Chicago Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood will apparently announce his retirement later today . The announcement may come following this afternoon's game at Wrigley Field against the crosstown rival White Sox as interleague play starts. Wood, who turns 35 next month,?has struggled this season. In nine appearances out of the bullpen, Wood has gone 0-2 with an 8.64 ERA surrendering eight runs in eight and a third innings pitched and has walked more than twice as many batters as he has struck out (11:5). In a classy go by the Cubs, it looks like Wood will get to pitch one more time in front of Cubs fans before he hangs it up. Wood was the Cubs first round pick in the 1995 MLB draft and would make his?MLB debut in 1998. In his fifth huge league appearance, on May 6, 1998, Wood set a National League record and tied a major league record held by Roger Clemens (and later Randy Johnson) by striking out 20 Houston Astros ?on a one-hit complete game shutout . Wood won 13 games that season and was named NL Rookie of the Year as the Cubs won the NL Wild Card. But, injuries would soon become Wood's constant companion. He missed the entire 1999 season due to Tommy John surgery. In all, Wood would be placed on the Disabled List 16 times including earlier this season due to a sore shoulder . His best season came in 2003 when Wood won a career high 14 games and led the NL in strikeouts with 266 as he and Mark Prior led the team to the NL Central Division title. Of course, the Cubs were five outs away from going to the World Series in Game 6 of the NLCS until Luis Castillo hit that ball down the leftfield line. What is forgotten is that there was a Game 7 which Wood started. He even hit a two-run homerun in the second inning to tie the game at 3-3. Unfortunately, the Marlins took the lead in the fifth and Wood was removed in the sixth having given up seven runs. There would be no joy in Wrigleyville and Steve Bartman had nothing to do with it. The Cubs converted Wood into a reliever late in the 2007 season and in 2008 would record 34 saves for the Cubs who won another NL Central title before being dispatched by the Dodgers in the NLDS. After more than a decade in a Cubs uniform, Wood signed a two-year deal with the Cleveland Indians prior to the 2009 season. But, Wood would be traded to the New York Yankees in mid-2010 where he pitched effectively as an eighth inning set up man for Mariano Rivera. But after the Yankees declined to sign him in 2011, Wood returned to Wrigley. If not for injuries, Wood could have been amongst the all-time greats. But he certainly had flashes of greatness and never made excuses when things weren't so fantastic which?made him one of the most well loved players in Cubs history.
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Both David Axelrod and Jim Messina place out the bait and unfortunately Mitt Romney took it . Joe Ricketts, formerly of TD Ameritrade and whose family owns the Chicago Cubs, proposed putting together a series of Super PAC ads highlighting President Obama's relationship with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Both Axelrod and Messina said that Romney should take a page out of John McCain's book and not focus on Wright. Well, of course, Axelrod and Messina would like that because, gee, McCain lost to Obama. Romney responded it would be "the incorrect course for a PAC or a campaign." So Axelrod and Messina got Romney to condemn ads that haven't been even made. Score one for Team Obama. Now while one could certainly argue that Romney is better off highlighting Obama's three plus years in the White House rather than rehashing Reverend Wright, I reckon Romney took the incorrect approach here. What Romney ought to have said something along the lines of, "We'll take your suggestion under advisement. In the meantime, when is the Obama PAC run by Bill Burton going to return Bill Maher's $1 million?" That would have place the ball back into President Obama's court instead of having Romney juggle a hot potato he shouldn't have touched in the first place.
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Why Didn't Romney Demand Obama PAC Return Bill Maher's Million?
Former huge league pitcher and coach Kevin Hickey has passed away . His cause of death is unknown but he was a diabetic and had been found unresponsive in his hotel room in Dallas prior to Opening Day last month. He was 56. Hickey did not have a distinguished huge league career except to say that it is a minor miracle that he pitched in the huge leagues at all. Born on the South Side of Chicago, Hickey worked in a steel mill and his spare time played softball and semi-pro baseball. In 1977, he was one of 250 players to attend an open tryout at Comiskey Park and was the only player offered a contract by the White Sox . He made his huge league debut with the Chisox in 1981. He pitched with the White Sox through the 1983 season. That year the White Sox reached the post-season for the first time in 24 years winning the AL West by 20 games over the Kansas City Royals . It marked the first of 14 post-season appearances for manager Tony La Russa. I remember the '83 White Sox well. Ron Kittle won AL Rookie of the Year on the strength of his 35 homeruns. Greg Luzinski, Carlton Fisk and Harold Baines also supplied power. There were the Laws - Rudy and Vance (no relation). And how many people besides diehard Chisox fans remember that Jerry Dybzinski was the starting shortstop? Then there was the?pitching staff?led by LaMarr Hoyt, whose 24 wins would earn him the AL Cy Young Award. Richard Dotson quietly won 22 games. The starting rotation was rounded out by Floyd Bannister, Britt Burns and 40-year ancient Jerry Koosman of Amazin' Mets fame. The Chisox didn't really have a closer that season. Dennis Lamp led the team with 15 saves but Salome Barojas had 12 while Juan Agosto and Dick Tidrow had seven apiece. For his part, Hickey recorded five saves in '83. I remember Hickey because he had long hair and a moustache. He looked like a lefthanded version of LaMarr Hoyt. Most baseball fans might not remember Hickey but George Brett sure does. The three time AL batting champion and Hall of Famer was 0-for-15 lifetime against Hickey . But then Hickey disappeared. He was released by the White Sox prior to the 1984 season but re-signed with them days later. He would be traded that summer to the New York Yankees along with pitcher Doug Drabek (who would later win the NL Cy Young Award with the Pittsburgh Pirates) as players to be named later for Roy Smalley. Hickey would bounce around in the minors with the Philadelphia Phillies, back with the White Sox and with the San Francisco Giants before signing with the Baltimore Orioles prior to the 1988 season. I was shocked to see Hickey when he returned to the huge leagues with the O's in 1989 after an absence of more than five years. His hair was much shorter but he still found a way to get lefthanded hitters out. That year the Orioles nearly went from worst to first in the AL East. Unfortunately, the Toronto Blue Jays had other thoughts. Nevertheless, Hickey was back in the bigs and would remain with the O's until they released him during the 1991 season. In 1994, Hickey got some acting work and appeared in Major League II alongside Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Corbin Bernsen and ex-huge leaguers Bob Uecker and Steve Yeager. After being out of?baseball for more than a decade, the White Sox hired Hickey as a part of their coaching staff as a pre-game instructor/batting practice pitcher in 2004 and was on hand in 2005 when the Chisox won their first World Series in 88 years.
More:Kevin Hickey, R.I.P.
Former huge league first baseman Bill "Moose" Skowron died today of congestive heart failure following a long battle with lung cancer. He was 81. Skowron spent 14 seasons in the bigs , nine of them with the New York Yankees. He also spent time with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Washington Senators, Chicago White Sox and California Angels. Between 1955 and 1963, Skowron played in every World Series except for one (1959). He earned four World Series rings with the Bronx Bombers (1956, 1958, 1961 and 1962) and one with Dodgers in 1963 when they swept the Yankees in four. Skowron was also named to six American League All-Star teams. He was selected in five consecutive years for the Yankees from 1957 to 1961 and once with the Chisox in 1965. Skowron finished his career with 1,566 hits, a respectable .281 lifetime batting average, 211 homeruns and 888 RBI. In recent years, Skowron worked for the White Sox in community relations. Here is Skowron letting his hair down in an interview at a golf tournament organized by former White Sox slugger Ron Kittle a few years back.
Read the rest here: Bill "Moose" Skowron, 1930-2012. R.I.P.In an early January debate, George Stephanopoulos questioned Mitt Romney a really irrelevant question about the issue of birth control which the Supreme Court settled in 1965 and whose proposal was not on any state ballot. Then, within a month or so the Catholic outcry over Obamacare and whole Sandra Fluke-thing broke commencing the Dems charge of a Republican “War on Women”. Though they state otherwise , the Dems are clearly using the phrase as a fundraising tool and a way to tarnish the GOP’s chances with female voters this Fall. Into that mess steps DNC adviser Hilary Rosen who had this to say about Ann Romney (go to 0:46): The Dems have been in hurt-control mode all day! This, in the same week that numbers were revealed indicating that on average women are being paid 18% less than men who work in Obama’s own White House! Now we know those numbers are skewed, given that maternity leave and lack of overtime push women’s numbers down in every profession, but if the Dems want to belittle child-rearing and ignore a White House with pay equity issues, then game on. No one messes with Ann Romney!
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“War on Women” Charge Backfiring
