Despite a very concentrated attempt to not hope for Kerry Wood to be healthy this season, and to simply be content with the Cubs' bullpen as it is without him, I'm having a difficult time not being disappointed by the news that Wood will start this season on the DL, again, with shoulder problems, again. Fair enough. I'm over it. Oh wait, Mark Prior is going to start on the DL, too? You're not making it easy for me, but okay. The Cubs still have Carlos Zambrano. For this season at least. Fuck. This sucks.
The point of this, though, is to point out some humorus headlines from 1998 which I found in another blog (blogs referencing blogs... what have we become?) called What's Goin On?, a Chicago Sports Blog. Before the funny part, let me set this up just a bit for you non-Cub fans. 1998 was Kerry Wood's rookie season with the Cubs. In his fifth major league start, he struck out 20 Houston Astros which was at the time - and probably still is - a major league record for the most K's in a game. Wood, when healthy (ha!), does have an amazing slider. It starts at the knees, then it's up at the chest, and then its almost in the dirt by the time it crosses the plate. Of course, that kind of hook puts such a strain on your elbow and shoulder that after throwing that pitch for three seasons, you end up on the disabled list eleven times in ten seasons. Anyhoo... Here's a portion of the afore mentioned blog that made me laugh.
After reading this morning that Wood is making his 11th trip to the disabled list before his 10th season starts, I decided to take a look at some of the Tribune headlines in the following days and weeks after Wood made the Killer B's look like mere gnats. Try not to laugh:
• Legends in passing: Mr. Jordan, meet Mr. Wood
• Imagine, baseball upstaging Michael
• Wood, Clemens have a few other things in common
• Everything seems to be turning out right for Wood
• When Cooperstown calls, will Wood still be a Cub?
That last one is my favorite. I remember Cubs fans everywhere being terrified that Kid K would follow in the footsteps of Greg Maddux and head off to Atlanta. In fact, a Sox fan friend of mine started cracking Braves jokes the very next day.
I like how he said "Try not to laugh." Yes. Try.
Posted by critical at March 27, 2007 02:47 AM