Wood still joyful, but reality strikes

Bryant’s Travis Wood won a World Series with the Chicago Cubs 11 days ago, but he’s on the free-agent market after five seasons with the Cubs, and isn’t sure where he’ll be playing in 2017.
Bryant’s Travis Wood won a World Series with the Chicago Cubs 11 days ago, but he’s on the free-agent market after five seasons with the Cubs, and isn’t sure where he’ll be playing in 2017.

BRYANT -- Travis Wood just earned a World Series ring with the Chicago Cubs, but he said he understands his current situation.

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Chicago Cubs reliever and Bryant native Travis Wood was honored before Friday night’s Class 7A state football playoff game between Bryant and Springdale. Wood helped the Chicago Cubs win their first World Series title since 1908 earlier this month.

"Technically, I'm unemployed right now," Wood said. "We're just hanging out waiting."

Wood, 29, a 2005 Bryant High School graduate, enters the offseason as a free agent after pitching for the Cubs since 2012.

Used exclusively as a starter in his first three seasons with the Cubs. Wood was the Cubs representative on the 2013 All-Star team when he finished 9-12 and had a 3.11 ERA over 200 innings.

Wood started 89 games from 2012-2014 for the Cubs, and 9 more in 2015, before he became a jack-of-all trades out of the bullpen, contributing as both a middle reliever and short reliever.

He also played the outfield in extra-inning games this season, was used as a pinch-hitter and pinch-runner on occasion.

His 2016 resume included a 4-0 with a 2.95 ERA in 77 relief appearances for the Cubs, who won 103 games and their first World Series since 1908 by defeating the Cleveland Indians in seven games earlier this month.

He was 2-0 in the postseason with a 3.12 ERA, getting the final out for the Cubs in Game 6 of the World Series in Cleveland. Wood also became the first relief pitcher to hit a home run in the postseason since Rosy Ryan for the 1924 New York Giants when he hit a home run off San Francisco's George Kontos in Game 2 of the National League division series at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

When asked if he wants to be a starter again, Wood, the longest-tenured member of the Cubs along with first baseman Anthony Rizzo, was diplomatic.

"I just want to play ball," said Wood, who made $6.17 million in 2016.

Friday, Wood celebrated a homecoming in Bryant in Saline County.

A parade took place from Ashley Park, where Wood grew up playing baseball, onto Reynolds Road, then wrapped up at Bryant High School. Wood was honored by Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who proclaimed Friday as Travis Wood Day and the city of Bryant renamed School Street

Wood visited with relatives along with former youth baseball coaches, including his American Legion coach Craig Harrison.

Harrison helps put on a crawfish boil in honor of Wood before spring training begins in February. He recalled a conversation with Wood on Friday about the Cubs' high expectations of winning the World Series in 2016.

"This year, I told him, you don't even need to go, you've already got it," Harrison said. "To be able to win after all that pressure all year, it's an amazing accomplishment. What an amazing team they had."

When Wood arrived at spring training in Arizona, his manager Joe Maddon already had a message for him and the rest of the Cubs.

"He came up with the idea of embracing the target," Wood said. "If everybody's going to target us and try to beat us, then let's try to embrace that fact. Let's give them a reason why they want to [make us the target]. In the end, we proved we were the best team and pulled it off."

The Cubs won the World Series for the first time since 1908. Wood said he was proud to be a part of it.

"It's something that's hard to put into words," Wood said. "It was something you'll never forget. Especially for Cubs fans, players and people, to end a 108-year drought, it's pretty special."

Wood arrived home just in time for the start of modern gun deer season, one of Wood's favorite passions.

Wood's uncle Richard helps run his deer facility outside Hope. The uncle and nephew planned to go deer hunting Saturday, Richard Wood said Friday.

Richard Wood said his nephew is a soft-hearted person.

"He looks forward to playing baseball, but he looks more forward to coming home and seeing his friends and his family," Richard Wood said. "He's a great kid at heart."

Pitching in the World Series was something that didn't seem real to Wood until the Cubs forced a Game 6 after defeating the Indians 3-2 on Oct. 30 at Wrigley Field.

"It hit me," Wood said. "This is Game 6 of the World Series. We have to win it or we're going home."

The Cubs won 9-3, and Wood got the final out in relief to help force a Game 7 the next night in Cleveland.

But for Richard Wood, the feeling of seeing his nephew in the World Series came through for him finally over the past week.

"To see the celebration in Chicago and then to see this, it's finally starting to sink in," Richard Wood said.

Being a World Series champion, Wood said, is special. However, getting to be around his hometown's championship teams was a fun experience as well Friday, telling the crowd in the pregame ceremony that baseball in Bryant was top-notch.

"It seemed like everybody's truck had state and regional champions on them. It seems like everybody was a champion," Wood said. "They're heading in the right direction over here."

Sports on 11/14/2016

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