22 Years Ago Today, Kerry Wood Was on a Different Planet

This is one anniversary I will always take note of, and I’m a White Sox fan who grew up in the northern suburbs of Chicago in Cubs territory. I hate the Cubs. 2016 was awful. I had dreaded the Cubs winning a World Series for my entire life. Yeah, I’m bitter. I celebrated like a douchebag in seventh grade when the Bartman incident happened in 2003. Wore a Marlins shirt to school the day after. Wow, I was awful. I would have beaten myself up.

With that said, I will always note the anniversary of Kerry Wood’s 20-strikeout game in 1998 which is quite possibly the greatest single game ever pitched. It’s literally the highest game score in baseball history for a nine-inning game at 105. I remember exactly where I was on that May 6 day in 1998 when I was seven years old — at my best friend’s house — and his dad, a lifelong Cubs fan, tried to explain the magnitude of this performance to us. We probably didn’t get it then, but we do now. It is truly one of my earliest MLB memories.

Kerry Wood shamed the Astros 22 years before it was cool. In his fifth career start at the age of 20, Kerry Wood sat down 20 Astros batters via the strikeout in nine innings. He became the second pitcher to do so after Roger Clemens who did it in 1986 and 1996 for the Red Sox. Randy Johnson (2001) and Max Scherzer (2016) later joined Clemens and Wood.

The only hit in this game was a rather questionable one — future Cubbie Ricky Gutierrez hit a chopper to the left of third baseman Kevin Orie which ricocheted off of his glove and into left field in the third inning. Wood also hit Craig Biggio because of course Craig Biggio got hit. Wood (six) was actually trailing Astros starter Shane Reynolds in strikeouts (seven) after three innings. However, Wood went on a rampage and entered the ninth inning needing three strikeouts to break the record. Biggio bounced out to first to ruin that, but he got Derek Bell swinging to end it and complete the 20-strikeout performance.

Every time this anniversary comes up it’s a “I can’t believe it’s been XX years since then.” As a Sox fan, I will admit that the Cubs SHOULD have won that World Series in 2003. If not for injury, Wood and Mark Prior would have been an absolutely historic one-two punch for the Cubs in the post-steroid era and is one of the bigger what-ifs as far as the MLB is concerned in the last 25 years or so.

Injuries derailed Wood’s promising career as he tore his UCL in 1999 which required Tommy John surgery, and somehow he was only a two-time All-Star. If not for injury, Wood would likely be in consideration for the Hall of Fame. However, this performance will forever live as a once-in-a-generation performance.