By George Castle – CBM Historian on May 2, 2018
They talk about a buzz in the ballpark the day Kerry Wood threw a 20-K masterpiece to earn baseball immorality 20 years ago.
Yet even though Jerome Holtzman proscribed “no cheering in the pressbox,” a complementary buzz also enveloped the Wrigley Field pressbox on May 6, 1998 as Kerry Wood effortlessly mowed down a powerful Houston Astros lineup.
Kerry Wood always kept a level head about himself after his 20-K game, turning down invitations to appear on “The Tonight Show.”
With Wood and mound opponent Shane Reynolds breezing through the batting orders with a blizzard of strikeouts, this was going to be an on-time dinnertime for writers working a day game.
My vantage point was the third row of the pressbox, in my fifth season covering the Cubs for the Times of Northwest Indiana daily newspaper. Through much of that time, I had monitored strikeout wunderkind Wood’s progress with a countdown to his big-league debut.
STORY
Category Chicago Baseball History Feature Tags Chicago Baseball History, Chicago Cubs, Kerry Wood, Kerry Wood strikes out 20