the Atlanta Braves, but suffered the loss. That would be his last appearance in a Cubs uniform for more than a year.
1999-2003
During Spring Training of 1999, Wood underwent Tommy John surgery to repair damage to the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. He missed the entire season to rehab from the surgery.
Wood returned in 2000 and struggled to an 8-7 record, but the following season, he returned to form. In 2001, Wood began a string of three straight seasons in which he began to once again show the promise he displayed as the young phenom just a few years earlier. He went 12-6 with a 3.36 ERA. The following season (2002), Wood finished 12-11 with a 3.67 ERA, but perhaps more important was the fact he didn't miss a start all year long, setting career highs with 213.6 innings pitched and 33 starts. In both seasons, he struck out 217.
In 2003, Wood continued to improve, setting career highs with 266 strikeouts, 14 wins (as part of a 14-11 record), a 3.20 ERA, and 2 shutouts. He also walked 100 batters and surrendered 24 homeruns, also career highs, but was selected as an National League All-Star and helped lead the Cubs to the playoffs.
Wood teamed with fellow righthander Mark Prior to form a 1-2 punch that led the Cubs to the 2003 National League Championship Series, which they lost in seven games to the eventual World Series champion Florida Marlins. In the decisive Game 7, Wood hit the first home run by a pitcher in a NLCS game since another Cub, Rick Sutcliffe, did so in Game 1 in 1984. However, Wood was charged with the loss and the Cubs were eliminated.
2004
The 2004 season was a trying one for Wood and the Cubs. Featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated for the baseball preview issue (the accompanying text predicted the Cubs would win the World Series), Wood went just 8-9, and was sidelined for nearly two months with a strained triceps. Critics would harp on the fact that Wood never has won more than 14 games in a season.
The Cubs led the Wild Card race by two games with a week to go in the season, when the wheels came off on their season. The Cubs lost seven of their last nine games to finish 89-73, two games behind Houston.
Wood lost two of those games, including a 3-2 loss to New York on Sept. 26. Wood allowed three runs in the first inning before settling down for the next six innings. He also lost an Oct. 1 decision to Atlanta 5-4, as light-hitting Dewayne Wise and opposing starting pitcher Mike Hampton each hit two-run homers off of him. That loss pushed the Cubs to the brink of elimination.
Wood was also associated with some locker room controversy two days later when star right-fielder Sammy Sosa departed Wrigley Field 15 minutes into the Cubs' season finale. Several Cubs teammates were angry with Sosa for quitting on his teammates, and an unidentified teammate destroyed the star's stereo with a baseball bat. Speculation immediately centered on the hot-tempered Wood, as well as second-baseman Todd Walker. Both players have denied the allegation.
2005-2006
In 2005, the Cubs - and Wood - continued to struggle. On August 31, 2005, Wood underwent season-ending arthroscopic surgery. During Spring Training the following year, Wood suffered another setback which required an additional surgery on his knee. Finally, on May 18, 2006, Wood returned to the Cubs' rotation when he pitched in a game at home against the Washington Nationals. He took the loss, giving up four runs and three home runs while striking out six in five innings. In June, Wood returned to the DL with a sore shoulder. The following month, the Cubs announced that Wood had sustained a partially torn rotator cuff which was likely to keep him from pitching again for the rest of the year. At the end of the 2006 season, the Cubs excercized their option on Wood's contract and bought out the remaining $13M.
2007
With his long history of injuries and inability to stay in the starting rotation, Wood accepted the Cubs offer to join their bullpen in 2007, signing an incentive laden one-year contract for $1.75 million. Wood has attempted to sustain a regular throwing schedule and appearances during Spring Training games. However, Wood is currently on the 15 day DL with a dislocated shoulder because of an injury he suffered while sweeping his kitchen floor. [1]
Scouting Report
When Kerry Wood had his dominating stuff his fastball would reach anywhere from 94-99 mph and could even hit 100 mph. His curveball would brake anywhere from 12-6 to 1-7 and would usually be clocked in the high 70’s to low 80’s. The slider he throws will have a 1-7 to 1-6 brake and be clocked anywhere from 84-88 mph.
In more recent years the velocity on his fastball has dropped to 91-94 MPH with it occasionally topping out at 95 mph. He also really went to using his slider and the occasional circle changeup that will be clocked around 84 mph.
MLB records
- Fastest to reach 1000 strikeouts in MLB history (in appearances): 134 games
- Fastest to reach 1000 strikeouts in MLB history (in innings pitched): 853 IP
- Strikeouts in a 9-inning game: 20 on May 6, 1998 (tied record held by Roger Clemens)
Personal life
Wood is married to the former Sarah Pates of Waukegan, Illinois. The couple has a son, Justin Dean (born 2006). After FOX took to showing her reactions in the crowd during playoff games Kerry was starting, he asked that the shots of her in live telecasts be reduced.
Going Deeper
Kerry Wood Trivia
- Kerry Wood made his major league debut on Easter Sunday, 1998.
- The first batter he ever faced, Mark Grudzielanek, would eventually become Wood's teammate with the Cubs when they won the National League Central in 2003, the only season in Wood's career that he was to win the Strikeout Crown.
- Wood struck out Grudzielanaek in that opening at-bat,for his first-ever Major League K.
- The first time Wood ever faced Vladimir Guerrero, he struck him out.
- Wood's first victory came 6 days later, at Wrigley Field, in front of a crowd of 34,652. Many of those 34,652 had decided to catch Wood's debut at the last minute--in fact, it was the largest "walkup" crowd since the early years of the Chicago Tribune and Dallas Green Era, which began in 1982.
- Wood's counterpart that day--Hideo Nomo--didn't make it out of the first inning, and Wood was one of the hitters who helped cut Nomo's day short with a first inning RBI single--the first hit of Wood's major-league career. Wood then proceeded to go from first to third on a single by the subsequent hitter--Brant Brown--and later score his first major-league run on a Mickey Morandini RBI single.
- The first time Wood ever faced Mike Piazza, he struck him out.
- In Wood's second major-league start, at Wrigley Field, a rain delay caused the game to start at 9:15 PM--the latest start in the history of Wrigley at that point in time.
- The first two times that Wood faced Mark McGwire, he struck him out.
- With a 2-2 record, Kerry Wood had recorded twenty-five strikeouts in his first four major-league starts. In his fifth start, Kerry Wood struck out twenty Houston Astros, in what is arguably the greatest baseball game ever pitched.
- Wood's counterpart that day, Shane Reynolds, struck out 10 Chicago Cubs. In addition to Wood having tied Roger Clemens' individual, single-game strikeout record of 20 batters, Wood and Reynolds also set a record for the most combined strikeouts by two opposing pitchers, with 30.
- The only hit allowed by Wood was a weakly-hit infield grounder by Wood's future Cub teammate Ricky Gutierrez. The Cubs third baseman--Kevin Orie--had a chance to attempt a difficult assist, but failed to field the ball cleanly. Had the official scorer charged Orie with an error--and many fans feel that Orie rightly should have been charged with one--then Wood quite easily could have had a no-hit, 20-strikeout game.
- The only other hitter to reach base was Craig Biggio, who was hit by a pitch. It was fitting, since Biggio would eventually set the record for most times getting hit by a pitch in a career.
- The person whom Biggio had to overtake to win the career HBP crown was Kerry Wood's future manager, Don Baylor.
- Wood's 233 strikeouts in 1998 is not a National League rookie record. Former Cub nemesis Dwight Gooden recorded 276 K's in 1984, when the Cubs outlasted Gooden's Mets for their first postseason appearance since 1945. Had Wood not started the season in Iowa, and had an injury not knocked him out for the entire month of September, he likely would have blown by Gooden's mark.
- The same year that Kerry Wood set pitching records, his teammate Sammy Sosa was setting hitting records, by walloping 66 home runs. In Kerry Wood's 26 starts in 1998, Sosa homered in 13 of them, including 7 of Wood's final 8 starts of the season.
- In two of these games, against Philadelphia and Cincinnati, Sosa and Wood both homered.
- The second of the games in which Wood and Sosa both homered also happened to be Wood's final start of the regular season.
- After taking off the month of September to rest an elbow that would prove to eventually require surgery, Wood returned to the team to start Game 3 of the National League Division Series against at Atlanta. His counterpart was former Cub and future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux. Maddux had been the Cubs starting pitcher the last time that the team had lost a home playoff game, in 1989.
- Atlanta defeated Wood and the Cubs, 6-2, ending the Cubs' season.
- In spite of missing the entire month of September, Wood still managed to edge out Colorado's Todd Helton for Rookie of the Year, making Wood the first Cub since Jerome Walton win the award. Walton won the award in '89, which was also the last time the Cubs had made the postseason before '98.
- The next time after the Atlanta game in 1998 that Wood would take the mound wouldn't be until the first week of May in 2000. On one of the warmest Opening Nights in Wrigley Field's history, Wood allowed one earned run in 6 innings in beating division rival Houston. Again, Wood contributed to his own effort by going yard for his third career home run.
- Wood's first fully uninterrupted season was in 2002, when he made all of his starts for the first time and eclipsed over 200 total innings pitched.
- In 2003 Wood eclipsed his own four-year old personal win total that he had acheived as a rookie by winning 14 games and striking out 266. Along with Mark Prior, Wood carried the Cubs to their first division winner since 1989.
- In the 2003 NLDS, Wood led the Cubs to their first postseason-series victory in 95 years when they eliminated Atlanta, 3 games to 2.
- Wood was the winning pitcher in Games 1 and 5. By winning Game 5, Wood became the first Cub pitcher since Orville Overall in 1908 to be credited with the Win in the clinching game of a postseason series.
- There is no Most Valuable Player Award for the LDS, but Wood's 2-0 record, with 18 strikeouts, and 7 hits and 7 walks 15 1/3 innings (1.76 ERA) was clearly the premier performance of the series.
- In the 2003 NLCS, Wood got a no decision in Game 3. He had pitched adaquately, but failed to hold a 2-1 lead in the seventh inning and left the game with his team trailing. The Cubs eventually came back and won the game in extra innings, however, and took a 2-1 series lead.
- Wood's next start was in Game 7 at Wrigley Field. He gave up three runs in the first inning to put his team down, but they again rallied back.
- Wood himself tied the game with yet another home run--this one a second-inning, two-run shot off of Mark Redman. Wood became the first pitcher in 19 years to hit a home run in a postseason game. The last person to have done that had been Rick Sutcliffe of the Cubs in Game 1 of the 1984 NLCS, also played at Wrigley Field.
- On the strength of Moises Alou's two-run home run in the fourth inning, Wood took a 5-3 lead in to the fifth inning, fifteen outs from the first Cubs' pennant in 58 years.
- Wood, however, started the inning by walking career utility man Brian Banks and eventually future Cub teammate Derrek Lee delivered a two-out, two-RBI single that gave Florida the lead, and they went on to take the game and series for their second National League pennant since 1997--two years after Kerry Wood had signed with Cubs out of high school.
- Wood only made twenty-two starts the following season, missing ten or so assignments due to injury. The Cubs still had a chance to make a return trip to the playoffs when Wood took the mound at Shea Stadium on September 26th. Needing to pick up his team after a crushing defeat the day before (a la after Game 6 in the '03 NLCS), Wood instead buckled under the pressure right away,giving up three first-running runs, walking in New York's #8 hitter--Gerald Williams--for the third run in the inning. The Cubs eventually lost 3-2, and fell 1.5 games behind Wild Card leader Houston. After losing five more of their following seven, the Cubs had basically eliminated themselves from the playoffs.
- In losing his final two games of the season down the stretch, Wood not only failed to lift his team to the playoffs, but he finished the 2004 with a losing record for the first time in his major-league career. In fact, it was also the first time that he didn't finish above .500.
- Since then, Kerry Wood has been under .500 in each subsequent season to date.
Kerry Wood - Paradise Lost
This originally appeared in The Goat Riders of the Apocalypse
"Now batting, Number twenty-blah, blah blah blah-blah...."
Well howdy, let's see how it's gonna be. He's putting down the number one... we said in meeting, he likes it out so he can extend and bring the bat head through. I MUST establish the inside half as mine, so hold that mitt up there, Mikey. That's it, just playing catch. Just hit the target. Follow through, keep it inside, not too inside, step.....UUUNGH!!
"Ball! Inside!"
DAMMMN!
The shoulder is just KILLIN me! Damn near killed the guy, too...pitch was a good foot off the plate. He's staring at me now, but he's gotta know it wasn't on purpose. I ain't even lookin' at him. I don't even care what he thinks, or even where the pitch was, because my shoulder hurts so damn....I can barely remember what it was like back then, back where I could stick that bad boy anywhere, guys would swing an hour late, and when I missed as bad as I just did, I could just suck it up and just, you know, throw better and not miss the next time.
But today, man, I can't even think. He better not put down the number one again for a little while, I can't even pull another off, I feel like cutting my arm off now. Dang, there it is, gonna hafta shake him off, don't want to, it pisses him off I know, but he's gotta know what's happening up in Pain Central. No, Mikey, try again.
The deuce? You know that thing is shit, I want a slider here, but I don't want to show him up here. Gotta be on the same page. Plus I KNOW this bitch is gonna hurt. Better let Pain Central know. Hope I took enough Advil. They say I was tipping my pitches, so I can't close my eyes here...UUMF!
"Ball! Away! 2 and oh!"
YAAAH!!
Ohh, Chrissst on a scooter...the elbow this time!!. Gotta get control of myself, can't let the batter see me hurt, can't let Sarah see me hurt, she'll be callin' the trainer. This sucks, you know. Can't bring the heater, can't throw the deuce. That don't leave me a lot, you know. So I'm forced to make perfect pitches when I can, and if I don't, well, you know what happens....
Kinda makes me wish I could take back some of the times when I threw 160 pitches for ol' Alvin High. Yeah, it got scouts lookin' at me, it got me drafted, it got me paid, it got me to Chicago, it got me Sarah, it got me rich. I wish I could strike out 20 every time I went out again, but maybe I should have let up some, let them hit it sometimes. I'm not even 30, except for my right arm. It's about a thousand years old, held together by some dead guy's tendons. Pretty gross if you think about it. F%&#!! What am I thinking? Get back in the game, man!
Don't matter what gets puts down here, he's gonna get the slider, I know it, Mikey knows it, ol' shitferbrains holdin' the bat knows it, it's all a matter of making him chase it. This is gotta be perfect, just follow through, let go....UUUNGH!
And, lately, as we all know, that next pitch is either in the dirt or in the air, way up in the air. Just imagine what kind of day you would have if your tools weren't working. How are you going to bang out the quarterly updates if your computer isn't booting up. So you call Tech Support and go get coffee offsite. How are you going to frame out that wall if your nail gun isn't nailing? So you go tell the foreman, and you take the long way over to the shop to get it repaired. How are you going to blow your shizzit past the best hitters in the world if your elbow and shoulder are flaring up in pain? So you go on the DL, hope you don't have to get cut up again.
To me, even though he's a millionaire, got a cute-hott wife, and a contract with my all-time favorite ballclub, it would suck to be Kerry Wood. To know what you could have been, regardless of whether the expectations were based on reality or not. I imagine it's agonizing to strike out 20 major leaguers at 20 years old, and know at 30 that you will never do it again. There have been more skilled pitchers, smarter pitchers, faster pitchers, more intimidating pitchers. But I don't believe there has ever been a man who had more terrifying stuff as Kerry Wood did in 1998.
I knew, we all knew, that eventually he would have to accept the fact that he is fragile, and would only be able to perform in short bursts. I figured all along it would be with the Yankees, Braves, or Asstrolls, but it says something about the man and his character that he signed with us for less, and that he feels he has something to prove, and something to give back. How rare is that? You young guys HAVE to know that this is rare. Please believe me.
Eventually, Piniella will make the decision to let Wood close, and how he handles this with him, Dempster, and the rest of the team is vital to 2007 success. Players constantly stress that they need to know their roles, and they always bristle when their roles change. Part of being a good manager is to juggle the roles when a change is necessary, to determine how the chemistry will be affected, to keep those that concur, and extract those that do not accept. Dempster seems like a guy with a good sense of humor, but perhaps one that is also somewhat self-important. I suppose you need some ego to get this far in life. Hopefully it does not become a distraction.
But Wood on his worst day has stuff (and attitude) that Dempster can only dream about, and if he can make 70 short appearances a year without breaking down, he has Gossage-type potential. I hope so. Couldn't happen to a better guy.
But, of course, they did NOT live happily ever after...
References
External links
- Kerry Wood's career statistics at Baseball-Reference.com
- The Baseball Cube - Major and Minor League Statistics
- ESPN.com: Kerry Wood
- Chicago Cubs official page on Wood's career
| Preceded by Scott Rolen |
National League Rookie of the Year 1998 |
Succeeded by Scott Williamson |
| 1998 National League Wild Card Chicago Cubs Starting Lineup: 1. Lance Johnson CF | 2. Mickey Morandini 2B | 3. Sammy Sosa RF | 4. Mark Grace 1B | 5. Henry Rodriguez LF | 6. Gary Gaetti 3B | 7. Jose Hernandez SS | 8. Scott Servais/Tyler Houston C Starting Pitchers: Kevin Tapani | Kerry Wood | Steve Trachsel | Mark Clark | Jeremi Gonzalez/Mike Morgan |
| 2003 National League Central Champion Chicago Cubs Starting Lineup: 1. Kenny Lofton CF | 2. Mark Grudzielanek 2B | 3. Sammy Sosa RF | 4. Moises Alou LF | 5. Aramis Ramirez 3B | 6. Eric Karros/Randall Simon 1B | 7. Alex Gonzalez SS | 8. Damian Miller C Starting Pitchers: Mark Prior | Kerry Wood | Carlos Zambrano | Matt Clement | Shawn Estes |
| 2007 National League Central Champion Chicago Cubs Starting Lineup: 1. Alfonso Soriano LF | 2. Ryan Theriot SS | 3. Derrek Lee 1B | 4. Aramis Ramirez 3B | 5. Cliff Floyd/Matt Murton RF | 6. Mark DeRosa 2B | 7. Jacque Jones CF | 8. Jason Kendall/Geovany Soto C Starting Pitchers: Carlos Zambrano | Ted Lilly | Rich Hill | Jason Marquis | Sean Marshall | Steve Trachsel |
