This book includes LIFETIME Access my top sports pick(s) VIA Picks Network (a $2,999 value). You'll...

Describes the responsibilities, salaries, outlook, and educational requirements for a variety of...

This comprehensive, three-volume set focuses on the legal and business aspects of sports in the...

...

Provides profiles of major league players with information on statistics for the past five seasons...

When we get stuck on the way to where we want to be, we can either build character or lose character. This Saturday at Epikos Church we'll be exploring the power of the positive and how it can carry us through the desert experience to the Promised Land. We'll learn lessons from an MLB tantrum this week, a positive psychology experiment, and a parking lot attendant who gives inspiration to presidents, mobsters and regular Joes. Join us at 4 or 6 p.m. on Saturday!

As a lifelong Chicagoan and growing up a Cubs fan, I have had the opportunity to watch Kerry Wood firsthand from the time he was drafted until today, the day he retired. The Chicago media is having a love fest for Kerry Wood. Yeah, today was a nice way to go out, but frankly, I don't understand all the adoration. For a franchise that builds statues of its announcers and raises pennants of the numbers of its retired players instead of championships, this misplaced adoration is so Cub-like.

Kerry Wood may be the most overrated pitcher in baseball history and the most overrated player in Cub history. The expectations for Kerry Wood to be the next Nolan Ryan or Roger Clemens were, I believe, unfairly set by his 20 strikeout game against Houston in the 5th start of his career. And from that point on, everyone wanted him to be that type of pitcher. And, viewed through the prism of that 20-strikeout game, everyone always thought he was that type of pitcher. But he never was. With that 20 strikeout game, Kerry Wood brought hope to Cubs fans. Hope is what baseball is all about. Hope of having a dominant pitcher, hope of watching the next Nolan Ryan, and hope of World Series championships to come. Apparently, the only thing Cubs fans expect of their franchise icons (mascots)...is that they provide hope. Because that is all Kerry Wood brought to the Cubs....HOPE. And plenty of DISAPPOINTMENT. Let's reflect on his career:

1) THE HOPE: The 20 strikeout game: The game that unfairly fueled the hope. Reflecting on that game 4 years ago on its 10 year anniversary Kerry Wood said, "Really, the thing that sticks out to me is I got some really generous calls." And when Wood was asked if it still blows his mind to think of what he did on that 20-K day, his answer is this: "That strike zone blows my mind." Yes, the strike zone. The opposing pitcher, Shane Reynolds had 10 strike-outs as well. On a Wednesday get-away day, where the forecast called for rain later in the day, Jerry Meals was the home plate umpire. Like Wood, Meals was a rookie first year umpire with a scant few weeks in the big Leagues. A rookie umpire who earlier that autumn was simply following a directive from MLB to all its Umpires to expand their strike zones. Games had become too long & dull and umpires were urged to get batters to stop looking at pitches and start swinging at them. Mission Accomplished Jerry Meals. 20-strikeouts. HOPE.

2) THE DISAPPOINTMENT: Game 7 of the 2003 NLCS Really what makes great players legendary is what they do on the biggest stage. There was no bigger stage for Kerry Wood than Game 7 v. the Marlins for a chance to go to the World Series. After the Bartman game. At home. Home teams had won 12 of 13 times a game went to a Game 7. Kerry Wood on the mound. We GOT this game. HOPE.
Top of the 1st: Wood gives up a 3-run HR to Miguel Cabrera. DISAPPOINTMENT.
Wood hits a 2-run HR. Cubs eventually take the lead 5-3 on a Moises Alou 2-run HR. HOPE.
Kerry Wood pitching with the lead, gives up 4 runs and is pulled in the 6th. Cubs lose. Kerry Wood takes the loss. His final line: 5.2 IP, 7 Hits, 7 ER, 4 BB, 6 SO. CUBS LOSE. DISAPPOINTMENT.

3) THE FACTS:

Kerry Wood never won that Game 7.
Kerry Wood never pitched in the World Series.
Kerry Wood never won a championship.
Kerry Wood never won more than 14 games in a season.
Kerry Wood spent 14 stints on the DL in 13 seasons (including missing the entire 1999 season).

The media will say Kerry Wood was a competitor, that he hated losing, he was a classy guy. Cubs fans will applaud him at the winter convention and revere him like a legend. And the Cubs marketing machine will parade him around like a mascot and honor him with a Kerry Wood day. But there is nothing to honor (other than smashing Sammy Sosa's boom box). The only thing Kerry Wood brought to Chicago was hope, but along with it, disappointment, symbolic of the entire history Chicago Cubs franchise. Much like the Cubs teams every year, he was always supposed to be better than this. Kerry Wood is, truly, the poster boy for Chicago Cubs baseball.

COZ

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes. We had tickets to a Royals game tonight. My first ever MLB game. The weather was perfect, and there were fireworks after the game and it was buck night. And we got a free pass to reserved parking. So my first game was a great experience and got to spend it with my family. Thank you everyone.

Just so you all know...Josh Hamilton leads the MLB in both HR(18) and RBI's(45).
Yu Darvish also shares the most wins (6). GO RANGERS!!!!

I now have an ncaa softball regional press pass, an ncaa baseball super regional press pass, a college world series press pass, an NIT press pass, two bowl game press passes and a handful of MLB press passes hanging in my house. Not a bad start to a career.

I've never really followed MLB very much, but I have to say it's pretty exciting to watch the Orioles this year. Been watching the games everyday... They might make a MLB fan out of me yet!

I agree with Matingly, that that guy was fucking out on that swing in the second and in no way in hell should Don have been ejected, that umpire is a fag, and should be fined by MLB.