When you're a right-handed pitcher from Texas, and you throw hard, and you have been tabbed as "The Next Big Thing," the comparisons are inevitable.
Nolan Ryan. Roger Clemens.
Kerry Wood?
Wood was still a fresh-faced kid starring at Grand Prairie High School when the comparisons to Ryan and Clemens first surfaced. They followed Wood to the Draft as the Cubs' No. 1 pick in 1995, through his three years in the Minor Leagues, and to his Major League debut on April 12, 1998, in Montreal.
And it certainly was at the forefront of the conversation when Wood took the mound against the Astros -- a Texas team -- at Wrigley Field three starts later.