Former Cubs pitcher Wood shows support for women's sports

There was a time when Kerry Wood was like a lot of guys out there.

Wood, the former star pitcher for the Chicago Cubs, made a quick judgment about women's sports.

"I was like, 'Who wants to watch that stuff? Who wants to watch the WNBA? Who wants to watch girls anything?' " Wood said. "I didn't have a sister. I didn't know."

Now, Wood knows, thanks to his two daughters, 9-year-old Katie and 7-year-old Charlotte.

"And now, I love it," said Wood, who also has a son, 11-year-old Justin. "I quit coaching my son's baseball team so that I could coach my daughter's basketball team. And I just love it. I love the energy with girls sports. I love sports for my daughters."

Consider Wood a total convert. He was in Chicago's West Loop at Revel Fulton Market on Wednesday supporting a big women's sports event sponsored by espnW. There were interviews and panel discussions from morning to late afternoon in which elite athletes such as former soccer star Julie Foudy and various female Olympians, as well as female corporate executives, discussed current issues in women's sports and techniques for success in the business world.

Wood was asked by event host Sarah Spain, a columnist for espnW and a SportsCenter reporter, to share with the audience his experiences with the Cubs during last fall's run to the World Series championship. Wood is now a special assistant to Theo Epstein, president of baseball operations for the Cubs.

"Sarah Spain has been great to me. I remember her interviewing me with the old RCA camera thing on her shoulder when she was first trying to get into the business," Wood said. "We've had a relationship for a long time. My wife (Sarah) loves her and she loves my family and it was just an opportunity for me to find out what she's doing here, and she just asked if I'd be willing to come and talk about the Cubs and it was a no-brainer.

"I was going to bring my daughter (Katie), but she had something after school that she had to get to."

Wood was already talking about "maybe next year" for Katie … pardon the reference to the Cubs' long-running pre-championship mantra.

"I would love for my daughter to see this," Wood said of the espnW event. "I love what sports has done for both of my daughters. It's given them a lot of confidence."

Wood has had time to be a hands-on dad since his retirement from baseball nearly five years ago in the spring of 2012.

"I've been enjoying my kids. It's been fun," said Wood, who will turn 40 in June. He played 12 seasons with the Cubs and is most remembered for a 20-strikeout performance in his fifth outing as rookie in 1998. "But I am trying to figure out what I want to do next.

"All I've ever done is play baseball. I came out of high school and that's what I was doing. It was great, you get to live your dream, you do it and you retire. And I was 34 years old when I retired. Now I need to find something and I think by next spring or summer, I'll be asking Theo to get involved more."

Wood's role as an assistant to Epstein offers some nice perks already. He was in the clubhouse after the Cubs clinched the World Series championship, he got a championship ring and he got to ride on a team bus through the parade in the city.

"I felt like such a fan going to the games and watching with my family and going to the playoff games. Next thing you know, I'm on the bus," Wood said with a laugh. "I've had more inquiries about what I'm doing because people see me around at games, or they saw me at the parades. A lot of ex-players got opportunities to do stuff because our guys won (the World Series). It helped all of us because they won. Guys who had been out 30 or 40 years were getting calls, doing signings.

"That tells you just how far-outreaching what that team did."

The same could be said for what sports does for girls.

"I never thought that I would be such a fan," Wood said of women's sports. "But I definitely am."

pbabcock@dailyherald.com

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