Channel 9 News just did a long segment on Kerry Wood, including extensive interviews with him filmed in Arizona over the last day or two. A lot of the footage showed Wood lifting weights. He looks great, and has lost a lot of weight.

He says (and I take this with a grain of salt, knowing his history), that he also feels great, better, in fact, than he did when he was actually pitching in the majors last year. He was playing catch off the mound the other day, and plans to throw off the mound in coming days. His surgically-repaired shoulder, he says, is giving him no problems.

Wood says he looks forward to working out of the bullpen next year. "As a starter," he said, "I'd be out there for 130 tough pitches, and the next day I wouldn't be able to move. I'm hoping I can do whatever they need me to do out of the pen, even if it's coming in in the 6th inning and getting three outs. I think I can bounce back better (than as a starter). I just want to go out and be part of the team and contribute."

Wood has a terrific attitude (for a modern ballplayer). He comes off as completely unselfish, telling WGN he feels bad that the organization has invested so much in him and gotten so little the last few years. He says he feels like he owes the Cubs a lot (which of course he does). He says the organization means a lot to him, and that a few years ago when some people told him he should go to a team like the Yankees so he'd have a chance to play in the World Series, he didn't want to. It wouldn't be the same, he said, to go to New York and win a pennant. He wants to do it here in Chicago.