If you don’t live in Chicago or subscribe to one of those “This day in baseball history” sites, May 6. 1998 probably doesn’t resonate with your baseball sensibilities. However, if you are a Cub fan older than 35, it probably means something even if you weren’t following the team back then.

Without rehashing the specifics of that afternoon at Wrigley. let’s say it was Kerry Wood’s signature moment. Sitting down to watch the Cubs and Padres right now, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Marquis Network has already touched upon the day. Girardi and Sciambi will talk about it during the telecast.

I forget which mope brought up the topic of Wood’s failure to live up to that first game and expectations. First of all, the speaker wasn’t from Chicago and didn’t know the backstory and what Kerry went through in his (parts of) 14-year, ML career.

For better than 20 years, the media has played the blame game re: Kerry Wood. Not only did he strike out 20 Astros on that rainy afternoon, he won the NL ROY award. He13-6 with a 3.40 ERA and 233 strikeouts in only 166.2 innings. The stage was set for greatness, but baseball and injuries intervened.

When one’s never thrown a pitch in a ML game, it’s easy to criticize, I guess. Every team has had their fair share of rookie sensations with high (unmet) expectations. It’s frustrating to think about what could have been.

The game has changed dramatically since Wood retired in 2012 and I think we’ve come to realize the fragility of pitchers-no matter how hard they throw and how physically impressive they may be.

For years people have tried to divvy up blame for overusing Wood. His high school coach seemed to be the first culprit-followed by Cub managers, Jim Riggleman and Dusty Baker. Dusty has also been blamed for Mark Prior’s even shorter ML career.

Over the past 20 years or so, I’ve been lucky enough to informally speak with several ML ballplayers of varying career success. While many have expressed some regrets, I’ve been surprised how many players don’t have the regrets that we might think they have. Take failure to win it all out of the equation, most of the guys are less worried about expectations, met or unmet.

While we don’t get paid for it, fans love to project how a professional athlete is going to perform during his career. Usually, it’s fun to project are hopes on a player. With all the recent injuries to pitchers, I try and focus on the present when possible (meaning the guy is not with my team). Spencer Strider of the Braves is a perfect example. Based on his early success, I compare his style to several guys that I admired (from the 60’s-80’s) but based on his season-ending surgery, I have to believe he might not be the next Nolan Ryan and pitch forever.

All of this is to say, that I choose to remember that day off from work and the wise decision I made to attend that game and see one of the most impressive pitching performances I’ve seen in person. Kerry gave it his all and for the most part succeeded in a Cubs uniform. Can’t I celebrate that?