Game 13---Cubs 5 Nationals 0

Product---Jumbo Hot Dogs
Temperature---52 degrees, rainy at the start of game

It happens every year, kind of like Beanie Baby day or the Yankees signing a washed-up starting pitcher. It is always looked forward to with anticipation, even though we know in the end it will blow up like Sammy Sosa’s boom box. It’s the day that all Cubs fans sit back and just think about what could have been.

Today will mark the sixth annual ‘Kerry Wood return from the Disabled List’ day at the Friendly Confines, and like Beanie Babies and the Yankees, I’m getting real sick of it. This pitcher whose talent is obviously there needs to not only stay healthy but also consistently pitch well, or I feel this should be his last season on the North Side.

When he first entered the majors, many people compared Kid K to Roger ‘Rocket’ Clemens. Considering that Clemens was Wood’s childhood idol, and that in Wood’s fifth career start he tied one of the Rocket’s most famous records, the comparisons seemed fair. But recently Clemens has been picking up Cy Young’s while Wood has been lying on operation table. Wood still doesn’t have 100 career victories, has only pitched more then 30 games in a season twice, and his career high in wins for a season is a Steve Trachsel like 14. His disabled-list summery looks like a shopping list of surgeries and operations.

The sad thing about Wood is that the talent is obviously there. Take a peek at ESPN Classic one of those times they are showing the 20-strikeout game and you’ll be amazed. The way that Wood’s fastball blazes past hitters while his breaking ball freezes them, it’s a beautiful thing. In the 2003 National League Division Series versus Atlanta, Wood started two games, winning both of them, while pitching 15 1/3 innings with a razor thin 1.76 ERA. He also drove in four runs at the plate that series.

But the problem with Kid K, other then the injuries, is his inconsistency. In those same playoffs, in game 7 of the National League Championship Series (the most important Cubs game of the past 60 years), Wood allowed three first inning runs and only pitched for five innings. He puts together back-to-back good starts only to follow that with a winless month.

So when Wood returns from the DL today, he is as big of a question mark as rookies Rich Hill and Sean Marshall are. He still has the chance to be the great pitcher we thought he would be, but it looks more and more like he’s never going to be anything more then a half-year player. Hey, sounds like a perfect fit for the Yankees.

Observations:
Whenever I tell people what my job is, they always say, ‘That’s awesome, you get to watch the game.’ Not really. Last night I found out that Sean Marshall was pitching a no-hitter when the no-no was broken up. I saw Alfonso Soriano get a base hit and the crowd let out a huge moan. I asked a security guard what that was for, and he told me that it was Washington’s first hit of the game…I was very close to leaving last night. The rain was coming down hard, I wasn’t going to be able to get jumbo’s in right field, and I wanted to watch the NBA games. Fortunately for me, I stuck it out and made some nice money in the upper-deck again. A little less then four loads ($73.60 in commission) was real good, though the tips were kind of slow ($55)…Dear Idiots, Please stop throwing stuff on the field. The only thing we have over the White Sox right now is that our fans aren’t crazy, field-littering jerks. Please help us out in keeping it like this. Thanks…Wow, we could sweep a team today. If we can win a couple versus the Sox this weekend, I sense the beginning of a turn-around.