‘Kerrymania’ On Hold

As the Chicago Cubs took batting practice, a tall, lean guy in shorts and a T-shirt roamed around the infield shagging balls.

Hey, wait a minute. Isn’t that Kerry Wood out there?

A year ago, the right-hander couldn’t step on the field without causing a stir. With his 20 strikeouts in his fifth major league start and NL Rookie of the Year honors, he was the next Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, right down to his Texas roots.

But Kerrymania is on hold for at least the rest of this season. In the meantime, Wood has more pressing matters to deal with, like rehabilitating his surgically repaired elbow.

“After last year I was excited, I was ready to come back and have a great season,” he said. “It’s unfortunate, but it’s happened and there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m not going to dwell on it.”

Instead, he’s focused on the business of getting healthy. Nearly three months after having “Tommy John” surgery, there’s no pain, he has his complete range of motion back and the arm feels like it did before the problems started.

It will be a few weeks still before he can play catch, and months before he can test that 95-mph fastball that burned some of the best. But so far, the prognosis looks good for baseball’s brightest young pitcher.

“He’s doing quite well,” said Dave Tumbas, the Cubs’ trainer. “His strength is improved, not only in the elbow but also in the shoulder. He’s doing his conditioning, working his lower body and back. We’re doing total body conditioning on him and strength. But our main emphasis, obviously, is on the elbow.”

Wood’s had elbow pain ever since high school, when he threw so hard his catcher had to soak his hand in ice after games. Horrified when he saw Dave Dravecky break his arm, he knew deep down there was a serious injury somewhere in his future.

Cubs manager Jim Riggleman had that same awful premonition.

“In Montreal, the first game he was going to pitch, I remember him walking out on the field with a sleeve on his elbow and I was thinking, ‘This kid knows there’s something there in that elbow,”’ Riggleman said.

The manager tried to limit Wood’s innings, drawing boos whenever he went to the mound. Wood averaged less than 6 2-3 innings an outing, and his only complete game was when he blew the Houston Astros away with 20 strikeouts in early May.

But he still missed the last month of the regular season with a sprained elbow ligament. He came back for the playoffs, pitching well against Atlanta, and thought additional work in the offseason took care of any problems.

So, when he felt a pinch in his arm in spring training, he didn’t say anything. He wasn’t really in pain, he hadn’t heard any pops and his velocity was still up, way up. Just some winter rust, he figured.

But when he woke up the morning after his first start in spring training, he couldn’t straighten his arm. By the time he had tests, he already knew what he’d hear.

“I was expecting to go in and have them tell me it was torn,” Wood said. “And that’s what they told me.”

Some blamed his across-the-body delivery for the injury. Others accused the Cubs of rushing his development. But for a hard thrower like Wood--he struck out 233 last season and his average of 12.6 strikeouts per nine innings led the league--Riggleman said it’s just a risk of the game.

“When you throw hard and you’ve got good arm speed and you get tremendous torque on your breaking ball, it’s extremely tough on hitters. But it’s also extremely tough on your own body,” Riggleman said. “It’s a double-edged sword. It’s what makes you a good pitcher, but it’s also what gets you hurt.”

Fortunately for Wood, this is no longer a career-ending injury. In the 25 years since Tommy John had the first ligament replacement surgery, dozens of pitchers have had it.

John Snyder had the surgery, and he’s tied for most wins on the Chicago White Sox this season. Kurt Ainsworth, the San Francisco Giants top pick in the draft earlier this month, won seven straight on his way to a 13-6 record this spring, his first full season back.

“I expect to come back with the same stuff. I haven’t had any discomfort since surgery. I haven’t had a bad day yet, knock on wood,” Wood said, leaning over and knocking on his locker. “If something happens where I don’t, then we’ll make adjustments at that point. But I’m not going to start thinking about coming back with less stuff until I really have to think about it.”

That practical attitude is typical Wood. He shied away from much of last year’s publicity, taking more delight in the rookie razzing he got from teammates than invites from Letterman and Leno.

He’s no different now, fellow pitcher Terry Mulholland said. A regular at Wrigley Field, Wood is in uniform and on the bench for most games. He even occasionally takes a turn chasing down balls in the infield during batting practice, although he can’t throw the ball yet.

But when his teammates go through their pre-game warmups, Wood heads for the training room. For about 3 1/2 hours each day, he lift weights, rides the exercise bike, runs and does exercises to strengthen his arm.

“He’s been great,” Mulholland said. “I’m sure it gets to the point where there’s a certain amount of frustration involved and probably a whole lot of envy, too. Seeing guys go out there, playing ball, having fun, winning ball games, losing tough games.

“It’s one thing to be in the clubhouse and be in the dugout, and it’s another thing to be out on the field and actually be a part of it. I’m sure that’s probably the part that hurts the most.”

It does.

Baseball has been his life for, well, forever. The 22-year-old Wood grew up idolizing Ryan, and he can’t remember a time when he didn’t play. He’s never had to sit out this long, and there are times when it’s too much to bear.

When that happens, he heads to Texas for a few days to see his family. Or goes to the Cubs’ minor league facility in Arizona to work out. What he refuses to do is sit around dreaming about next year and how good it’s going to feel to climb back on the mound.

“It would drive me crazy if I sat here every day and said, ‘I wish I could be out there, I wish I could be out there,”’ he said. “This year, my job is to come here and work out and do my arm exercises and get the arm back to where it should be.

“Of course I wish I could be out there. But I know I can’t, so I’m not going to torture myself.”