ParisLemon

I distinctly remember talking about Kerry Wood’s 20K game right after it happened during high school baseball practice. That was his rookie year. 1998.

This stat is crazy:

Among pitchers with at least 1,000 innings, Kerry Wood is one of three in MLB history whose strikeouts per nine innings was 10.0 or higher.

He’s just ahead of Pedro Martinez and just behind Randy Johnson.

Perhaps even crazier is a stat they just put up on Sportcenter: since his debut in 1998, no pitcher has given up fewer hits per nine innings on average than Wood. 

It’s one of those what-might-have-been stories (along with former teammate Mark Prior), but he’ll always be remembered for that 20K game.