The PA announcer asked fans to direct their attention to the mound for the ceremonial first pitch, but it had to be one of the most widely ignored such ceremonies in baseball history. All eyes were directed toward the pitcher’s mound all right, but it was the mound in the Cubs’ bull pen, where Kerry Wood was warming up. After missing all of last season recovering from so-called Tommy John ligament-replacement surgery on his right elbow, Wood was returning to action. Two years earlier he’d struck out 20 batters in one game against the Houston Astros to set a National League record, led the Cubs’ charge to the wild-card playoff spot, and won the rookie of the year award–while turning just 21 during the season. Every game he pitched that season had an air of electricity about it, like the atmosphere at a Bulls game during the Michael Jordan era. During the Cubs’ abysmal 1999 season, after Wood blew out his elbow in spring training, the prospect of his return was one of the few sources of hope for the future, but it was hope mixed with trepidation. Tommy John surgery, named after the former White Sox pitcher who first went through it in the 70s, has been refined in the years since, but it still produces notoriously uneven results. Some pitchers come back after a year throwing harder than ever; others require an additional year to regain their arm strength; still others never return to form, for reasons that can be mental as well as physical. Now here was Wood a week ago last Tuesday, back on a major-league mound almost exactly on schedule, 13 months after surgery, fresh from throwing in the 95-mile-an-hour range in minor-league rehabilitation starts and once again facing the Astros. Outside the park the scene was manic; on a cloudless evening, the wind wafting in from the lake, excited fans made their way to the first night game of the season. Inside, their excitement turned nervous. Cheering erupted as Wood emerged from the Cubs dugout and walked down the left-field line to the bull pen about a half hour before game time, but the crowd abruptly quieted–even in the rowdy left-field bleachers–when Wood removed his jacket and prepared to warm up. It was as if the fans didn’t want to pump him up and risk his blowing out his arm again before he even got into a game.
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The excitement built in the few minutes before the Cubs took the field. The huge crowd, which would be announced as 38,121, was relatively prompt for a night game, and when Wood let loose with an opening fastball, barely nicked and fouled straight back to the screen by Craig Biggio, the fans responded with hoots of appreciation. Biggio grounded meekly to second, and Roger Cedeno followed with an awkward roller to deep short that Ricky Gutierrez couldn’t handle; it was questionably ruled a hit, and not until the fifth inning would another hit take the onus off the official scorer for ruining a no-hitter. Wood got the dangerous Jeff Bagwell on a fly to left, walked Ken Caminiti, then got Daryle Ward on a fly to center. As bat struck ball, each of those pop outs sounded like a golf ball whapped by a rolled-up newspaper. The crowd roared as Wood came off the mound, but he ambled to the dugout head down, like a boy trudging through a downpour.
