First a little walk down memory lane. It was a dreary, overcast Wednesday in May in 1998 (May 6th to be exact) when a 20 year old Kerry Wood took the mound and captivated 15,758 paid attendees, a city, an overexuberant Chip Carey - "HERE COMES THE HOOK!" - and dare I say a nation with quite possibly the best pitching performance ever.
Facing the Houston Astros, Wood struck out 20 batters while walking none. A grounder past Kevin Orie was all that stood between Wood and a no-hitter.
Thirteen years later I was thinking about how we could add a little competition to our league during a long season. I threw the idea out to Matt Bentel and he and I crafted what has become "K-Wood Day". On this day I keep track of all the strikeouts registered by each team's ACTIVE roster. The team with the most strikeouts wins a $25 mlb.com gift card.
We have competed in this format for two years (today being the third year). Interestingly in the inaugural season (2011) Cliff Lee recorded 16 strikeouts which led the Red Hots to claim the prize. The Candy Colored Clowns had Kerry Wood on their roster. They activated him and Wood was able to register one strikeout in relief in a competition named in his honor.
Past Winners:
2011 Mo's Red Hots
2012 Morkertzuma's Revenge
2013 ??????
