The date:  May 6th, 1998.  The location:  Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois.  The man of the hour:  Kerry Wood.

Derek Bell stands in.  His Astros are down 2-0 in the bottom of the ninth.  Twenty-year-old rookie Kerry Wood stands on the rubber.  Bell knows the man he’s facing is too young even to buy a beer (although, it seems this is not the case with many of the Cubby faithful in the crowd), but his age is dangerously deceiving.  The fans are all on their feet as Bell gets ready for the pitch from Chicago’s new favorite son.  Everyone at the ballpark, including Bell himself, knows that if Wood has his way, history will be made.  Wood comes set.  “Don’t look like a fool,” Bell thinks to himself.  “Don’t be the guy on the back of the trivia card ten years from now.”  The pitch is speeding towards the plate like an arrow fired by a master marksman.  “Swing!” Bell commands his body.  Unfortunately, all that comes out is a helpless flail of the bat.  Bell fades away into the company of the rest of his Astro teammates.  He becomes just another of Kerry Wood’s 20 strikeout victims on the night.

Twenty strikeouts! An amazing night for the young superstar to say the least.  To set the rookie strikeout record, tie the all-time strikeout record, and come a weak single away from throwing a perfect game, isn’t a bad way for a twenty-year-old to spend an evening.  

After being drafted fourth overall in the 1995 draft, Wood was surrounded by hype as soon as he toed his first professional rubber.  He was a star in the minors, beginning in his first year with the single-A Daytona Cubs, where he led the farm system in strikeouts.  Then, in 1997, he led the Cubs organization in strikeouts again with 186.  After the season, Baseball America named him the top overall prospect in the American Association.  On April 12, 1998, Wood finally made his much anticipated major league debut.

The fateful 20-strikeout night came in just his fifth career big league start.  In fact, he was so young, even the diehard Cubs fanatics didn’t expect a performance like this for two or three years.

This was supposed to be the birth of a legend.  Wood was going to be the greatest thing on the north side of Chicago since Ernie Banks or Fergie Jenkins.  If he could tie the single game strikeout record at 20, imagine what he could do at 25 or 30…

Wood finished his rookie campaign with a 13-6 record to go along with a 3.40 ERA and 233 strikeouts, good enough for third in the NL, good enough to give him the NL Rookie of the Year, and good enough to make everyone in Chicago think that the Curse of the Billy Goat may be a thing of the past.  Wood was the Exorcist, come to clear the Cubs of their past demons.

Unfortunately, the beginning of the trouble came just the next year, 1999.  Wood missed the entire season after having reconstructive surgery on his right elbow to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament.  “Don’t worry,” they said.  “This is just a minor setback.”

However, Cubs fans quickly learned that this was a little more than a minor setback.  Wood came back in 2000 looking like a whole different pitcher.  In 23 starts, he put up an 8-7 record with a 4.80 ERA and 132 strikeouts.  Cubs fans were still able to keep some optimism intact, even as the memories of 1998 began to seem so distant.

This time, their optimism paid off as Wood appeared to return to his Rookie-of-the-Year-form in 2001, 2002 and 2003.  It seemed as though Wood was finally ready to take that step into superstardom.  He looked like the pitcher of old, out for sweet redemption.  He reached 200+ strikeouts in all three seasons, including a league-leading 266 K’s in 2003.  Wood was back in his dominating power pitcher form, and the Windy City’s love affair with the young pitcher was back with a passion.

In 2002, Wood finally threw for over 200 innings in a season for the first time in his career.  He then followed it up with another 200+ inning season in 2003 to go along with his first ever all-star appearance.  However, it was still evident that Wood was not as consistent as many would’ve liked him to be.  In his 11 losses in 2003, he allowed 45 earned runs to cross the plate while he recorded a 1.83 ERA in the rest of his games.  But Cubs fans were too much in awe of their new found success to really recognize this as a big problem for the future.

The Cubs were poised to make a deep playoff run on the back of Wood and they did just that.  They made it all the way to the NLCS where they met the Florida Marlins.  At the same time as the other cursed team in the league, the Boston Red Sox, were blowing their chances of going to the World Series against the Yankees, Steve Bartman crashed the party in Chicago.  You know the story of the innocent Cubs fan who just caught a harmless foul ball that just happened to be the end of the Cubs chances to go to their first World Series since 1929 (the only Cubs appearance since their 1908 title).  Just as it can be said that this was the last day of the Cubs as we knew them, it was also the last day of Kerry Wood as we knew him.

“Kerry Wood, this is the disabled list.  Disabled list, this is Kerry Wood.  Kerry’s going to be spending some time with you.  Actually, he’s going to be spending a lot of time with you...”  

In fact, Wood spent a total of two months on the DL in 2004.  He also served two suspensions for two isolated incidents involving an umpire and baseball’s model citizen, Jeff Kent.  Wood just couldn’t stay on the field, but maybe that was actually for the better, as he wasn’t too great when he was on the field either.  He finished with an 8-9 record and a 3.72 ERA.  This stretch of bad play was almost certainly a product of his hurting right arm.  “He’ll be fine next year…right?”

Wrong.  In 2005, Wood ran into more roadblocks than Robert Langdon in The Da Vinci Code.  After making 10 amazingly mediocre starts, Wood’s nagging shoulder injury finally got the best of him, knocking him out of the game for two months.  He then came back and was moved to the bullpen.  He made 11 relief appearances, but was no Mariano Rivera, or even Jason Grimsley.  On August 31, Wood underwent arthroscopic surgery on the troublesome shoulder, knocking him out for the rest of the season.

Now, after going 1-2 in 4 starts in 2006, Wood has announced that he could again be out for the season.  Clearly, the 6’5” beast of a man who was once destined for the Hall of Fame has now become an afterthought.  Wood may still have “the stuff” on the inside, but we won’t ever see it unless he can get healthy.  

The worst part of this is that as Wood goes, so go the Cubs.  Chicago’s North-Siders are currently 28-43, second to last in the NL Central.  Unfortunately, Kerry Wood is not the only player Chicago has had to do without.  First baseman Derrek Lee and starting pitcher Mark Prior have also been out for extended periods of time.  Prior’s career has been much like Wood’s in that he has unlimited potential, but has been bogged down by injuries his entire career.  The Wood-Prior duo would be the best in the league if their potential equated into results.  

In order for the Cubs to get anywhere, Wood needs to either get healthy, or be replaced.  After another lost season, Chicago could very well decide to give up on the Kerry Wood project, which would be very sad, especially for those loyal Cubs fans who have grown attached to him.  Something has to give in this situation, or else the Cubs could find themselves without a championship for another hundred years.

Rob LaBrie is a high school student and aspiring sports journalist out of Concord, NH.  Do you think Kerry Wood will ever be an ace again? Let Rob know by emailing him at robbie.labrie@atomicsportsmedia.com.