Kerry Wood, And The Career We Were Robbed Of

Kerry Wood announced his retirement today, and after his final appearance during today’s game against the White Sox, he’ll ride off into the sunset, more than likely in a position with the Cubs’ front office or television booth.  Wood will be retiring at the age of 34, in reasonably good health, and with a career that he should be proud of.  He has a career ERA of 3.67, an 86-75 record, 1581 career strikeouts, and is on the short list of having pitched one of the greatest games by a starting pitcher in history.

Still, when you look at how Wood began his career, and how his career progressed, you can’t help but wonder that it should have progressed a lot differently.

When Wood burst onto the scene in 1998, he did so with a thunderbolt.  He pitched 166 innings, struck out 233, won 13 games, and on May 6, struck out 20 Houston Astros, joining Roger Clemens as the only pitchers to ever strike out 20 in a game.  His performance was even more dominant that that of Clemens in that he only allowed a single hit and didn’t allow a single walk.  It should have been the start of an exceptional career, one that would see Wood inherit the mantle of Nolan Ryan as that of the most dominant flamethrower in Baseball.  

Except for one problem.  Wood pitched a lot of innings since dating back to his career at Grand Prarie High School.  Wood was one of the last generations of pitchers that were willfully abused and forced to pitch far too many innings as a developing youth.  He was before the age of pitch counts and innings limits, before parents and agents sought to protect their sons and clients from overcompetitive high school and college coaches.

So it’s probably no surprise that Wood, shortly after making the majors, would get injured, due to the rather archaic standpoint of handling pitchers by his managers at the major league level.  Wood would be overworked and succumb to injury by his first manager, Jim Riggleman, during the 1999 season, after having worked 176 innings in both the regular season, minors, and playoffs in his rookie of the year winning campaign.  And Wood would continue to be injured in various parts of 2000 before showing signs of life in 2001, and possible improvement under Don Baylor.  Indeed, after 2002, having since been joined on the Cubs’ staff by Mark Prior, another bonafide young sensation, the Cubs figured to own the NL Central for the next decade.

And then 2003 and Dusty Baker happened.  Baker was another manager of the old school, who felt that a pitcher should be able to pitch whenever his name was called, and to hell with the consequences.  All this talk of pitch counts, and innings limits didn’t hold much water for Baker.  Never mind that baseball history is littered with pitchers that threw for close to 300 innings in a season, and then never pitched again.  Never mind that the San Francisco Giants, Baker’s previous employer, had several former promising pitchers that would see their careers nosedive under Baker’s watch.  No, it’s safe to say that Baker was either ignorant of the effect of too much work on a pitcher, or didn’t care.  

It should have been safe to conclude from the moment that Baker was hired that Wood was absolutely screwed.  Wood would throw 238 innings that year, more than he had ever thrown in his career, and more than he probably should have.  Perhaps if the Cubs had actually gone on to the World Series that year, maybe the sacrifice of Wood’s arm would have been worth it.  Alas, the Cubs would see their chances die in Game 6 of the NLCS, during with another victim of Baker’s mismanagement, Prior, who was exhausted by his own abuse of his arm, would see the game, and the Cubs’ chances at a title, go out the window.  Wood would gamely try to continue as a starter for another two seasons, during which the effects of the 2003 season would ultimately force him to the bullpen, as he simply did not have the stamina, or the ability, to start.

I suppose, in retrospect, back when Wood first arrived, you got the overwhelming sensation that you were going to be a witness to something special.  Wood seemed as if he was going to be the next pitcher with whom we were going to refer to as having left a legacy, much as we do Cy Young, Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, Warren Spahn, Sandy Koufax, Greg Maddux and others before him.  You got the feeling that he was going to leave the game much better than when he entered it.

And in a rather sad and ironic sense, Wood did leave a legacy.  It was by and large the utter destruction of both he and Prior that management and coaching in baseball began to look at the effects of utterly working pitchers’ arms to death.  While there are certain cases in which pitchers are overworked and have suffered injury before it (such as Dusty Baker and Trey Hillman’s destruction of Aaron Harang and Gil Meche’s careers respectively), the sport has moved beyond that of ignorance and tradition and more on preserving and developing an asset properly.  Pitching has been described as the most unnatural motion in nature, and it’s true that there is a high level of attrition in pitching prospects.  That does not mean that there needs to be an added element of negligence involved as well.  You are making an investment; why not do your best to preserve it. 

In 2007, Wood would reinvent himself as a reliever, and had a few solid years as a setup man and a closer before all of that wear and tear would finally lead to today, in which Wood would strike out White Sox outfielder Dayan Viciedo, and would then be removed as he was congratulated by his team mates and would be met by his son as he reached the dugout.  Wood, eerily similar to Ryan’s final bow, would emerge from the dugout, doff his hat to the fans, before riding off into the sunset.

A fine ending, and one that any player would love to go out.  Not many players are able to choose how they leave the game.  For most, it's the game that pushes them out, and leaves us with a memory that is neither pleasant, or endearing.  So, in retrospect, that Wood received such an outpouring of love from his teammates and the home crowd, at the time of his choosing, is a blessing of itself.

I just can’t help but feel that things should have gone differently.