This is the card that celebrates that game. If you've ever watched the game (MLB network had run in during the offseason several times), you got to see one of the most dominant pitching performances, ever. Keep in mind that he was pitching against a very strong Astros team, Killer B's and all. They managed only one infield scratch hit all day, and were just completely overmatched.
But Wood was in three more cards in the 1999 set...
...his base card, complete with Rookie Cup...
....the All-Topps Pitchers card (not bad company to be in, Clemens and Maddux)...and
...a part of the Strikeout King subset.
It wasn't a bad year for a kid who turned 21 during the season!
That game, I am proud to say, I watched on TV. I lived in California at the time, my dad and I were having lunch at this little fish place, and it was raining and we really weren't in any rush to go back to the office. Looking for an excuse to stay at the fish shack, we asked if the TV got WGN and it did! I don't think we knew who Wood was at the time. but the ball - my god, had the most amazingly wicked movement. The kind of thing you could only appreciate watching a game on TV. It was drizzling there in Chicago, too wasn't it? I remember Moises Alou striking out looking, I think, and he just stood there unable to believe it. Not like when a batter pauses on a called strike 3 that he disagrees with - just that he had this look on his face like that was amusement, almost. Like the ball had a mind of its own. Great game.
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing up that memory!