Was Cubs Rookie Kerry Wood's 20 Strikeout Performance the Greatest in Baseball History?
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- Creator: Matt
Twitter - / srsmatt
RUclips - / @creativecosmos7624
Kerry Wood pitched a complete game shoutout while striking out 20 batters on May 6th, 1998. Many baseball fans say it was the greatest performance by a starting pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball, and there's definitely merit to that argument. Today, we're going to take take a trip down memory lane and revisit that historic game, and try and decide whether or not Wood's performance was in fact the most dominant ever.
----------------------
Soundtrack - • Kerry Wood Video
FOR BUSINESS INQUIRIES - starkravingsportssrs@gmail.com
SRS Hats on Sale - starkravingspo...
Follow us on Twitter: / starkravesports
Follow us on Instagram: / starkravingsports
Woody, in his 5th start ever, baffled one of the best line-ups ever assembled by the Astros so completely that on his last pitch of the game, everyone in the building knew what was coming. "Here comes the hook!" And Derek Bell, batting an incredible .403 coming into the game, still missed it by a country mile. Woody's performance in this game was not only one of the best in baseball history, but in my opinion, one of the best single performances in sports history.
That pitch isn't even close to a strike when it lands in the catcher's mitt. Bell could have left his bat in the dugout. I got home from work in time to see those last two innings. This was the game that put his fandom into overdrive, the next game he pitched there were something like 5000 walk-up tickets sold. Not quite Fidrych levels of rock-stardom, but man he was hot after this game.
Supposedly Derek later told Kerry that he swung and missed on purpose lol
@@mastod0n1 yup sure thing Derek 👍
You just thought ud be nice an be in film forevermore....
May 6, 1998 listened to the whole game at the office while working at my first post-college job. I will never forget it. His 90 mph slurve at the time was unhitable and physically illegal and soon led him to the disabled list.
Clayton Kershaw is a Hanley Ramirez error away from having the greatest game ever pitched, but I think this Kerry Wood game is for sure the best
And I got to watch both of these games on TV :) at the time, WGN was carried in Los Angeles so my dad and I tended to watch a Cubs game before the Dodgers got started.
Bro this gives me horrible horrible memories. You’re absolutely right about Clayton😖
Kerry Wood was also a Kevin Orie error away from from a 20K no hitter complete game shut out. We all know it was an error. Also Kerry Wood had the highest scored game under the most strict scoring format. The lack of fly balls and sheer amount of strikeouts keeps this game at the top. This was also was against a 100+ win Astros team with future Hall of famers Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell.
Wood's score of 105 is only the best score for a 9 inning game. Dean Chance had a score of 114 for a 13 inning game he pitched in 1963.
@@cubzrulz It was also his 5th start ever I believe. just incredible
Matt casually hitting me with the black ops 1 nostalgia vibes
Gene what the hell
I read this as the music started. Perfect timing
Yes. Yes it was.
Only eight balls were put into play that day. No other 20k game, no hitter, or even perfect game can say that
And the hit could have easily been ruled an error.
And it came against a 100-win team with two HOFers in their primes.
Not to mention that if you look at the highlights of those pitches, the movements on them shouldn't even be possible. If it wasn't televised we probably wouldn't believe it.
@@BDLforever24 that frisbee slider in the last AB was probably the filthiest pitch I've ever seen
ridiculous ....outstanding performance & dominant but overhyped
hit umpire on a wild pitch - wow incredible control ...please
never mind it wasn't a perfect game not even a no hitter or a post season game
entered the game w a 5.5 ERA
good pitcher who had an excellent day
i watched this one on TV as a kid. It was just so crazy. Of course I didn't realize the enormity of the feat back then, but it sure was magical. I think another odd observation of this pitching is he made so, so many pitches look hittable. And he wasn't bluffing at all because he was painting strikes at will. So it was the absolute nightmare for a hitter of screwed if you do, screwed if you don't. On top of that advantage, he remembered what pitch each hitter was weak against. And he just capitalized. And made it look easy. Hell of an outing. Thank you Kerry Wood.
I watched this on WGN while I was in the hospital with pneumonia with a nurse who was a huge Cubs fan. He clocked out about the 5th inning, and came back in my room to watch the rest of the game. Both of us being massive baseball nerds, we knew we were watching something truly special. It's a great memory for me, even though the circumstance was awful. I was so ill that I couldn't even yell like I wanted. What a performance.
That Black Ops 1 music
I laughed so hard when I heard that hahaha
Hey, I hope your surgery goes well and gonna miss you narrating for a bit. Best of luck man!
If you guys have time I recommend watching the Kerry wood documentary that the cubs made it goes more in depth of the game specifically with appearances from the players and talks about how the K signs in the outfield came to be
Yes, it absolutely is the greatest Pitching Performance of All Time.
Period.
The Chicago Cubs RUclips channel has an excellent video covering this game. It would be a great companion piece to this video.
I remember watching that game on WGN. Wood's stuff was electric. Ball was zigzagging all over the strike zone. Never saw such ball movement before. It was pretty amazing.
A life long cubs fan. I was lucky to be there that game to see greatness. And yes it’s the greatest pitching performance ever.
I am a huge Cubs fan . I remember reading the spring Sporting News about Kerry. I told all my friends, Kerry is going to be the next big pitcher. When this happened, I felt like Nostradamus.
I’d just moved from Chicago to Reno and got my direct-TV dish installed the day before this game. I was off of work at 11:00am and home watching the game shorty after.
What a special day.
That tough Astros lineup didn't know where to swing, look, move or breathe. Kerry Wood totally dominated them.
some of the nastiest pitches i've ever seen. Its like he was possessed.
Even getting 10ks against a lineup like that would be incredible. 20 is just incomprehensible. Were in the Strikeout era of baseball and I even doubt we ll see something like this again. Kinda hope we do though. To see that kind of dominance even for a game is just a Gem to watch
If it’s not the greatest it’s up there for sure. The movement he had put on the ball that day was insane..vertical and lateral movement that just makes your jaw drop.
There’s always been fireballers but Wood ushered in the era of modern fireballers that could hit 98+ every pitch. His shit was electric
Giraffeneckmarc would be amazing on the Wilpons video
Yeah, Marc is the obvious pick for such a video
There are a lot of incredible pitcher games throughout baseball history. As a Twins fan, my personal favorite would be the 1991 World Series game 7 pitching duel between Jack Morris and John Smoltz where both starting pitchers combined for 19 innings and 0 runs through 10.
I’m a cubs fan, and remember hearing this game on the radio. One other remarkable thing about this game is that Wood’s battery-mate, Sandy Martinez, was the Cubs THIRD STRING catcher, behind Scott Servais, and Tyler Houston!
Kerry Wood is my favorite Cubs player of all time
Same here even though I'm not a cubs fan
Same here, but I'm not a Cubs fan.
Alt Kerry was a beast ain't gonna lie as a Cubs fan myself he was a true power pitcher.
Same here, and with his signed jersey!
I remember this game vividly. I was seated in my dad’s office, doing homework, with the game on a little 13” tv. He just kept mowing them down. Prior to his first elbow surgery, Kerry’s slider seemed to dive almost two feet across the zone, and was the first time I remember a pitch being called a “power slurve”.
That season was a special one as a Cubs fan. Not only was it the Kerry Wood performance and ROY, but it was the Sammy MVP year where he broke the record for hitting 20 home runs in a single calendar month. It wasn’t a great team, but it was enough for the Cubs to make the playoffs for the first time in nine years. I must have made it to nearly 20 home games that season. The Cubs bullpen would blow the lead, then Sammy would just hit another 3-run homer. It was nuts! So many good memories from that year.
As a Mets fan, I 1000% would like to see a video on the Wilpon error (did that on purpose) as we wait for Steve Cohen and his beautiful money to join the fold. Thanks for the great content as always man and good luck with surgery and the recovery!
Love that tine for pitchers. Wood Beckett and Sheets were fun to watch
Have a good recovery
Biggio sent a bat to Kerry telling him on the bat the most dominant games ever pitched. Nuff said
Love the cub’s documentary on this
- Struck out his age
- Did it against a 102-win team with two HOFers in their prime
- Came within a bad call of a no-hitter
Ever as a Scherzer-worshipping Nats fan, I'd have to say yes.
I had stopped watching baseball after the strike. had come home from work and was flipping through the channels, and just caught a glimpse of one of those pitches. I went back to see if what I had seen was real. Watched the rest of that game, and was 100% back in.
As someone old enough to have watched the Astros play in the Astrodome, I remember this game all too well....
I have Wood’s dominant 20 strikeout game tied with Sandy Koufax’s 1965 perfect game versus the Cubs for the most dominant starts ever.
As a Cubs fan I might be somewhat bias XD. But yeah it should be up there in the top 5 at least of best single game pitching performances of all time for sure.
Alexthesniper19 yea
Good luck with recovery from the procedure! Been a pleasure watching your progression content wise and looking forward to more in the future
There is something so enjoyable and utterly satisfying how Matt gracefully combines understandable baseball analytics, pure passion for the game and a smidge of good ol’ Metsy humor into something special that I cannot resist time and time again.
Thank you for your service to my and many others’ dopamine levels, Matt. I assure you it is much appreciated!
That may be the nicest comment I’ve ever gotten. Thank you so much, that really made my day.
@@srsmatt7272 No problem, man! Hope you feel well!
I was born in ‘93 and I remember this game like it was yesterday since I was “sick” from school. 3rd gen Cubs fan but I don’t think it would matter after watching Kid K carve up the offense of the year. He’s my favorite player all time and it ain’t even close. Kerry Wood for pres 😂😂😂
3:15 Steve Stone raiding Cosby's closet.
oohh with the Jello ahh puddin pops dawww
Try and get the Mets dude from tik tok thats yells at his tv
Metsrsl
This is an amazing video. I wish I could have seen this game, being born about 2 months after, and Kerry Wood being my favorite pitcher ever. Gave me chills from the start.
I’m still partial to Pedro VS NYY September of 99. Which I was fortunate enough to see in person.
Thanks for all the great content recently. Good luck with your survey and let’s hope for a quick recovery.
I don't think I've ever seen, but I certainly would enjoy a scientific examination of how the weather that day affected the game. I was living in Chicago at the time, working outside the loop at Erie and Orleans, four miles south, and approximately the same distance inland from the lake. It was warmer than it might look if you judge it by crowd shots, the folks you see are just smart Chicagoans who knew to be prepared for anything. It was kinda cold that morning but warmed up a bit. Very, very humid, not much of a breeze as I remember. All productive work stopped in the newsroom and we were glued to the little TV. Wood's curveball was INSANE, as my ND said, it was dropping off the table.
Super down for the wilpon video. Good luck, can't wait for it.
Im from Chicago and a Cub fan so Im biased, but his stuff in this game was like no stuff Id ever seen or seen since. The movement on his breaking pitches was ridiculous. I was in college at Northern Illinois University when this game was on and we used to drink a beer for every K that a Cubs pitcher threw. Needless to say, we were hammered by the 3rd and had to adjust the rules of the game. Even though Kerry Woods career didnt pan out, he is still in the top 5 of my all time favorite Cubs ever.
I threw 20 K’s in 1977 at 13 years old. Hit one batter in the ribs and picked him off first before the next pitch. Only seven innings in a Khoury League Midget game. At least in those days. Found the game ball in my mother’s house when we cleaned it out after her passing a few years ago.
I actually saw this game live on tv with my mom, by chance, we are not big baseball fans or anything, the channel simply fell there after some surfing, and we left it there. The broadcasters were amazing, slowly building up the magnitude of what Kerry Wood was accomplishing.
As a Yankee fan this channel has drawn my interest towards the Mets like I could never expect, whenever they’re brought up I’m always fascinated and I wanna say thank you for all the entertainment and information you’ve brought me. Hope your surgery and recovery goes well too.
This is the second video I've seen on the Kerry Wood Game. And it did it justice. Since I'm out of the country now, and internet was not like it is now, baseball wasn't a priority for a couple decades. But something about that game.
Good luck with your surgery, I know what it's like to have to take down time.
we played Kerry woods son’s team last month in 14u travel baseball. Let’s just say his son has a good curveball.
Kerry was so cold in his prime..he owned the league like Pedro....i'm actually gonna get a Kerry Wood jersey now.
This guy needs more subscribers ,but I like the family we have and we work great together thank you for great vids
At 8:15 you stated that Biggio was the only Houston hitter that didn’t strike out multiple times. Then you said “Go Jeff, woohoo”.
He said it sarcastically, since he mentioned right before that that him and Bagwell had 4 between them.
Harvey Haddix, May 26, 1959, Pirates vs Milwaukee
12 2/3 perfect innings
8 K, 1 IBB, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER
Game Score: 107
The Brewers had won the last two NL championships.
The Brewers (excepting Hank Aaron) alleged stole signs throughout the game.
I think this at least gives Kerry Wood's game a run for its money and really hoped it would get a mention in here. In fact, that only one other game was seriously considered was kinda disappointing. Nevertheless, it was a good breakdown of the Kerry Wood game.
Oh man, a Mets/Wilpon documentary?
Dude, absolutely take your time, I am so ready to be wowed again.
I WAS THERE! 3rd row on the third base side. I bit my nails down to the nub. What a day!!!
Oh wow, that Black Ops menu menu brought back some feelings. Now, just need one with AC Brotherhood mulitplayer menu. :)
I love the use of the call of duty black ops 1 menu screen music throughout. 😊
This is a terrific video but I do recommend watching the documentary on this historic performance, 50 minutes never felt shorter
7:49 he also scored the winning run in what turned out to be one of the craziest walk offs in MLB history on August 7, 2001 against the Rockies.
Maybe the greatest game pitched in the modern game was Greg Maddux in 1997 who threw a complete game against the Cubs....with 78 total pitches( 63strikes15 balls).
What makes this performance one of the best is that it was against a strong offense by rookie in one of his first starts.
I was in hospital with pneumonia when the nurse, a Cubs fan, put the game on since we shared a love of the game. I sat in my bed watching this, and the nurse, who was off shift by the 5th inning, sat in the chair next to me and watched this game. We knew we had witnessed something truly amazing that day. What a memory. To this day, I've never seen a pitcher with that much movement on his pitches that late into a game.
His 2003 NLCS Game 7 Home Run was twice as epic!
Never watched film of that game but holy hell his pitches were fuckin nasty that day.
Remember that this was dead center in the middle of the steroid era too.
Joe Shaloom yea
Not only that, but it wasn't a time when batters were flailing away trying to hit HRs in each at-bat. In 1998, the NL K/9 rate was only 6.8. This year, it's at 9.0.
@@mrmacross True data. Kerry Wood was Rodger Clemens good.
LOL. Bagwell, Biggio, obvs a few others. I think Caminiti was also a 'stro that got a ticket... cheating runs in the water in houston
Who's doing chores in the house with this channel on? Totally relaxing. Fantastic content.
I’ll be waiting for an hour long video Matt
A couple of the pitches he threw look completely impossible. They shouldn't happen. This is the greatest ever, and however my feelings of the Cubs have changed over the years, the esteem in which I hold Wood and Pryor is almost unmatched as far as pitchers go. What could have been, for both of them. It bums me out to this day.
About Harvey haddix’s 13 perfect innings against the Braves in 1959 but didn’t even get a no hitter or a win cause the game was tied 0-0 in the 14th but eventually gave up a walkoff HR. I’m a buccos fan btw
I’m docking you 10 points for unreduced fractions and excessive significant figures.
This and Mark Burhle no hitter was peak chicago pitching
Hey bro wishing you the best for surgery. I'm new to the channel, but it's really helped me get back into baseball. Thanks for the entertainment, can't wait to have you back.
Those 1997 Bowman Kerry Wood Rookies were on 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
The Maddox 78 pitch complete game is up there too. Hope you have. Speedy recovery
Another fantastic video wow, and on top of that it was really cool to see my comment from your mind-blowing sox video made it onto this one! Keep doing what you’re doing man there are TONS of people who love your content
Very well presented my friend, hope this blows up
I remember watching that game and will never forget it.
Hi, I hope your surgery goes well and wish you a speedy recovery. Also, could you get GiraffeNeckMarc to do the Mets video?
Thank you for the kind words! We will be reaching out to Marc to see if he’d like to be involved.
In my opinion greatest pitching performance Don Larsen for the Yankees game 5 of the 1956 world series against the Brookly Dodgers only ever happened once and we'll never see it happen again
Do a mini vid on the fan who printed 18ks in the crowd because he "just felt it in his bones Kerry was gonna have the best game he's ever seen."
Cubs fan 60+ years and got to watch that game on WGN. Perhaps the best solo performance, but would suggest the Koufax-Hendley game in '65 as best duel. Koufax threw a perfect game for the Dodgers and Hendley threw a one-hitter for the Cubs. Dodgers won 1-0. Pretty awesome.. Cheers....
The Kerry wood game is on my birthday
11:28 It's the second lowest attended game that season, according to Baseball Reference. This game was attended by 15,758 people and the April 6 game against Montreal had 12,506 in attendance. That said, there are multiple stories of people taking their kids out of school to go to the last innings of the game. So I'd say it's quite plausible that the attendance at first pitch was the lowest of the season and once people started to realize something cool was happening, they came to the park.
Before his move to reliever, he did have a super impressive playoff run in 03 as a starter, alongside Mark Prior and Carlos Zambrano. After giving up a 3 run homer to a young Miggy in the 1st, he came back with a monster homer of his own. If the Cubs hadn’t collapsed in epic fashion, we’d still be talking about the Kerry Wood HR.
The black ops music just hit different
Nothing but quality from this channel, as always. I enjoy your content and wish you a speedy recovery!
Thanks a lot! ♥️
giraffeneckmarc would be cool for the mets video
Bruh no joke, when I was watching this video, I thought their were no fans at this game... that’s how much this season had gotten to me.
Matt, thank you so much and get well soon. Really looking forward to the Wilpons video.
Good Luck on your surgery. I hope it all goes well. 🤞🏻
We love you SRS take your time and heal well miss you 💗😊
We’ll still be here! Matt’s the only one on a hiatus. You’ll still be getting some great content from Mike and the others in that time!
In regards to the casting call for the Mets video I volunteer Joe Praino as someone to try and get. He's a comedian but does a sports podcast and has been a mets fan his entire life (he even threw a first pitch at citi field). If there's any part of the video where you may need pure unadulterated NY Italian rage about the Mets then there's no one better for the job than Joey no chill
Kerry wood is underrated in my opinion
Yess I agree
yeah, everyone thinks of him as the guy who threw a 20 strikeout game, but he’s more than that
asides from 1998 and 2003 with those NLCS Cubs, I dont know much about Kerry Wood. I know he became a closer, but I dont think hes underrated. He just played on some bad Cubs teams, and was always overshadowed by Sammy Sosa
@@billyclough3945 yea
lovin the music in the background
13:04 im getting some Kanye "Through The Wire" Vibes 😂💯 get well soon bro
CRAP! I don’t listen to Kanye but I heard about that jaw surgery story and I forgot to play that song in the background. Definitely a missed opportunity.
Thanks for the kind words!
@@srsmatt7272 his first big commercial hit was him rapping through a wired jaw after a near fatal car crash (for context)...plus if you've never heard it that Chaka Khan sample will touch your soul😂
Met the guy and he’s very nice. His son use to play in the same park league as me
Pretty sure the Astors were still in the NL in '98, not the AL. I remember watching the game on TV & don't recall it being an interleague game.
I remember an interview somewhere about the Kerry Wood game where he said that once he did the fist pump at the end of the game he knew he tweaked something in his arm and it was the fist pump that did it, he apparently said something about how he had so much adrenaline going he didn't feel a thing until he got home that night, then he felt it.