‘Is that even a pitch?’ An Oral History of Kerry Wood’s 20-K Days – ESPN – Chicago Cubs Blog

Editor’s note: This story originally ran on May 6, 2018, on the 20th anniversary of Kerry Wood’s 20-strikeout game.

It was an otherwise unremarkable day. In fact, it was a forgettable one. Overcast and rainy, the Cubs were hosting Houston Astros Early May. School was still in session, so only 15,758 fans attended. As it rained all day, it is not known how many people stayed to see the history.

That didn’t stop 20-year-old Keri Wood from a magical performance. He posted a pitching line of 9 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, 20 K’s to produce the highest game score in baseball history. He did it with a dynamic fastball and a slurp, which the Astros call a nohitball. Here are memories of some of those involved, including Wood. Current Cubs pitchers John Lester And kyle hendricks Add their two cents after watching highlights of arguably the greatest-pitch game in Wrigley Field history. It was May 6, 1998 – 20 years ago.

Kerry Wood: “I specifically remember having low energy that day. I don’t know why. Maybe it was a day game or the overcast sky. I was pulling up to the ballpark. I just wasn’t jumping the way I wanted to. I felt sluggish.”

Cubs manager Jim Riggleman: “I remember him saying after the incident. He didn’t practice great.”

Astros second baseman Craig Biggio: “Our minor league (scouts) said, ‘Hey, he’s got a good fastball, OK curve and be patient with him.’ We saw him warm up, and it was like, ‘Okay, no big deal.’ Then the game starts, and the kid puts on his Superman costume, and the next thing you know, he’s out 20 of us.”

Wood: “I was all over the place in warm-ups. I was erratic. Every pitch in the bullpen, I was getting another ball because I was throwing it on screens or bouncing it. I didn’t throw a strike. The first pitch of the game, that didn’t change. I hit (plate umpire) Jerry Mills in the mask. I didn’t feel it.”

Plate Umpire Jerry Meals: “To this day, I don’t think I’ve ever had that happen. It’s the first pitch of the game, so things start going through my head. ‘Is there something I need to address? There’s some bad blood? How do you get past the first pitch? What’s going on here?'”

Wood: “I went 2-0 to Craig Biggio, then struck out the side. I totally surprised myself. I felt great after the first one, but I had zero feelings.”

Biggio: “He had a beautiful, smooth delivery. The ball was electric. I could relate to that (Craig) Kimbrel. He’s got that ball where he throws it and it pops in the glove and it’s heavy and hard and solid. He was on.”

John Lester: “In that game, it wasn’t a lot of at-bats. You see a lot of swing-and-miss and take, not a lot of foul balls. Nowadays, you know the spin rate and all that stuff, which would have been plus-plus. That’s the big thing, the way those pitches broke.”

Wood had eight strikeouts after four innings. An infield hit by Astros shortstop Ricky Gutierrez ruined any chance of a no-hitter, but by then, he was locked in and thinking a complete game.

Wood: “Bagwell’s second at-bat, I know I’m up 3-1, and I throw hook-hook and back-to-back him. After that, I knew I had a chance to end it.”

food: “He did everything. He had a good-hitting team that was just amazing. They were flailing on the breaking stuff and couldn’t catch the fastball.”

Kyle Hendrix: “His movement on the pitch was unbelievable. What is that pitch (slurve) even? I don’t know how you pull it off. No clue. You just see how much spin is building. Those guys had no chance.”

Biggio: “We didn’t have the technology they have today. Now you know everything about a guy. What he throws, how hard and things like that. You’ve got everything. And you can go watch your at-bats as the game goes on.”

Reading: “Then the only information you have is the guy you encountered.”

Riggleman: “Somewhere around his 13th strikeout, (third-base coach) Tom Gamboa said, ‘You know how many strikeouts he has?’ It becomes interesting. … I didn’t know 20 was a record.”

food: “The weather turned bad in the sixth inning. The grounds crew did a good job.”

Wood: “My goal was not to walk anybody. I’ve heard that my whole minor league career and my short time in the big leagues: just don’t walk anybody. In a 1-0 game, I was just focusing on not putting the tying run on base.”

Biggio: “We’re one swing away from tying the game, so we’re not thinking about strikeouts. But when you go out there, you see the fans throwing K’s, and you’re like, ‘Holy shit, how many strikeouts does this guy have?’ You start counting them. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 … I think they’re out of who they are.”

During one stretch, Wood hit five lookouts in a row.

Wood: “With two strikes maybe they thought I was going to drive them off-speed, so a lot of fastballs they weren’t pulling the trigger, thinking off-speed.”

Hendrix: “The fastball is obviously electric. It rides in the zone. Some of those breaking balls go to a lefty, it goes to him. The spin rate would have been incredible. It makes it more fun to watch without all those stats on the screen.”

Biggio: “We had 102 wins that year. It wasn’t a weak lineup. He made us look like we weren’t there.”

Riggleman: “It’s probably a little bit of a complaint against everybody that’s managed in that time, I was probably thinking like 135 pitches for him. I’ve got to let him try and finish.

“I didn’t want to get him on base with men. That’s when you give life to the other club. Maybe late innings. I’m not sure we ever picked anybody up.”

Wood: “Coming from Texas and following Roger Clemens, I knew he had a big league record, but it’s not one of those numbers you think is attainable. … I didn’t know how hard I was throwing or how many pitches I threw. We didn’t have that then.”

Riggleman: “There were games (where) after six or seven (innings), he had 13 or 14 strikeouts, the pitch count was high, and we’d get him out. I’d be maddened to get him out. Later, when he got hurt, it was, ‘Oh, you pitched him too much.’

Wood: “In the seventh inning, I thought the umpires might call it for a moment because of the rain. And I knew right away, if it was late, I was done. I remember thinking, ‘Don’t call that play.'”

The Cubs scored an insurance run in the eighth, giving them a 2-0 lead. Wood had 18 strikeouts yet didn’t know he had a shot at a record.

Wood: “I remember in the eighth inning I thought I just wanted to go back out there and finish it off. We scored one more run, and I know I just wanted to finish the inning. A young player should let his team score as much as possible.”

Reading: “It’s going to be tough now. I don’t know if you’ll ever see 20 again in the future. With the bullpen and the specialization. … He was so unique. How big and tall he was and how his levers worked. When you think of Kerry Wood, you think of someone special.”

Biggio: “That day he hit his spots and made his pitches. That was a man among guys right there.”

Wood (getting strikeout number 20 against Derek Bell): “His first swing in that at-bat, I knew I could throw the rosin bag out there and he’d swing at it.”

food: “I was almost thinking of calling a no-hitter. The crew chief showed he had 20 strikeouts. I had no idea. I wasn’t paying attention to the fans holding up the K’s.”

Wood: “My fist-pump on the mound was not going to walk and finish the game. I hugged (reliever) Terry Adams and said something to him, because before the game he said, ‘Hey Rook, why don’t you pitch more than five innings. You’re killing us.’ But no one said anything about the 20 strikes.

food: “(Umpire) Terry Tata was at first base. He said, ‘You had 19, I had one.’ Because he rings one up on a check swing. That’s when I realized 20.”

Wood: “Thirty seconds after it was over, they brought me up to the camera, and my hands were shaking. My adrenaline was running. That’s when I found out I threw 20 and tied the record. I didn’t have anything to say, though.”

Biggio: “You lost, but 20 punchouts is pretty amazing.”

Riggleman: “You meet a lot of people who say they were there that day, but it was a rainy day in May. It was probably 18,000.”

Hendrix: “And that young to do it. He was definitely one of those once-in-a-lifetime areas.”

Riggleman: “(Former Cubs) Billy Williams and Ron Santo were at Wood’s game that day and said it was more impressive than Sandy Koufax’s perfect game (against the Cubs in 1965). They were in that game, too. You could make a case, as old as that stadium is, it might be the greatest game anybody has ever pitched there.”