In 2016, it finally happened. Photograph: Jason Miller/Getty Images

Baseball in 2016: from Cubs win! to Scully's sayonara, 10 memorable moments

This article is more than 7 years old

Another year of baseball is gone, goodbye: David Lengel takes a look back at the best, worst and most controversial moments of the 2016 season

1) Lovable losers bid adieu

It was Game 7 of the World Series, and baseball history was busy pulling the Chicago Cubs back into a boiling cauldron of curses. Rajai Davis’ eighth inning, game-tying home run off the Cubs’ Aroldis Chapman had turned Cleveland’s Progressive Field into a mosh pit, with slightly fewer title-starved Indians fans ripping off their shirts in frenetic celebrations.

A montage detailing 108 painful years was cued up and ready to roll inside the minds of the Cubs’ frustrated fan base, when Chapman reversed course and got the outs needed to push the greatest game onwards. In the post-rain delay 10th inning, Chicago popped out two runs, enough to put baseball’s longest running fire out for good. The Cubs were finally champions, thanks to a long awaited run which captivated global audiences and spiked baseball viewership to levels thought long gone.

We may never see anything quite like it again.

2) Scully says goodbye

The baseball world is better for 66 years of Vin Scully, but his departure will hit fans hard. — The baseball world is better for 67 years of Vin Scully, but his departure will hit fans hard. Photograph: Jae C. Hong/AP

Vin Scully’s Dodgers broadcasting journey began in Brooklyn back in 1950, his musical voice first moving through the warm tubes of wooden radios. Then it meandered in and out of transistor sets, onto televisions, computers, and finally to tablets and phones. Scully was one of sports’ greatest gifts. His storytelling, effortlessly weaved between balls and strikes, was the heavy cream of baseball broadcasting. When April comes and the Dodgers break camp, we’ll be without the voice for the first time in 67 years. It will take time, a very long time, to get over it.

3) Crime, punishment and peace

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred and MLBPA hear Tony Clark have the last laugh as they agreed to keep labor peace and amicably divide baseball’s massive revenues. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

In 2016, baseball faced the realities of back-room misdeeds.

We learned that the 2015 hacking into the Houston Astros proprietary database by Cardinals former scouting director, Christopher Correa, was serious enough for him to be sentenced to 46 months in prison: St Louis have yet to receive punishment from Commissioner Rob Manfred.

Weeks before Correa’s sentencing allegations surfaced that the Boston Red Sox were circumventing international signing rules in Venezuela by raising player signing bonuses through a series of winks, nods and maybe even bags of cash. Baseball doled out swifter punishment: the teens who signed with the Sox became free agents and were allowed to keep the bonuses, while Boston were banned from signing an international player until July of 2017.

Sunnier moments came earlier this month when Major League Baseball and the Players Association continued their labor peace by co-signing a collective bargaining agreement that expires in five years. A host of game-altering policies are now coming into play, and thankfully, the team with the best record will finally gain home field advantage instead of the winner of the All-Star Game.

4) Big Papi packs his bags

Big Papi was a bopper until the very end. Photograph: Brian Blanco/Getty Images

In his final season, David Ortiz hit his most home runs since 2007, played his most games since 2006 and posted an OPS of over 1.000 for the fifth time in a 20 year career, all while powering the Red Sox back to the playoffs in a campaign that rivaled Ted Williams’ last year at Fenway. Yes, Papi did it all, despite injuries that saw the slugger essentially playing on stumps while onlookers wondered how a player performing on such a level could walk away, even at 41. No wonder pulses of Sox fans peaked when Papi playfully posted on Instagram that he could return after the club acquired pitcher Chris Sale.

5) José Fernández

Miami Marlins starting pitcher Tom Koehler wipes tears away after greeting all the New York Mets players at the pitchers mound in honer of Marlins starting pitcher José Fernández who passed away from a boating accident in September. — Miami Marlins starting pitcher Tom Koehler wipes tears away after greeting all the New York Mets players at the pitchers mound in honer of Marlins starting pitcher Jose Fernandez who passed away from a boating accident in September. Photograph: Steve Mitchell/USA Today Sports

The Marlins young ace and two friends died after their speeding boat crashed into a jetty one bleak night in late September, sending the city of Miami and beyond into mourning. The sports world grieved at the death of the ultra-talented Cuban hurler, one who had been imprisoned at the age of 15 after attempting to defect to the States. Fernández was barely 24 years old when he died: waves of tributes followed for a young talent who had only begun to scratch the surface of his life, never mind his potential on the field.

6) Adios A-Rod

After another eventful season Alex Rodriguez may be done for good. Photograph: Drew Hallowell/Getty Images

Covering Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez was like waking up every morning to a new present.

As I wrote back in August, as he was ceremoniously ushered out as Yankees DH with a year to go in his $275m deal, “at the next Baseball Writers’ Association dinner, they should give A-Rod an award for enriching their lives with some of the most colorful, controversial and polarizing stories they’ll ever scribble. He deserves it, because another A-Rod isn’t going to walk into the sport anytime soon.”

When the dust settled from Rodriguez’ departure, the Yanks 2016 transformation from an over-the-hill gang to a rebranded troop of potential stars was complete. We caught more than a glimpse of Gary Sanchez: all the catcher did in 53 games was hit 20 home runs and punch up an OPS of over 1.000. With a stacked farm system and the re-acquisition of closer Aroldis Chapman, there’s reason enough to believe that the next great Yankees dynasty could be upon us sooner rather than later.

7) For the (new Mickey) mantle

Mike Trout became American League MVP for a second time in 2016. Photograph: Dan Hamilton/USA Today Sports

Story wise, Mike Trout will never pump out the pixels of an A-Rod (although he does have an amusing obsession with weather), but on the field, he’s already generated a career’s worth of black ink in just six seasons. The Angels outfielder won his second AL MVP, no easy trick considering writers prefer to not hand out the award to players on non-contending teams. Rather incredibly, Trout is the first player to finish in the top two in MVP voting in each of his first five full seasons. Chicago’s Kris Bryant beat out DC’s Daniel Murphy in the NL while playing no fewer than six positions. Murphy’s team-mate Max Scherzer became the sixth hurler to win a Cy Young Award in both leagues, while Boston’s Rick Porcello won in the AL, when it probably should have gone to Baltimore closer Zach Britton. Rookie silverware went to Detroit starter Michael Fulmer and Dodger shortstop Corey Seager, while Terry Francona won Manager of the Year for turning Cleveland around and LA’s Dave Roberts won in the NL award in his first season as skipper.

8) Riding relievers

Did Terry Francona go to the well once to often with Andrew Miller in Game 7 of the World Series? Photograph: Ken Blaze/USA Today Sports

With the exception of Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter, who kept his superior closer Zach Britton on the bench while waiting for a traditional bullpen scenario to surface during the AL Wild Card game against the Toronto Blue Jays, elite relief talent were pushed to the limit this post-season. The likes of LA’s Kenley Jansen, Cleveland’s Andrew Miller and Chapman of the Cubs were routinely called upon to go well beyond the usual call of duty, and in a World Series where no starter pitched past the sixth inning, Miller and Chapman were on the mound for nearly a quarter of the time, both dramatically buckling in the season’s final frames. If their arms fail to bounce back in 2017, critics, including Chapman himself, will point to overuse this autumn.

9) White Sox go south

Father and son LaRoche left the White Sox dugout for good in March. Photograph: ddp USA/REX/Shutterstock

While the north celebrated in 2016, Southsiders soured at another disappointing season with two bizarre bookends. In March, Adam LaRoche abruptly retired from the White Sox after VP Kenny Williams asked him to cut the amount of time his teenaged son, Drake, was spending in the clubhouse and around the team. His decision cost the infielder some $13m in salary and led to a sharp division amongst Sox players and their colleagues across the sport. Chris Sale accused Williams of changing his story three times (and also cursed him out), perhaps setting the stage for the ace’s antics later in the season.

In July, Sale, unhappy with his having to wear the always controversial 1976 White Sox pullover beer league softball uniforms during one of his starts, elected to slash the jerseys instead. Sale was sent home, and then months later was shipped out to Boston in a blockbuster deal. The rebuilding Sox will look to steady the ship in 2017 under skipper Rick Renteria, who replaced Robin Ventura after the seasons end.