10 years later, Wood gem still quite striking

CINCINNATI -- Kerry Wood and I "came up together," so to speak.

Kerry's rookie year of 1998 was my first year as the Cubs beat writer for the Daily Herald. We've been through a lot together over all these years, and I'm happy to say we've always remained on friendly terms.

Ten years ago today, Wood pitched the most amazing baseball game I've covered. On a cool, dank, drizzly day at Wrigley Field, in front of only 15,758, the 20-year-old Wood tied a major-league record by striking out 20 Houston Astros.

Wood held a news conference at Wrigley Field last week to talk about the anniversary. Over the weekend in St. Louis, I cornered Kerry and asked if we could swap a few memories -- some things that stand out and some things that might have been forgotten over a decade.

So here goes:

Inauspicious beginning: On his first pitch of the game, Wood hit home-plate umpire Jerry Meals in the face mask. It was a ball that catcher Sandy Martinez couldn't quite reach. With Wood having uncorked that pitch, it's difficult to believe he didn't walk a single batter that day.

"First pitch," Wood said as he leaned against his clubhouse folding chair and chuckled. "I threw a fastball. Sandy didn't get it; it just barely nicked his glove, and it hit him in the mask. First pitch of the game."

I asked Wood if he ever talked with Meals about that pitch.

"No, but I remember kind of thinking, 'That's probably not the way I want to start the game off, hitting the umpire in the face with the first pitch,'" he said. "When you see it later on, when you see it on the replay, it's, 'Oh, yeah, I forgot about that.' It was kind of funny."

The only hit: Wood pitched a 1-hitter that day. The only hit was an infield single off the bat of Ricky Gutierrez opening the third inning.

The ball was just out of the reach of third baseman Kevin Orie, who got a glove on it. Nobody thought anything of it at the time, but later on, a few people second-guessed that the play should have been scored an error.

Gutierrez wound up playing for the Cubs in 2000 and 2001. One day in spring training, a clubhouse TV was showing highlights of the 20-strikeout game. Gutierrez, a player Wood immensely respected, walked by the TV, stopped for just a moment and said: "That's nothing. I got a hit off that sorry (so and so)."

"I heard it every day when I played with him," Wood recalled. "At some point in the day, he'd bring it up. It'll be a line drive. Orie dove, and it hit off his glove."

The Killer Bees: The Astros won the NL Central that year, with the Cubs winning the wild card. Like Wood, Astros pitcher Shane Reynolds struck out the side in the first inning May 6, and he also worked a complete game.

The Astros' lineup featured the "Killer Bees" of Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell and Derek Bell. At the time, the Killer Bees were at their most potent.

"They were leading the league," Wood said. "It was early. It was still May. They had gotten off to a good start. I think they were leading the league in hitting. Before the game, you knew the lineup you were facing. You knew we needed to get a win at that time. It was just one of those days where it worked out.

"It was a close game all the way through, and I was able to stay locked in and stay focused over 9 innings."

Just like 'Wiffle Ball': Wood's breaking pitches, especially the now-infamous "slurve," were unreal on May 6, 1998. On that same spring-training day when Guitars bragged of getting a hit, I asked a Cubs player if he had ever seen a ball break like that.

"Never," he said. "It was moving like a Wiffle Ball."

Of course, Wood had to junk the slurve, which in part was blamed for the reconstructive elbow surgery he would undergo less than a year after the 20-strikeout game. To this day, some players can't help but bust out laughing when they see the devastating break on those pitches.

"The breaking balls? They were good," Wood said. "It wasn't probably the best thing for my elbow. I look back, and I'm like, 'How did I get the ball to do that?' I don't know. Later in the game, when it was raining, I was slipping when I was landing, and still the sliders were still going. Nothing ever changed. It was just my day."

The catcher: The Cubs' No. 1 catcher that year was veteran Scott Servais. But Wood's catcher on this day was backup Sandy Martinez, a live wire behind the plate. He and Wood seemed to work well together, and Wood said over the weekend he'd give Martinez a call to say hello.

Did Martinez say much during the game?

"No, he never talked a lot anyway," Wood said. "I remember him being extremely fired up throughout the whole game, fist pumping. He got into it just as much as I did. I'm sure it was fun for him, too."

The legacy: The 20-strikeout game became a defining, if not the defining, moment of Wood's career.

That's ignoring the accomplishment of pitching the Cubs to the playoffs in 2003 and winning Game 5 of the division series in Atlanta, lifting the Cubs to their first postseason series win since 1908.

Although Wood doesn't allow himself to be defined by May 6, 1998, he looks back on the moment fondly.

"I wouldn't change anything," he said without hesitation. "Obviously, it got me noticed, and it got me recognized. For me, personally, it let me know that I belonged there. I finally felt like I belonged at that level and could compete and win games at that level. It was wake-up call for me, too.

"It's always nice to talk about it, I guess. Obviously, I'll never forget it. It's kind of one of those days where people knew where they were at when it happened. Guys I've played with now say, 'I was so and so somewhere in the minor leagues, or I was in high school or whatever.'

"It was one of those days where people are going to remember what they were doing. But I've never been into talking about me."