PHILADELPHIA — When Gage Wood was a kid, long before he was a standout at the University of Arkansas, he attended a baseball camp at a minor-league stadium in Little Rock, Ark. There, he remembered, he met former Phillies pitcher Cliff Lee and had the 2008 American League Cy Young winner sign his glove.
On Monday, Wood spoke to reporters at Citizens Bank Park after signing his first professional contract with the team that Lee played with for five seasons. Philadelphia selected Wood, a right-hander who starred in the College World Series with the Razorbacks, with the 26th overall pick in the first round of Major League Baseball’s amateur draft last week.