Wood Doesn’t Need This Kind of Praise

Kerry Wood keeps getting compliments. Especially the one about how he and Mark Prior are going to pitch their way to a World Series championship, the way Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling did.

Only one problem. It’s not properly respectful -- to Arizona’s stars, that is.

“In the past three or four weeks, I’ve heard enough of it,” Wood said during the Chicago Cubs’ workout Thursday in Miami, a day before he starts Game 3 of the best-of-seven championship series against the Florida Marlins.

“I think it’s a little unfair for those guys for people to be comparing us to them,” he said. “Obviously, we haven’t done what those guys have done throughout their careers ... so we have a long ways to go.”

Perhaps, but they’ve done a pretty good impression, posting all of the Cubs’ wins this postseason.

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Marlin reliever Chad Fox started the season with the Red Sox, and still struggles to find the best way to explain the pressure he felt pitching in Boston.

“It’s night and day. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. Boston is just ... until you live and play and experience it, I can’t sit here and tell you. It seemed like over there every pitch I threw was under the microscope,” he said.

Fox was 1-2 with three saves in 17 games for the Red Sox. He joined the Marlins on Aug. 8 and went 2-1 with a 2.13 earned-run average.

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The Marlins have played in front of more empty seats in recent years than perhaps any team in sports.

But they expect sellout crowds of 65,000 for each of their three home games against the Cubs. That means almost 200,000 fans today through Sunday for a team that drew 813,118 at Pro Player Stadium during the 2002 season.