Last of '98

The 1998 Cubs were not the first team of my lifetime to make the playoffs. They were, however, the first to make it when I was really old enough to be fully engaged. And what a year that was. The Cubs were certainly not a great team, but there was Sammy Sosa battling McGwire for the right to Maris' record, and a dramatic wild card chase and playoff, and the wunderkind Kid K, Kerry Wood, tying the strikeout record and delivering one of the most dominant pitching performances of all time on May 6, his fifth career start.

Wood never really lived up to his promise. Oft-injured, he had just two full seasons in Chicago, 2002 and 2003, and since the latter - the best of his career - his record is 18-20, with 34 saves (all in 2008). In 2006, he was paid $12 million to make four starts, earning more than $600,000 per inning pitched; all told, Baseball-Reference lists him earning almost $49 million for a career in which he has won 77 games, more than $636,000 per victory.

But with that said, Wood was a good soldier. Perhaps feeling that he owed the Cubs for his well-paid and under-performed 2004-2006, he came back in 2007 on a cheap, one-year deal, reinventing himself as a reliever. He came back with another lower-paid, one-year deal in 2008 and took over as the team's closer, allowing both Ryan Dempster to move into the rotation as he wanted and Carlos Marmol to stay in the more favorable 8th-inning role. In the process, he became the first Cub to play on four playoff teams since Stan Hack.

Sadly, the Cubs have announced that Wood will not be back in 2009, or at least that he will almost certainly not be be back assuming that someone else will be willing to sign him to a multi-year deal. It seems that Wood is looking for a three- or four-year commitment as a closer, surely for at least 6-7 million dollars a year, and the Cubs are not in a position to offer it to him. (Chalk one up for the slumping economy.) After trading prize prospect Jose Ceda for Marlins closer Kevin Gregg, the message is clear - we're moving on.

The rational side of me understands this perfectly, of course. Even in 2008, Wood could be unreliable - he was out with a blister for most of July and could struggle with his command at times. Of course, the latter is true of most pitchers, and at his best Wood was typically unhittable. His best moment of the year came when he froze Prince Fielder with a breaking ball to get a game-ending strikeout on September 16, but even this came after giving up three hits and a run. To ask the Cubs to pay anything like 3/25 or 4/35 or whatever, when reasonably effective closers are a dime a dozen and few of them have anything resembling Wood's injury history, and with the team's ownership status still unresolved and the economy in shambles - yeah, that's probably too much.

But the fan in me is upset. In part because Wood is the last connection to the seminal Cubs team of my childhood, and the only current Cub besides Zambrano to break camp with the team in '03. In part because even in the age of free agency, I think we're still conditioned to believe that players who come up with our team are going to stay with them forever, especially if they're good; surely we wouldn't let them go. Seeing Sammy Sosa leave the Cubs - yes, he didn't come up with them, but he spent the vast, vast majority of his career with the Cubs - was tough, and that was in spite of what the situation with him had turned into and in spite of the fact that he was aging in dog years. Seeing Wood leave, though, is significantly worse; he doesn't leave on bad terms like Sosa, he isn't sneaking out to grab a ring in his twilight years like Grace, and he isn't making a shameless money grab in spite of inspiring no confidence like Prior. He's a very good pitcher who, while only in a relief role, is about as effective as he's ever been. He's just turned himself into a luxury the Cubs clearly don't feel they can afford, at least when you combine the money he can command with his injury history. It's reached the point where the Cubs feel that if they're going to spend that kind of money, they need a guy who is more likely to be on the field day in and day out than not. And having that be the reason, while perfectly understandable, is tough to absorb.

The other reason is that there is a pretty good chance that Wood will sign with an NL team and the Cubs will have to see him. Heck, he could sign in the division - Milwaukee and St. Louis could both use a closer. And the thought of Kerry Wood, the longest-tenured Cub at the close of the '08 season, jogging in from the bullpen in Cardinals red, makes me sick to my stomach. It's not just that I don't want Wood going to the Cardinals - I don't want to have to root against him. You thought seeing Jim Edmonds in blue was weird? Wood on the Cardinals or Brewers would be 100 times worse. For my own sanity, I really hope he goes to the AL.