Why The 2016 MLB Season Was One To Remember
A lot transpired during the 2016 MLB season as it provided one of the more entertaining years of baseball over the past decade. This season was full of players normally considered average exceeding expectations and leading statistical categories. Some players managed to put up numbers that have yet to be replicated in the past seasons. Also in 2016, droughts came to an end and legends played their final games.
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It’s hard to talk about the 2016 season without mentioning the Chicago Cubs ending their 108 year World Series drought. This Cubs team proved to be special since the regular season as they were the only team on the year to reach the 100 win mark. As they kept advancing, it began to seem that the end of the drought was near until they ran into Cleveland in the World Series. Cleveland took a 3-1 series lead and looked to end the Cub’s World Series hopes. With their backs against the wall, Chicago took the next three games to become the 2016 World Series Champions.
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2016 was also the year that Rick Porcello stunned everyone and went 22-4 for the Red Sox. His ERA stood at 3.15 and he also collected 189 strikeouts. This was good enough to earn Porcello the 2016 AL Cy Young Award. His 22 wins is tied for the most over the past ten seasons as well.
Rick Porcello wasn’t the only player in 2016 who had surprised a lot of fans. Orioles’ Mark Trumbo led the league in home runs with 47. Trumbo’s season seemed to come out of nowhere as he had only hit 13 the year prior. On top of leading the league in home runs, Trumbo was selected to the All-Star Game for his remarkable year.
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Leading the league in RBIs was Colorado’s star third baseman, Nolan Arenado. Arenado collected 133 RBIs on the season, the most in the past ten years. However, this wasn’t the only stat that hasn’t been replicated over the past 10 decade.
Washington’s Daniel Murphy finished the season with a batting average of .347. This is the highest batting average amongst league leaders over the past 10 seasons.
Both Murphy and Arenado’s seasons were obviously impressive since nobody has been able to match their season leading stats in the past decade.
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Red Sox legend and Hall of Famer David Ortiz called it a career at the end of the 2016 season. Although Boston came up short in the postseason, Big Papi still has three World Series championships with the Red Sox. After 10 All-Star selections and 541 career home runs, David Ortiz retired as one of the best hitters in the game’s history. It was a tear-filled goodbye as Boston watched their beloved DH of 14 years play his final game after Boston fell short to Cleveland in the playoffs.
With so much history being made in this one season, it’s surprising that 2016 isn’t talked about more. So many iconic moments and surprises took place as it all made this season one to remember.
