Signature Saturday - Kerry Wood

Last week or so I received an email from Tom over at Baseball by the Letters asking if he could send me some questions about my blog and collecting history. I gladly agreed and yesterday he posted his writeup. You should check out the whole article if you want to know a little more about me but here is a timely excerpt I shared regarding my first in person autograph experience with a Chicago Cub:

"My first IP Cubs autograph was Kerry Wood when the Cubs came to play an interleague series against the Orioles. My oldest son was about 3 at the time and we went with a friend of mine to get some autographs as the players were coming in the stadium. I had a McFarlane figure base and gave my son a ball I had brought to try to do a team signed ball. Wood got out of the cab and started walking towards the entrance. We had thought there were only a handful of ‘graphers there that day but once a player showed up, people seemingly came out of the woodwork and rushed over. I was one of the first and got the base signed, but I was afraid my son would get trampled so I picked him up and got out of the crowd. Wood kept signing as he walked and when he got to the entrance, he said “Where’d that little boy go, I didn’t get his ball.” So I put my son down and he walked over to Wood and got his ball signed right across the sweetspot. I’ve stopped collecting signed baseballs because they don’t seem to age well, but that’s one we’ll keep forever."

Coincidentally, I was off work yesterday and tuned into some daytime crosstown Chicago rivalry goodness. When they mentioned Wood's impending retirement, I quickly checked the TV schedule for the upcoming games. Friday on WGN, Saturday nationally televised on Fox and Sunday back on WGN. Whew! As an outside the Chicago area fan, I absolutely hate when games are shown on CSN. Although there was no need to fret as Wood came on to pitch to one batter in the 8th inning and proceeded to strike him out on 3 pitches. WGN kept it classy and rather than cut to the obligatory commericial during a pitching change, followed Wood from getting congratulatory high fives, handshakes and hugs from his teammates to the walk back to the dugout where his was greeted by his son. He even came back out for a curtain call. *Who is cutting onions up in here?*

I'm not sure that one encounter in Baltimore even helped shape my opinion of Wood because everything I've ever heard about him was that he was just a nice genuine guy. It simply hammered it home. Now that he's retired, I can get to work on the back of his ATCRCS card. Thanks Kerry!