You love baseball. Tim Kurkjian loves baseball. So while we await its return, every day we'll provide you with a story or two tied to this date in baseball history.
ON THIS DATE IN 1998, Kerry with a K.
Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood was furious as he walked off the mound after the seventh inning at Bank One Ballpark. He should have been pounding his chest, raising the roof. He had just set a major league record for most strikeouts (33) over a two-start stretch. But instead he was cursing himself because, despite having just struck out his 13th batter, he had given up a homer to the Diamondbacks' Kelly Stinnett in that inning, which cut the lead to 4-1.
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That was 20-year-old Kerry Wood.
"He reminded me of Nolan Ryan in his prime pitching at the Astrodome,'' said A's manager Bob Melvin, then a scout. "You had no chance.''
In Wood's previous start, his sixth major league start, he put on one of the greatest pitching performances in baseball history, a one-hitter with no walks and 20 strikeouts in a 2-0 victory over the Astros.
Wood joined Bob Feller as the only pitchers to strike out as many batters as he was years old. Teammate Bob Patterson jokingly told Wood after the game, "20 strikeouts or not, you're still riding in the toilet seat on the bus.''
Wood didn't even know that 33 strikeouts in consecutive starts was a record, a record that was held by four others, including Wood's hero, Nolan Ryan. And, Wood thought he had struck out eight that night, not 13. In a three-start stretch from April 30-May 11, Wood walked one batter and had 40 strikeouts between walks, the first pitcher to do that since Greg Maddux three years earlier.
"I don't think I've ever had only one walk in two starts in a row,'' Wood said. "I'm a lot happier about that than all the strikeouts and the record.''
Wood is from Grand Prairie, Texas, another in a long line of overpowering pitchers -- upper 90s fastball with a sweeping slider -- from Texas, led by Ryan and Roger Clemens. Wood wore uniform No. 34 in honor of Ryan, who contacted Wood after he set a record. Ryan said to me, "I knew some of my records would fall. If they fall, I'd like it to be to a kid who is modest, has his head on straight, is a role model for kids ... and is from Texas.''
Then Ryan laughed and said, "Tell Kerry thanks for keeping my name out there.''
Other baseball notes from May 11
In 1919, the Yankees' George Halas, who later owned the Bears, went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts against Walter Johnson.
In 1996, Al Leiter pitched a no-hitter. I interviewed him after the game on the phone. Halfway through the interview, he said, "Jeez, sorry, I have been so boring with you. I haven't given you anything to use ... let me tell you about the meatloaf my mom made today.''
In 1980, in the seventh inning, Pete Rose stole second, third and home. He was 39 years old.
In 2009, Randy Johnson, who is 6-foot-10, pitched to Nationals pitcher Daniel Cabrera, who is 6-9. It was believed to be the tallest batter-pitcher matchup in major league history. Cabrera went 0-for-2 with two strikeouts. For his career, he was 0-for-26 with 24 strikeouts.
In 2016, the Nationals' Max Scherzer struck out 20 Tigers. The final out was made on a groundout by James McCann. We were privately hoping for an error on that play so Scherzer could have a shot at 21 strikeouts.
In 2012, the Tigers' Brandon Inge joined Lou Gehrig as the only players to have three four-RBI games in a four-game stretch. Inge also is a legendarily long hitter in golf, like 400 yards. Teammate Andy Van Slyke, a scratch player, told me, "Tiger would have to hit from the red tees to reach Brandon.''
In 1999, Bobby J. Jones was the starting pitcher for the Mets and Bobby M. Jones was the starting pitcher for the Rockies. It was believed to be the first matchup by starting pitchers with the same name. We love starting-pitcher matchups. But we are still so sad that several years ago, in Matt Harvey's prime, that he didn't start a game against the Pirates' Stolmy Pimentel. The first line of the game story would have been, "It was a Dark and Stolmy Knight.''