The cheers for Kerry Wood, a standup guy in every way, represented, I think, everything we feel as a Cubs fan. Hope crushed, the dreams of victories and championships tempered by troubles and injuries and unforeseen problems, things that could be great that never are. Yet we persevere, we return, we keep coming back, hoping against hope that today will be the day, that this year will be the year.
And it never is. Someday, we still hope it will be. Even today, it really was exactly like that -- Wood's successful one-batter outing keeping the Cubs in the game, and then the false hope given when Alex Rios lost Darwin Barney's ball in the sun for a two-out, bottom-of-the-ninth double, putting the tying run on second base.
The fairy tale would have had Reed Johnson driving him in to tie the game, or even hitting a walkoff home run. But Reed struck out, and the Cubs lost. Sort of the way Kerry Wood's career went -- hope for a time, cheers for a while, and then defeat, or injuries, or some other failure.
Thank you, Kerry Wood, for wonderful memories, indelible things I will never forget -- the 20K game, the 2003 playoff run, the home run on your return from Tommy John surgery -- and for being a standup guy, never making excuses; the glove-throwing incident aside. Wood addressed that in his postgame remarks:
And it never is. Someday, we still hope it will be. Even today, it really was exactly like that -- Wood's successful one-batter outing keeping the Cubs in the game, and then the false hope given when Alex Rios lost Darwin Barney's ball in the sun for a two-out, bottom-of-the-ninth double, putting the tying run on second base.
The fairy tale would have had Reed Johnson driving him in to tie the game, or even hitting a walkoff home run. But Reed struck out, and the Cubs lost. Sort of the way Kerry Wood's career went -- hope for a time, cheers for a while, and then defeat, or injuries, or some other failure.
Thank you, Kerry Wood, for wonderful memories, indelible things I will never forget -- the 20K game, the 2003 playoff run, the home run on your return from Tommy John surgery -- and for being a standup guy, never making excuses; the glove-throwing incident aside. Wood addressed that in his postgame remarks:
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