Baffoe: Profiles in Cubs Heroism -- Travis Wood

By Tim Baffoe--

(CBS) There has been and will continue to be plenty written about the marquee members of the 2016 Chicago Cubs -- the Anthony Rizzos, the Kris Bryants, the Jake Arrietas, the Joe Maddons. But a team is not successful on stars alone. What about the glue guys? The ones without the endorsement deals or talk show segments? The unsung heroes? Today we spotlight relief pitcher Travis Wood.

"We kind of hit a little lull, kind of dragging," Cubs reliever Travis Wood said regarding the team being perplexed in the first two games of the current series against the Milwaukee Brewers. "Just the last couple days."

Really, though, fans have sat uncomfortably through an eight-day stretch that saw the Cubs also losing two of three to the lowly San Diego Padres and getting schooled and trolled by Pirates ace Gerrit Cole on Sunday. While stupid and over-reactionary, it wouldn't be strange to summize that the Cubs offense is clearly regressing toward terrible, proving that the front office plan isn't much worth the $100 bills they're lighting their cigars with.

"But I think this'll be what it takes (to reverse that)," declared Wood, presumably with his chest inflated toward the future.

"This'll" being Wood single-handedly snatching victory from the evil jaws of beer-battered defeat on a Wednesday night that turned Thursday morning in the deceptively-monikered Good Land.

To understand Travis Wood, as to understand any literary or mythic hero, is to know his backstory. A Wikipedia page rarely does one justice, and to describe him as "Born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas" hardly fills out the Travis Wood graphic novel. What credible bios won't tell you is that Wood was adopted into a long line of carnival workers and grifters. Orphaned as a newborn and surviving as a street urchin, his skills at pickpocketing were embraced by one of southern America's oldest professional thief families of carnival workers and seersucker attorneys. Sleight of hand and clever rusery branded into his DNA predisposed him to the gambit of baseball, where dishonesty has been historically encouraged unless its lack of cleverness and use of science bothers middle-aged sportswriters.

A good grifter spots a weakness in a good mark. Late in the Wednesday evening as Milwaukee eyelids grew heavy, the pro's pro greased up his own ring toss game out on the mound. Wood entered the game in the bottom of the 12th with two runners on and nobody out.

"When he came into the game, I said, 'Understand one thing: if you get out of this, you're getting an at-bat,'" Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. "That kind of jacked him up."

Asked about the jacking of the up, Wood elaborated, "Absolutely."

So ready for the challenge that the old carney sweetened the pot for the naive Brewers and walked the first batter he faced. The bags were loaded with no outs. The Brewers at that moment had a win probability of 93.7 percent.

Just the kind of odds for an old salt like Travis Wood.

"Throw strikes because there's no place for anyone to go," Wood said afterward about the situation. "It's either going to be your night or his."

Ha, as if a card shark like Wood doesn't own the late night?

An extra infielder was brought in. There were two outfielders in gaps. Bears danced. Ducks quacked. Pipe organ music blared ominously in the opponents' heads "doo doo doo-doo doo-doo doo... doo... doo... doo." This is Wood's milieu.

Next batter? Fly out to shallow center. The runner at third was paralyzed by Wood's hypnotic aura.

Next batter? Pop out. Next batter? Pop out. Travis Wood? Peace out.

Professor Maddon fulfilled his promise and let Wood hit with the bases full of Cubs with two outs in the top of the 13th. Maybe it was because Maddon had exhausted his bench. More likely it was because he just knew.

Already deeply entrenched in the opponent's head, Wood stood at the plate with the stoicism of a man not about to relinquish a giant stuffed animal or novelty comb to the sucker chucking at milk bottles 60 feet, 6 inches away. Always one to let the mark think he has a chance, Wood whiffed on the first pitch. Confidence in a mark is key.

Four pitches later, Wood trotted cooly to first base. His team -- painstakingly compiled over a five-year process with numbers crunched every which way with the most advanced analytics and scouting minds in the game -- scoring its second run on the 17-win Brewers four innings past regulation en route to using the entire active roster except five pitchers, four of them starters.

"If any game was a team victory today was," Wood said with the humility of any true hero.

Sometimes the Cubs aren't sexy. It can't always be about the famous names. Once in a while, it's about the nine-to-fiver lunchpail leaf tobacco guys from a family of carnival thieves in Arkansas. This time it was about Travis Wood.

Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear mullets. Wood used to have a mullet. He cut it for some reason. But he'll always be a hero.

Tim Baffoe is a columnist for CBSChicago.com. Follow Tim on Twitter @TimBaffoe. The views expressed on this page are those of the author, not CBS Local Chicago or our affiliated television and radio stations.