May 6, 1998: The Kerry Wood Game

May 6, 1998: Kerry Wood makes his 5th major league start, for the Chicago Cubs, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. It turns out to be one of the greatest games ever pitched.

A native of the Dallas suburbs, Wood was pitching to a Houston Astros lineup that included Craig Biggio, who would go on to collect over 3,000 hits; Jeff Bagwell, who would hit 449 home runs, and join Biggio in the Baseball Hall of Fame; Derek Bell, who went on to have his 2nd 100-RBI season, and was known, with Biggio and Bagwell, as "the Killer B's"; and Moisés Alou, about to make the 3rd of 6 All-Star Games. This would not be easy.

He struck out the side in the 1st inning. Opposing pitcher Shane Reynolds did the same. Wood almost did it again in the 2nd, getting 2 strikeouts before a flyout. In the bottom of the 2nd, Mark Grace hit a double, and advanced to 3rd on an error. Henry Rodriguez got him home on a sacrifice fly.

Wood allowed a single to Ricky Gutierrez in the 3rd, and a sacrifice bunt and a balk got him to 3rd base. Wood got out of the inning without him scoring, and got another strikeout. He got 2 more in the 4th, struck out the side in the 5th, and hit a batter in the 6th, but got out of it with another strikeout. He now had 12.

He struck out the side in the 7th, giving him 15. He did it again in the 8th, giving him 18, and breaking the Cubs' single-game record of 16. In the bottom of the 8th, the Cubs got singles from Mickey Morandini and Grace, and José Hernández brought Morandini home on a groundout, increasing Wood's cushion to 2-0.

In the 9th, Wood struck Bill Spiers out, for his 19th strikeout. This tied the National League record then shared by Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver and David Cone. Nolan Ryan had also done it in the American League. Ryan and Luis Tiant had also done 19 in 10 innings. He still had a chance to get 21, to tie the all-time single-game record. On September 12, 1962, Tom Cheney of the Washington Senators struck out 21 Baltimore Orioles, but needed 16 innings to do it. But Biggio grounded to short. Wood then struck Bell out, for his 20th, tying the 9-inning record. The Cubs had won, 2-0.

Wood was a few weeks short of his 21st birthday, meaning he had struck out 20 batters in a game at age 20. For comparison's sake:

* April 29, 1986: Roger Clemens was 23 when he became the 1st pitcher to strike out 20 in a game, for the Boston Red Sox against the Seattle Mariners.

* September 18, 1986: Clemens was was 34 when he did it again, for the Red Sox against the Detroit Tigers.

* May 8, 2001: Randy Johnson was 38 when he did it for the Arizona Diamondbacks against the Cincinnati Reds.

* May 11, 2016: Max Scherzer was 31 when he did it for the Washington Nationals against the Tigers.

It was a magical season for Cub fans: Not only did Wood go 13-6 with 233 strikeouts, winning the NL's Rookie of the Year award, but Sammy Sosa hit 66 home runs (he went 1-for-4 without a homer in this game), and the team won the NL's Wild Card Playoff berth, winning that by winning a Playoff game at Wrigley. It was the 1st great moment at "the Friendly Confines" at night, following its lights being turned on for the 1st time, 10 years earlier. They lost the NL Division Series to the Atlanta Braves, but it didn't put a damper on the season.

Wood should have gone on to become one of the greatest pitchers of his generation. Instead, he became one of the unluckiest. He missed the last month of the 1998 season, and then the Playoffs, with elbow soreness. In Spring Training of 1999, he tore his ulnar collateral ligament (UCL). He had Tommy John surgery, and missed the entire 1999 season.

He went 8-7 in 2000, 12-6 in 2001, 12-11 in 2002, and 14-11 in 2003. He struck out 266 batters in 2003, and nearly made the Cubs' NL Championship Series Game 6 disaster a footnote in baseball history, by pitching well and hitting a home run in Game 7, before he lost his control in the 5th inning and lost the game.

He missed 2 months with an injury in 2004, going 8-9. He went 3-4 in 2005, before missing September with an injury. He was 1-2 in 2006, but missed most of the season. The Cubs bought out the rest of his contract. He signed a new one for 2007, and went 1-1 as a relief pitcher, but again missed much of the season due to injury. In 2008, he went 5-4 with 34 saves, and looked like he was back on track.

But the Cubs chose not to re-sign him, and he signed with the Cleveland Indians. In 2009, he was 3-3 with 20 saves. In 2010, he was traded to the New York Yankees, and battled injury to help them reach the Playoffs. The Yankees didn't re-sign him, either, and the Cubs took him back. He was 3-5 with 1 save in 2011, and 0-2 in the early part of the 2012 season.

On May 18, 2012, just 14 years after he set the baseball world on fire, he retired. He was not quite 35 years old. He reached 1,000 career strikeouts in fewer games and fewer innings pitched than any pitcher in history. But when it was over, he was 86-75, with 1,582 strikeouts, 63 saves, and a 3.67 ERA. He should have gone to the Baseball Hall of Fame. But his body let him down.

*

May 6, 1998 was a Wednesday. These other games were played in Major League Baseball that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Texas Rangers, 15-13 at The Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Yes, that's baseball, not football. The Rangers got 3 hits from Juan González and Will Clark, and 2 hits from Rusty Greer, Iván Rodríguez and Fernando Tatís Sr.; home runs from González and Mike Simms; 5 RBIs from González, and 4 RBIs from I-Rod.

But Derek Jeter went 4-for-6 with a home run and 5 RBIs, Tim Raines went 2-for-5 with a homer and 3 RBIs, Paul O'Neill went 3-for-6 with a homer and 2 RBIs, Bernie Williams went 3-for-5; and while Chuck Knoblauch went just 1-for-5, the 1 was a homer. Mike Stanton was the winning pitcher, in relief of David Wells.

* The New York Mets beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 8-2 at Shea Stadium.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Montreal Expos, 4-2 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-7 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Colorado Rockies, 7-6 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Gregg Jeffries' single in the bottom of the 9th sent the game to extra innings, and Bobby Abreu's single won it in the 10th inning.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-0 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. Greg Maddux pitched 7 innings, and Mike Cather finished the 7-hit shutout.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Florida Marlins, 10-9 at Joe Robbie Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida. The Giants got home runs from Barry Bonds, Rich Aurilia and Brent Mayne.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-0 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Jason Schmidt pitched 7 innings, and Jason Christiansen finished the 4-hit shutout. Mark McGwire went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Baltimore Orioles, 14-5 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland. Cal Ripken Jr. went 1-for-3, and Eric Davis hit 2 home runs. It didn't matter, as the Indians got home runs from Kenny Lofton, Brian Giles and Jim Thome.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the San Diego Padres, 3-2 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Tony Gwynn went 2-for-4 with a home run.

* The Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat the Kansas City Royals, 5-0 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Rolando Arrojo pitched a 3-hit shutout.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Anaheim Angels, 6-5 at Edison International Field (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Oakland Athletics, 10-5 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the Network Associates Coliseum). Rickey Henderson went 3-for-4.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Chicago White Sox, 10-9 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Ken Griffey Jr. went 2-for-3 with 2 walks and an RBI.

Football was out of season. There were no games scheduled in the NHL. There were 2 games played in the NBA Playoffs. The Charlotte Hornets beat the Chicago Bulls, 78-76 at the United Center in Chicago. And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 92-68 at the Key Arena in Seattle.