Kerry Wood On Leadership

Early in the 2004 season, Chicago Cub veteran Moises Alou admitted, as if it were no big deal, to a national reporter that he urinated on his own hands to keep them strong. Alou quickly became the "butt" of national jokes. A little later, Alou's method was affirmed by longtime Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood on a local radio show, when he said he's tried the same method himself. Everyone knows that he was probably lying but covering for his teammate.

After the last game of the 2004, when Sammy Sosa walked out of the game, Wood smashed Sosa's gigantic boombox, which blared annoyingly loud salsa music for a decade, the symbol of Sosa being a cancer in the clubhouse. Wood, dutifully, denied he was the one who did it.Sosa was recently traded to the Orioles.

Leaders are born, not made. It is one thing to cover for Alou, quite another to make excuses for Sosa. The guy who can solve both problems with diplomatic grace is the real leader.

Kerry Wood is no long "Kid K," and he better deliver. But in any case, he is the real leader of the Chicago Cubs.