For at least one night–at most, one week–the Cubs’ season was as it was supposed to be, full of hopes rewarded and dreams fulfilled. The night was May 22, when pitching phenom Mark Prior went up against the Pittsburgh Pirates in front of 40,138 anxious fans at Wrigley Field. The Pirates, whom Prior would face in his first two games, were an inspired choice of opponent: last in the National League in batting average and walks, they wouldn’t be much of a threat to hurt him at the plate or make him work too hard throwing strikes. Otherwise, Prior was in an unenviable position. He was being called on by a desperate team that had won only 2 of its previous 12 games and dropped to 15-28 on the year. The previous evening the Cubs had been slaughtered by the Pirates 12-1 in the first game of a twi-night doubleheader before squeezing out a 4-3 victory in the nightcap. Now here was Prior, making his big-league debut before a rabid standing-room-only crowd, with an even higher level of excitement in the crammed press box. Prior was the Cubs’ most ballyhooed pitching prospect since Kerry Wood; but Wood arrived early in the blessed season of 1998, with the Cubs already on their way to an unexpected playoff appearance, and he debuted in Montreal, away from the hometown spotlight. The opposition and the night’s cold weather aside, almost every detail of Prior’s first start added to the pressure on him.
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Tall and thin, with an erect posture, long back, sturdy legs outfitted in high stockings with no stirrups, and a cap tugged low on his forehead, Prior has the classic look of a star pitcher. That was the presence he projected stepping onto the field to the cheers of attentive fans in the stands. He started warming up by throwing flat-footed near the bull pen, moving back a step with each throw to bull pen catcher Benny Cadahia until he was tossing him the ball from short left field. Then he worked his way back to the bull pen, where he made a few phantom pitches holding a towel in his right hand to drag on the arm. Only then did he warm up normally, throwing first from behind the mound and then taking the hill. It’s an unconventional regimen all his own, developed no doubt with the help of former major-league pitching coach Tom House, who has worked with Prior extensively, and it instantly asserted his independence and ability to think outside baseball’s norms. The end result of his idiosyncrasy is a textbook pitching motion.
To thunderous applause, Prior trotted onto the field with the rest of the starting lineup to begin the game, and if his first pitch to Chad Hermansen was a ball, his next two were strikes, the second a lovely curve. Yet Hermansen worked the count full before slapping the next pitch into center field for a single. “There goes the no-hitter,” said one press box wag, and you could sense the disappointment in the crowd. Some phenom! Yet after the next batter sacrificed Hermansen to second, Prior got the dangerous Brian Giles–easily the Pirates’ best hitter–with a perfect fastball on the outside corner, and cleanup hitter Aramis Ramirez with a curve thrown in the same spot.
Yet to others the game seemed to have instantly clarified the Cubs’ picture. With Prior joining a rotation that already included Wood, ace Jon Lieber, the increasingly impressive Matt Clement, and either Juan Cruz or Jason Bere; with McGriff and Alou starting to hit; and with Patterson and rookie Bobby Hill getting comfortable in the majors, the Cubs suddenly looked like a team that could put together a long winning streak. Indeed, they beat the Bucs the next night with Hill hitting his first big-league homer, went to Houston and beat bull pen ace Billy Wagner in extra innings, and made it five in a row with Wood’s complete-game victory. The Cubs were 19-28, back within nine games of .500. But the next day Baylor pulled Bere with a 5-0 lead and the bull pen couldn’t hold it, losing 7-5. Prior tried to get the Cubs back on track in Pittsburgh the following night, but this time he was outdueled by Williams. The Cubs squandered game-tying homers by Patterson and Hill as Alfonseca lost it in the tenth. Clement pitched a shutout the next day, but Lieber got roughed up and lost before Wood won his team-high sixth of the season. Back home last Friday against the Astros, Bere pitched decently but got beat 4-1. By this time Alou was in his funk again, and the woeful Todd Hundley had returned from an injury to show no visible signs of improvement at bat or behind the plate.
