CINCINNATI – Kerry Wood still has vivid memories of his greatest game.
The Chicago Cubs closer remembers everything about the day he struck out 20 batters in his fifth major league start, joining Roger Clemens as the only pitchers to accomplish the feat.
Wood remembers how he felt warming up on May 6, 1998. He remembers how the strikeouts piled up. He remembers certain pitches he threw to certain batters. He remembers what he ate for dinner to celebrate.
"It was one of those days I just had it," Wood said Monday before the start of a series against the Cincinnati Reds. "Very few days stick out like that."
Wood was a 20-year-old rookie when he delivered one of the greatest pitching performances of all-time. He allowed only one hit, a third-inning single by Ricky Gutierrez, in a 2-0 victory over the Houston Astros.
When he fanned Bill Spiers in the ninth for his 19th strikeout, Wood tied the NL record. He struck out Derek Bell to end the game and tie Clemens' major league mark. It wasn't until after the game, when he was being interviewed, that Wood realized he had struck out so many.
Wood finished the 1998 season ranked third in the NL in strikeouts and won the league's Rookie of the Year award. He missed the final month with a sore right elbow, then had reconstructive elbow surgery the next April, starting a run of arm and shoulder problems that undercut his career.
"It's been a roller coaster of good, bad, indifferent – sometimes not even here," Wood said. "I've experienced a lot in Chicago."
Ten years after his greatest game, Wood is the Cubs' closer, something he never envisioned as a possibility when he was a rookie.
"I probably would have said, 'No chance,'" Wood said. "Probably with somebody else at some point in my career, but not with the same team."
Who Is He?
Kerry Lee Wood (born June 16, 1977 in Irving, Texas) is an American baseball player. A right-handed pitcher, he plays professional baseball for the Chicago Cubs. Wood has recorded over two hundred strikeouts in four different seasons between 1998-2003, with a high water mark of 266 K's in 2003. In recent years, he has had three serious arm injuries, and has only started a total of 14 major league games from Opening Day 2005 through the middle of 2006. Wood returned to the Cubs during the 2007 season as a relief pitcher.
Early Life
Wood became a high school phenom while attending 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.
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 then 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 repeatedly kept showing her reactions in the crowd during playoff games Kerry was starting, he asked that the shots of her in live telecasts be reduced.
