Wood reflects on his historic day
Kerry Wood's youthful face hardly reveals the time gone by.
His right shoulder and elbow, on the other hand, betray enough wear and tear to shorten several pitchers' lifetimes.
Tuesday will mark the 10th anniversary of Wood's 20-strikeout game against the Houston Astros, which remains one of the finest pitching performances in major-league history.
From time to time, when prompted by friends who call to alert him, Wood watches rebroadcasts of his 1-hit masterpiece on May 6, 1998.
When he does, he sees a 20-year-old rookie with a 2-2 record and 5.89 ERA attached to his name as he took the mound.
He sees a kid who felt like he had a crummy warmup in the bullpen on that warm and cloudy Wednesday afternoon.
He sees something less than near-perfection.
"The strike zone blows my mind," Wood said with a smile. "Really, the thing that sticks out is I got some pretty generous calls."
Wood allowed just two Astros to reach base in his 2-0 victory. He hit Craig Biggio with two outs in the sixth, while Ricky Gutierrez took away all thoughts of a no-hitter with a soft single past third baseman Kevin Orie leading off the third.
Some believe Orie should have made the play -- or at least been charged with an error. Not Wood.
"I think he kind of got the raw end of the deal," Wood said. "As soon as it happened, I thought it was a basehit. Maybe if it happens in the sixth or seventh inning, it might go down as an error. It was a basehit all the way."
Wood, one of two Cubs from the 1998 squad who's still active (Steve Trachsel is the other), has elaborate plans for the 10th anniversary.
He will sit in the visiting bullpen at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati and wait for a call from Lou Piniella.
"Really, I think I probably have the same mentality I had then," Wood said. "The job's the same. Still got to get hitters out. Not too much different."
Here comes Soriano: The Cubs will activate left fielder Alfonso Soriano from the 15-day disabled list prior to today's game against Milwaukee.
Lou Piniella indicated he will reinstall Soriano in his accustomed leadoff spot and let him go.
"He gives us power," Piniella said. "He's a star player. Let's hope he comes back nice and hot for us. He can carry us for a while."
Soriano hasn't played since he strained his calf April 15. Prior to that, he needed 7 hits in his last 25 at-bats to raise his average to .175.
Reed Johnson's and Ryan Theriot's fine work atop the order in his absence has led to calls for Soriano to move down in the order.
"I want to bring what I bring every day on the field when I play," Soriano said. "I don't know what the problem is. I've been batting leadoff my entire career, so I don't know why they make a big deal of it."
Lake Zurich sings the hits: Five representatives of Lake Zurich's Class 7A football state champions delivered "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch Wednesday.
Quarterback Bobby DeLeo, running back Jon Janus and lineman John Gage -- three of the team's captains -- shared the microphones with defensive coordinator Dave Proffitt and wide receivers coach Ryan Rubenstein. Head coach Bryan Stortz couldn't attend due to a death in the family.