The Weekend Buzz while you were stocking pizza and making pancakes for a houseful of 15-year-old girls on your daughter's birthday sleepover. ...
1. Kerry Wood's Sweet Home Chicago: One hitter faced. One strikeout. One standing ovation and one tremendous hug.
If there was a more perfect way for Kerry Wood to step from his uniform into the Chicago history books, I demand to know what it is. And no, don't tell me anything about after popping a champagne cork following a World Series win. These are the Cubs we're talking about. Be real.
Life is about the striving, and what the Cubs and Wood lack in titles, they more than make up for in lessons. ...
Strike one. ...
He debuted in 1998 and fanned 20 Houston Astros in his fifth career start, a game in which many considered the finest single-game pitching performance in baseball history. If it wasn't No. 1, it was in the conversation. But here's the thing: He was only 21, and what could he possibly do for an encore?
Two years ago next month, Wood was working in the Cleveland bullpen when the Nationals came to town. Stephen Strasburg was making his second career start in the series finale after striking out 14 Pittsburgh Pirates in his major league debut. The buzz surrounding Strasburg was off the charts.
I stood with Wood on the field that Sunday morning for a bit in front of the Indians' dugout, and we chatted as Strasburg went through his final preparations. By then, Wood was 33. An old 33, with what seemed nearly as much time in the trainer's room as on the field.
Strasburg's youth, talent, sizzling fastball, dominance and seemingly unlimited future couldn't help but remind Wood of someone. Himself.
"But it probably wasn't even comparable to this until the 20-strikeout game in my fifth start," Wood told me that morning. "That's what changed expectations.
"After the 20-strikeout game, for months I [hated] going to the field because I knew it would be two hours of interview requests and radio call-ins. As a young player, you feel obligated to do that because you don't want to cut anybody off. But it got in the way.
"As a starter, the day after you pitch is the day to get your work in and get treatment, and before I got in the hot tub there would be this interview and that call-in."
Strike two. ...
Star-crossed as he's been with injuries and billy-goat luck, Wood stands apart from every single other Cubs pitcher over the past 104 years: He is the only man to earn the win in the clinching game of the only postseason series the Cubs have won since 1908. This was against the Braves in Game 5 of the Division Series in 2003, and we all remember what came next.
The Marlins did, followed by five more years of Wood beating his head against the Wrigley Field brick wall, trying to go backward to the October cheers by moving forward. Following that 14-11 '03 season, in which he led the majors with 266 strikeouts, he never won more than eight games in a summer again. When he broke down physically, he moved to the bullpen. Eventually, he moved to Cleveland, and then to the Yankees.
But his heart, and his love, remained in Chicago.
"Sometimes it seems like there was more downs than ups," he said when he formally retired on Saturday.
But you only remember the good times, right?
Strike three. ...
He took significantly less money than he could have gotten elsewhere last winter to stay in Chicago and finish his career as a Cub. You can't put a price on love and happiness, and if Wood couldn't bequeath Wrigley a championship, then that's a pretty damned good lesson to leave instead.
Manager Dale Sveum summoned him in the eighth inning Friday on a gorgeous Chicago afternoon, sunny, blue skies, a freeze-frame Cubs moment. And he struck out the White Sox's Dayan Viciedo on three pitches.
Then he was off, the organist playing a lovely rendition of Sinatra's My Way, son Justin wrapping him in a hug on the grass in front of the Cubs' dugout, standing ovation, curtain call.
There were smiles and tears and thank yous, to the Kevin Tapanis and Rick Aguileras and Joe Girardis and Jim Hendrys who played pivotal roles in the development of both a young man and a young fireballer.
There was a special thank you to the late Ron Santo "for teaching me what it means to be a Cub. We sat in that [clubhouse] kitchen for many, many years talking about life and baseball and the Chicago Cubs, what it means to be a Cub."
Now the Cubs move forward, and as Theo Epstein and Co. work to end this drought, you never know. Maybe Wood can bring something even more valuable to this franchise than the firecracker fastball from those October nights in '03.
Maybe what he can do now is to help keep alive the spirit of Santo as the Starlin Castros and Darwin Barneys and Anthony Rizzos take aim at winning a World Series.
"I'm going to continue to be a part of it," Wood promised. "I was always a Cub. I've always been a Cub. And I will always continue to be a Cub."
The moment was astoundingly perfect, for both Wood and the Cubs.
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