Thru Cub Eyes: Kerry Wood
Friday, September 30th, 2005With this being the last Friday of the regular season, this feature ends as well. But look for special editions at times over the winter. You never know if or when another excerpt from Carrie Muskatís fine compilation Banks to Sandberg to Grace will pop up. Thank you Ms. Muskat for allowing this series to run, Joe for his support and the encouragement from all of our readers, even Drew the Shrew.
The only pitching coach I ever had was my dad. He started me with my mechanics. I had pretty strong mechanics, even as a young pitcher. My mechanics never got messed with. Theyíre still pretty much the same now as they were when I was younger. I never really had a pitching coach try to change my mechanics. The arm strength is just God-given, so you go from there.
I like strikeouts. They give you a little rush of adrenaline. And thereís days when I go out and get 27 ground balls if I can. But the days you go out, and you feel good, and you have good stuff, and you go 0-1 or 0-2 on a hitter ñ those are good days.
Iíve seen the film of the game against Houston. I canít believe itís me, just from the control standpoint. Itís just that day, that particular day, I was getting the calls, I was getting some breaks. A lot of luck was on my side. Everything had to work a certain way. Guys were swinging at bad pitches. I was getting borderline calls. The control was just there. I canít explain it. It pretty much came out of nowhere.
What would I be doing if I wasnít playing baseball? Thatís a pretty good question. I probably wouldnít be doing anything. Iíd be living with my parents, theyíd be supporting me. I wasnít big on school. I hated school. Iíve only got one talent. Fortunately, it worked for me. Iíve had success with it, and Iím going to ride it as long as I have it.
Jeff Vorva of the Daily Southtown has a piece in Thursday’s sports section that states that Dusty Baker, when asked about what he would desire for next year’s team stated that he would like to see the Cubs bring in some good men. He states that playing at Wrigley during the day as the Cubs do for so many of their games is “conducive to clean-living guys with families rather than single guys who like to hang out.”
Considering we spent most of last week debated the return of Greg Maddux to the Cubs for 2006, and since the team hasn’t done anything notable since then (besides being officially eliminated from contention), I decided to take the advice of one of our readers and address the situation of another Cubs player whose future with the team is up in the air: Nomar Garciaparra.
A lot of what I read these days seems to revolve around if Greg Maddux will return to Chicago next year. My question to you is this. What are the PRO’s and CON’s to him returning to the ballclub next year to finish his contract and probably retire? I’ll be back tonight to let you know what I think about the issue, but for now, please sound off with your opinion.
Well, now that Cubs seem to be done pretending that they are in the Wild Card race, but with the offseason too far away to start speculating on free agents, the time has come for a little distraction from baseball. For me, that distraction came this weekend in the form of poorly played golf and the one team that bring Cubs fans and Sox fans together…the Chicago Bears. As you may recall, prior to the Bears opening game against Washington, I picked the Bears to beat the ‘Skins 17-6, thus proving that I missed my true calling as a TV weather forecaster. So I, like many Bears fans, came into this weekend’s game against Detroit with serious doubts. Detroit had easily beaten Green Bay, shutting down Bears nemesis’ Brett Favre and Ahman Green. They had what could be one of the best young offenses in the league, with first round picks Charles Rogers, Roy Williams, Kevin Jones, Joey Harrington and Mike Williams. Listening to sports talk radio didn’t do much for my attitude either: according to most callers, Lovie Smith needed to be fired, most of the players cut, and the stadium shoved into Lake Michigan. Sunday’s Chicago Tribune was worst of all. In the head to head matchups of QB, RB, WR, OL, DL, LB, DBs, special teams and coaching, the Bears were seen to have an edge only at the running back and special teams positions. I waited anxiously today for noon to come, knowing full well that at that time, the mighty Detroit Lions would emerge from the tunnel, the sky would darken, Lake Michigan would boil, the earth would open up and swallow the Bears, and Chicago would be annexed as the latest suburb of Detroit. Well, it turns out, the experts know about as much as I do. The Bears dominated the game, scoring on offense, defense and special teams, running the ball at will, and seemingly catching more of Joey Harrington’s passes than his receivers did (it appears that putting Mr. Harrington in charge of such a high powered offense was, as Dan Hampton would say, like letting a monkey drive a limousine).